The dark world of the imagination, powered by guilt and sorrow, is a strange and scary place to find yourself. But, in Detention by the Taiwanese indie studio Red Candle, that is exactly where you are going to have to traverse through!
I learned of this game originally from my trip to E3, where I found their section in the IndieCade showcase area. After playing the demo they had there, I was instantly interested and excited to be able to get to review another new, out-of-the-box horror game!
Story
You play as Ms. Fang, a young school girl who is involved with a secret book club. In the book club, they were reading material that was considered offensive and illegal within their country and soon find that somebody leaked the list of people that were part of this book club to the wrong hands and has put everybody in danger!
Now, finding herself in a strange and dark version of the school, she must find the answers that lie in the truth of what happened and dig deep find out what it is that bothers her so much.
Gameplay
The game is entirely mouse-guided. When you go through the hallways, you get where you need to go by holding the left mouse button on the side of the screen you want her to go. As she makes her way over, the mouse icon will change with different things you can interact with.
The game is a full map puzzle style game, where you must get to the room on the third floor to find a tool that can be helpful to a doorway on the first floor so that you can find an item that will allow entry through another entrance on the second floor, and so on.
There are also enemies that you have to engage with, but there is no combat. Instead, you find hints that tell you to hold your breath as you encounter them. Each enemy has their own pattern needed in order to survive when they arrive and to get past them in order to continue on your way to find the next piece of truth!
You can also save the game at various checkpoints, which are lit up with red lights. There are no other ways to save, so make sure you remember their locations and save often!
Here's their Gameplay Trailer:
Graphics
The entire game is a 2D adventure and the characters stand out very well as white figures among the dark backgrounds. There are various things that went into the background, whether it be wandering eyes or a very intricate door, that added to the immersion of the game.
Sound
There were plenty of times of silence, which added to the eeriness of everything going on in the game, but also music and sound effects that told you when something dangerous is nearby. When music did play, it was very alluring for the location and would range from a sense of tragedy to a sense of peace. It all blended rather well.
Replayability
There were a few times where you could choose one of three options, but not enough to go through an entire game again. I would like to see if a choice or two would of changed anything regarding the scenario or story line, but for the most part, the game is the same the first or fifth time you play through it.
What Could Be Better
Would of loved to have a chance to do some combat against the enemies, or at least have to of faced more of them. They added to the scare factor and I just felt there weren't enough of them.
Final Verdict
The game was very intriguing and held my attention pretty much the entire time. I enjoyed my playthrough of the game and look forward to more from Red Candle.
"It's like a low budget, 2D Silent Hill game, without the combat!"
