One of the things I honestly didn’t believe in was that a game could watch how you play and then have reactions according to your play style. This is one of the many claims that Protocol Games and Raiser Games stated their latest Steam game, Song of Horror, could do. After playing through the first episode, you can consider me a believer now. The game is being released in episodes and currently, the first two are released with more in the works. I will be separating my reviews for each episode as they may form the bigger picture, but they will each provide their own separate experience.

Story

After a colleague has gone missing, some worried co-workers follow up on the last place that he was known to have gone to; the Husher house. Unbeknownst to them, there is a strange Presence that lingers within the walls of this house and their will to find their colleague, and friend, will be put to the test as strange events happen during the search.

Gameplay

Players are given the ability to free roam the level using the updated tank controls given. By this, I mean that they move in the direction you are pressing based on the camera angle and the turning isn’t as difficult as the classic tank controls. It can still be a little annoying when the camera angle suddenly changes and you weren’t ready as it could make your character turn around, but it gets easier as you get used to it.

While roaming through the level you can find multiple items and notes, each worth something to the player. There isn’t a single item you can pick up that doesn’t actually need to be used, but the same can’t be said for the notes. Plenty of the notes and pictures you can examine turn out to be lore fillers while others give clues to puzzles, whether you realize it or not. As for the items, they are removed from your inventory once their use is complete. While most items this will be a one time use, there are certain items, such as a key, that will stay with you until its use is complete.

Puzzles themselves typically always have a clue that can be found somewhere around the house. It will be up to the player in order to figure out the answer to all the puzzles themselves. It is good to keep in mind that the answer you need might not be found in the same room, or maybe not even on the same floor, of the house.

There are a variety of different horror tactics this game uses. Ranging from harmless to killing, your reaction to these horrors will be noted by the game. The main two that can get you killed is failing to push out whatever is trying to break into the room and failing to hide when the darkness begins to engulf the house. Both of these events will provide a sort of mini-game for you to complete and give you no other options aside from succeeding or die. There are some other things like not knowing where the Presence is exactly so listening through doorways can be the difference between life and death. Without giving any spoilers, take this loading screen hint to heart; light will save you, sounds will kill you.

The last thing to note is that each character will suffer permadeath. Regardless of which character you choose to play as, if they die then they are gone. There are four characters to choose from, which means that there are basically four lives for you to use. This time, you literally have four lives to use though. If you lose all four characters then you will have to restart the entire episode.

Graphics and Sounds

It was nice to play through a game that had a decent level of graphical designs that fleshed out the home and characters without a huge strain on the computer. It held a real-enough style that brought you into the atmosphere. This art style mixed with the music style well as they utilized everything from sharp moments to leaving you without music to just hear the weird noises that go on within the house.

Replayability

While the puzzles themselves will be the same and getting through the episode won’t hold any further challenges, each character you play as reacts and responses to things slightly differently. Their scare experiences also vary from each other, so the overall experience you have with one character might not be the same as you have with another.

What Could Be Better

Some of the puzzles didn’t seem very clear or to have a hint at all. I honestly couldn’t figure out what my clue was for the fuse box puzzle and ended up guessing my way through it. Other than that, the only puzzle I had issues with was the doll puzzle, but that turned out to be my misunderstanding of the clues I had. This may just be a downside to everything taking place within one big house that lets you free-roam and collect whatever you find in no particular order, but it would be nice to have more puzzles set up like the boiler where the instructions/clue is stuck on the wall nearby.

Conclusion

The first episode for Song of Horror was a thrill ride that has me craving for more! I can’t wait to dive into the second chapter and figure out what horrors lurk within the story’s continuation. There is certainly something strange going on and I am looking forward to figuring out what exactly it is while learning more about the Presence itself.