Price I paid: $8
Available on: PC (reviewed), Mac, Linux, XBox Live Arcade, and GooglePlay.
As with many games that wave their horror flag, the obvious
question is, does it have cheap jump scares? Short answer: no, it does not. What it has is a
chilling sound track, gorgeous and artistic environments, puzzles, an
interesting story, and an unsettling feeling of dread that taints your
perspective and rattles the nerves from the first scene to the last. Decay: The Mare managed to creep me out
by doing three things very well.
The primary way Decay:
The Mare instills fear in its players is with its atmosphere. Because the
game is working with still images as sections of the levels, they have complete
control of the lighting, angles, and perspective. This locked position becomes
one of the game’s greatest strengths. It gives the scenes a striking artistic
quality to them while giving things that do have animation an oddness to them
that nothing else in the game possesses. Add the chilling music and the spot-on
pacing, and you find yourself with a butthole so tight you could sharpen
pencils in it.
The second way the game scares you and draws you in is with
uncertainty. Because the environment is mostly static, you never know what
might move. The pacing and length of time that can go between especially creepy
moments held no discernable pattern to me. Rooms do not always lead to the same
place they once did. Even with that, they designed the levels so well I never
got lost. I was never quite sure what was a dream and what was real. Sometimes
I picked up items, and never found a way to use them. All of this made me question
everything from my decisions to the legitimacy of what I was looking at.
The developer's use of angels, lighting, and shadows give the still images an unsettling amount of life.
Finally, there are the jump scares. However, they handle
them with such care and scarcity they are an enjoyable rarity rather than an
unending onslaught. When something does jump out, it is truly scary because of
the tension the game built from the atmosphere and the uncertainty. I often
found myself wanting a jump scare to pop up to break the tension the game
built.
The story is intriguing and enjoyable but lacking in terms
of closure. I loved learning about the other people and the antagonist in small
snippets throughout the game. Even though their stories are minimal, I ate up
every bit of information I could get. I was never sure whom I should really
trust, and the reveals of the characters were all satisfying. Kind of like the
last pancake in the stack, the end isn’t nearly as good as the middle or
beginning. The uncertainty they spent so long masterfully building doesn’t lead
to a cohesive ending, so the very last scene of the game just kind of happens
without any big revelation or satisfaction.
In this screenshot, I can see at least four places a creature could be hiding.
I want to dedicate an entire paragraph to
one feature the game had: an actually helpful hint button. I only had to use it
once or twice, but it managed to point me in the right direction without
revealing the answer or being too cryptic. I still felt defeated for having to
use it at all, but it was so nice having a hint and not having to tab out and
look up the answer. Seriously, if I ever meet the developers, I will buy them
dinner because of this feature alone.
If you want a colon-tightening experience and you’re the
kind of person who has a budget for seeing movies at the theater, I recommend
this game. My playtime was just under three hours, so for its standard $9.99
price, is still a good value for you. My wife and I played it together, so we,
theoretically, solved the puzzles twice as fast compared to an average player.
If you’re as frugal as I am, put this game on your wish list and snag it the
moment it goes on sale. Even at a meager 10-20% off, it is still money well spent.
Played it with my wife
and paid as much attention to her as I did the game.
8/10 would watch her
yell at the monitor again.
Jesse Galena
Twitter: @RexiconJesse
Rexiconjesse.wordpress.com
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