If sleep paralysis victims sometimes believe they see demons, they usually disappear after the attack. Michelle, the heroine of Sorry, we are closedwhich comes out on Thursday, November 14 for PC, cannot say the same. From his bed, he helplessly witnesses the emergence of The Duchess, an infernal, androgynous, seductive and mysterious entity that gives him the power of the third eye: a curse that allows him to perceive the chthonic world that overlaps his own, but that also promises him eternal servitude if you don’t get rid of it fissa.
Sorry, we are closed is, for better or worse, a 90s-style horror title, with real touches ofalone in the dark (1992, for its proportion of fixed cameras and rigid movements) and silent hill (1999, for its wide selection of abandoned industrial environments). The graphics, a stubborn and nostalgic trend at the moment, use very few polygons, are riddled with pixelated textures and obviously evoke memories related to the first PlayStation or the Nintendo 64.
Activated, Michelle’s third eye forms a bubble around her in which things are revealed to her as they really are. The decorations take on colors and the demons that must be conjured reveal their true weak point: a beating heart that should be shot as soon as they see it. the formidable Assassin7 (2005) by Goichi Suda and his invisible zombies with a similar Achilles heel are not far away either.
This is not the only thing that reminds us of the work of the Japanese designer. the entire universe of Sorry, we are closed he enjoys mixing rust with neon pop art, video game codes with rococo, religious imagery and sex. C. Bedford, illustrator and comic creator, half of the British studio A la mode games, is a specialist in the representation of bodies, often male, often naked. It is impossible to miss his work: it is plastered on many walls here and creates a very baroque contrast with the bloody darkness.
The devil is in the details.
Because, ultimately, horror is just one aesthetic among others, a pretext and even an object of ostentatious desire. So what if the sometimes confusing and unsubtle underlying message about toxic relationships and rebuilding after a breakup is riddled with too many characters and too much mannerism for such a small adventure (seven hours of shit). such Rocky Horror Picture Show video game, Sorry, we are closed He’s mainly there to pose, and God, does he pose well.
It’s a shame, a thousand times a shame, that this powerful and interesting proposal is penalized by clumsiness in level design, extremely uneven boss fights, or frankly sloppy chase phases. The staging often lacks a sound atmosphere worthy of the name, as if sound effects and music were missing.
However, without warning, during a tense showdown in a bloody cathedral, the Americans from Okumura Music Group burst into our ears with frenetic rap. Then we forgive the amateurism of other sequences and give ourselves over to the guilty pleasure of this fabulous farce that, in short, is not without soul, although it has certainly sold it to the devil.
The opinion of pixels
We liked:
- The baroque, neo-retro aesthetic, of undeniable mastery;
- the heart of gameplayeffective.
We liked less:
- Small blunders that add up and can lead to the occasional failure;
- HE sound designnot up to par with the rest of the artistic proposal.
It’s more for you if…
- You go to the “satanic rites” workshops organized by your CSE every Saturday at 11:30 p.m.
It’s probably not for you if…
- you say “retro ford” to the harsh handling of retro games.
Pixel classification:
666
