These days, most horror games have a certain “look” about them. Shadows everywhere, sickly colours, grit and grime on everything. Not Brighter Day, though.
Brighter Day‘s aesthetic is best described as “fucking weird as shit.” I mean, look at this:
It’s colourful and cartoony, yet minimal to the point of feeling sterile — a juxtaposition that makes my skin crawl. Also there are goddamn eyeballs everywhere and it’s not OK. I feel like this is what fear — true fear — looked like when I was five. Apparently I never stopped being five.
Brighter Day is primarily about stealth, which makes sense because I don’t really want to fight immaterial horrors from my subconscious. You have to escape a facility either by hiding from things whose entire physiological purpose is to SEE EVERYTHING or by throwing things to distract them. Simple enough, but also quite challenging.
Brighter Day is out on itch.io right now, and it’s also making a run on Steam Greenlight. What do you think? Like what you see? Because IT SEES YOU (DUN DUN DUN) and thinks you’re pretty good-looking, all things considered. It’s considering asking you if you want to grab a coffee, but it’s nervous because it’s been hurt before.
Thanks for the heads-up, PC Gamer.
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Comments
One response to “Horror Game Dares To Be Colourful”
Horror doesn’t have to be all black, shit-brown and blood-red. Anyone remember Mondo Medicals?
Atmosphere is a very big part of horror games, while I am sure this game can be scary in a jump scare sense, I doubt it can match the unsettling nature of some of the more well known horror games. Despite our advances in technology I still think Silent Hill 2 is one of the most… uncomfortable experiences that gaming can offer, even with the technical limitations of that time. Its sparseness, as you pointed out with this game, adds a unnerving sterile tone.
those eyes, all i can think of is super mario 64