Developer: Playstige Interactive
Publisher: Playstige Interactive
Platform: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox S/X, Switch
Tested on: PS4
Frightence – Review
In a sea of first-person horror experiences, Playstige Interactive is one of those indie developers eager to add a dozen more to the heap. They’re notorious for churning out a lot of titles at a rapid pace, covering various genres while doing so but with varying degrees of quality. Frightence is their latest horror game. They say it’s short and intense, and at least one of those two rings true. It’s time to explore this apartment of horror, though the experience won’t leave you happy for more reasons than just the scares.
Story
The opening cutscene gives us some basic info on the setting. We play as a janitor in a derelict apartment building. This building is the scene of many urban legends and other terrible tales, having a bad reputation to go along with it and even causing pizza delivery guys to no longer want to enter it. Due to this reputation, the entire building is going to be demolished and all the residents have been evicted. It’s our final day on the job and everybody is supposed to be gone, but as the janitor, it is our responsibility to go through the apartments one last time and make sure everybody has left.
The rest of the plot should be conveyed through a combination of cutscenes and items you find around the apartments. However, this isn’t really accomplished, mainly because you can’t properly examine the items you pick up – including notes and documents – and the cutscenes are few and far between. Once you’ve picked something up, it also disappears forever, since there’s no journal or inventory that collects the lore. As a result, you just won’t know what you picked up most of the time and have no clue of what the story is.
Graphics
The graphics are maybe the one good thing about Frightence. The game looks pretty good for an indie title, managing to not fall into the trap of too many repeated stock assets. Every apartment you visit has its own look and it helps to make the setting feel more realistic. Overall, the atmosphere here is sufficiently creepy and often makes you fear what might be lurking behind the next corner. This is a must if your horror game is basically a walking simulator.
Sound
Frightence also does manage to get the sound design right. There isn’t much music, but aside from a few over-eager jumpscare sound effects, the noises in the game help make everything feel tenser. Be it radios or TVs you can hear through the wall, your own footsteps, or the distant sounds of doors opening, everything adds to the overall atmosphere. There is a small amount of voice acting, which isn’t outstanding but not terrible either for an indie game. The voice actors do their best with the script they’re given.
Gameplay
As we’ve come to expect from horror games that call themselves ‘horror experiences’, Frightence is not much more than a walking simulator that tries to be scary. Sadly, the game fails even on that front. Where most similar titles manage to save themselves by either having an outstanding story or great puzzles, Frightence has neither of those. We’ve mentioned the story being lackluster above, but the game also lacks any deeper gameplay than walking and clicking on things.
You essentially spend the entire game trying to open doors that are locked until you find the one that does allow you to enter a room. Once in there, you pick up the item that has a glowing arrow above it, have some minor scare happen to you, then walk out. Rinse and repeat. The scares themselves range from mild but not too annoying to cliché jumpscares that tire quickly. Since the game has no objectives and the plot is impossible to follow, knowing where to go is a chore and you’ll often find yourself walking through the entire apartment at a snail’s pace since there’s no sprint. Thankfully, the map is only two floors big.
As the final nail in the coffin, Frightence has a ridiculous amount of achievements. You’ll basically get one every few minutes, which completely breaks the atmosphere – the one thing this game manages to get right. With a runtime of an hour or so, this makes the game more trouble than it’s worth.
Conclusion
Except if you’re some kind of hardcore horror fanatic who feels they have to play every single horror game out there, there really is no reason to get Frightence. The game will come across as greatly underwhelming, and it will just end up disappointing you mere moments into the game. Boring gameplay and a plot that is near non-existent make the game a chore to get through, and it’s simply not fun.
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