Developer: Jumpy Unit
Publisher: Jumpy Unit
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Ominous – Preview
Co-op horror games are more popular than ever, and with the spooky season upon us, it’s the perfect time to collect some of your friends for a haunting night. If you want something new to play, Jumpy Unit is here to provide. Their first game Ominous is a co-op horror game of the type we often see lately. You and up to three friends set out into a creepy location and need to avoid a scary monster. Sounds cliché? Maybe, but this game currently in Early Access does manage to have one fresh gimmick we enjoy.
In Ominous, you and your friends play as a team of seasoned supernatural investigators, dropped into a location where an interdimensional portal has allowed a terrible monster through. While the plot is obviously not the focus of a co-op horror experience, you’ll note that the premise is already a little different from what you’re used to. It reminds us a lot of Phasmophobia or Lethal Company both in its setup and how the gameplay works. So if you’re a fan of those, that can be a plus.
The game also looks great, with the appropriate gloomy setting and derelict buildings. Only two maps seem available for the moment, but since hopping through dimensions is the game’s main mechanic, you get a change of scenery this way. The devs have also established they’d love to add more locations with time. The atmosphere could be a little creepier for our tastes, and some of the animations are very basic. Overall though, the visuals are nice and we didn’t experience any glitches, which is about all we ask for when it comes to Early Access games.
Similarly, the sound design of Ominous is rather bland at the moment. Not bad, but also nothing too exciting. The game has no voice acting and very little ambient noise. There isn’t even a proper soundtrack to keep you company. This could be explained by the fact that you and your friends are supposed to be talking through voice chat as part of the game, but we would have loved a little more creativity when it comes to general creepy noises.
Onto the main event:: Ominous is a co-op horror game with puzzle elements where you and your friends have to work against the clock to close an interdimensional portal before it destroys the world. You have limited time to do so, though currently, the game lacks a timer for you to know how much time is left. This is frustrating and hopefully, something the devs will consider adding later, though we can’t deny it ramped up the urgency of the experience. Like in games of a similar genre, you start out in a sort of hub world where you can buy additional equipment. There’s a flashlight to light dark places or a compass to find your way easier in the maze-like hallways of the map, for example. They’re hand-delivered to you by a funny little robot for some reason. After picking your gear and your location, you and your friends are dropped off and forced to explore, picking up items and solving simple puzzles, in an effort to close the portal. If you manage that, you get money, which you need to pay off debt to the ones who hire you and upgrade your hub.
Gameplay is where Ominous sets itself apart from similar games. Instead of every player being in the exact same place, your characters are in separate versions of the map that exist in different dimensions. This means that even if you’re standing in the same room on the map, you cannot see each other or directly interact. Since every dimension is subtly different, communication becomes key to completing puzzles and finishing the game. And of course, the monster can exist in all dimensions at once, so you’re never truly safe. Where the sound and graphic design fail to be very scary, we do admit this sense of disconnection gives the game a more horror-like feel to it, whereas the rest feels more like a walking simulator and puzzle game hybrid with random jumpscares.
Sadly, this is one of the only real assets this game has over others in the genre. The monster isn’t particularly scary, nor is the rest of the gameplay that interesting. Combine this with the fact that as an Early Access title, Ominous currently has a severe lack of content and it’s very hard to find people to play with since the userbase is so small, it’s just not very appealing right now. We’re hoping this can change in the future.
Conclusion
Ominous is a good effort from a new developer to break into a currently popular genre. As far as co-op horror games go, it’s neither a bad experience nor an amazing one we recommend to everybody. But with some work, the dimension gimmick could be what sets it apart and keeps people interested. Overall, we’d say this game is one to tentatively keep your eye on in case it does seem interesting to you and your friends.
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