Creepshow – Review
If you’re a horror fan who is a little on the older side, you’re definitely familiar with Creepshow, the 1980s horror anthology movie written by Stephen King and directed by George Romero. Or perhaps you’ve watched the more recent series that ran on Shudder from 2019 to 2023. It’s this second one upon which the game Creepshow, developed by PHL Collective and published by DreadXP, is based. As a short horror adventure with an overarching narrative and two short stories, this game tries to go for a nostalgic feel, but sadly fails to stick the landing to make us truly enjoy it.
Story
Creepshow starts with the main character Danny, a teenage boy whose father died in a mall fire years ago. Because his body was never found, Danny takes his friends to the now derelict mall to find clues about his father’s fate, since Danny has a suspicion that something more is going on. Rather than finding any clues, Danny encounters a strange fortune-telling machine called The Reader, which compels him to read two comic book stories. These play out as a separate story segments. One is called Metamorphic Love, and follows a man who would go to extreme lengths to please his lover who is going through a horrific insect transformation. The other is called The Toll Keeper, and revolves around a priest who encounters a church where the bell seems to have supernatural powers.
Both of the stories were pretty interesting, especially the first one, which had a nice vibe of building dread. The Toll Keeper had enough mystery to keep us engaged at first, though the latter half felt like it dragged on. Sadly, the overarching story about Danny itself was also kind of boring, and mostly consisted of walking around empty environments and talking to characters only to listen to badly written dialogue. The ending was also extremely abrupt, not really resolving anything. Perhaps this was the developer’s attempt to hook us for a sequel. So in short, only Metamorphic Love really had a proper horror feel to it.
Graphics
Hands down, the graphics are the best thing about Creepshow. Very similar to the Telltale games, the visual style borrows heavily from comic books, but kicks it up to eleven in the best way possible. The visual style not only enhances the nostalgic air the game is clearly going for; it also lets the horror shine. This style works perfectly for over-the-top horror without making the gore too visceral or shocking, while still keeping the scare factor. The game is colorful and full to the brim with unique visuals, and has a lot of striking imagery we don’t usually see in video games.
Sound
Creepshow has a good soundtrack, and we enjoyed the music in this game a lot. There’s a nice variety too, with the musical tone changing depending on which of the stories you are playing. Combined with the subtle ambient noises throughout, the sound design adds to the game’s unsettling atmosphere. However, perhaps even more compelling, the game has full voice acting throughout, leaving us very impressed with the performances, especially from the creepy storyteller named The Reader.
Gameplay
Creepshow is a horror adventure game that can utilize some different mechanics thanks to its anthology setup, since the short stories contained within have their own quirks to keep things fresh. Danny’s parts are pretty typical adventure game fare, where you walk around and interact with characters or items to solve admittedly very simple puzzles. Both of the standalone stories also contain this as a main element, but switch things up a bit. Metamorphic Love has a sort of job simulator, where you must perform the main character’s job at a fast food restaurant. The Toll Keeper is more focused on puzzles and allows more wandering and exploring.
In all cases, aside from some issues with finicky controls, the gameplay was fine. Nothing groundbreaking, but not bad either. The game is carried much more effectively by its visuals and the storytelling. Which also means that when the story does drag, as it does at times, the constant backtracking can be annoying. Additionally, we found the runtime a lot shorter than expected. You can finish the game in a little over two hours, and with only one ending, there just isn’t that much content here, for the rather hefty price tag in comparison. This is especially annoying if you keep our earlier comment in mind, about how some parts feel really dragged out.
Conclusion
While Creepshow fails to really invoke the same atmosphere as the movie and series it’s based on, and it’s not even a mind-blowing experience for a horror game in terms of gameplay, we do think there’s some entertainment value here. When the game did get gory, we enjoyed it a lot, and the visuals alone are worth a playthrough. When it’s on sale and you want something unique, it’s definitely worth picking up.
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