Developer: Oldmoustache Gameworks
Publisher: Artcom FZC
Platform: PC, VR
Tested on: PC
No70: Eye of Basir – Review
No70: Eye of Basir is a first-person 3D point & click puzzle adventure, in a creepy but beautiful and detailed horror setting. This game has an interesting story, which you will explore as a player by investigating your environment, solving puzzles and uncovering information. Eye of Basir is available through Steam for PC, but has also just entered beta-stage for VR-systems. This game is developed by Oldmoustache Gameworks, a game studio based in Turkey, of which Eye of Basir is their biggest project so far. The game has been published by Artcom FZC on the 28th of June, 2017.
Story
The story is about a man who lived in a haunted house in his youth, with his brother and grandmother. Later he returns and finds a mysterious lens, named Basir, referencing the God of Truth. The lens reveals clues and helps you solves puzzles. During your journey you’ll discover the lens is the connection between different realms, and can open and close portals to dangerous realms. There’s a secret brotherhood formed around this relic, which seeks outs it’s powers, explores it, and protects humanity against the evil creatures from other realms. The protagonist is trying to make sense of the brotherhood and its connection to his family, and slowly he starts to understand more as the story progresses and he finds more clues.
Graphics
The low graphics setting is seriously bad, with washed-out textures and nu details at all. The high graphics setting is beautiful and detailed, but it’s quite a chore for your graphics card, and turning around often gets choppy. The overall color-scheme of the game is gray-ish and very dark, which fits the atmosphere. The graphics are often blurred out, especially close at the borders, and sometimes with a weird old-fashioned grey-noise effect over screen, which makes you feel like you are walking in a dream, distanced, somehow, but it also sets the mood for the really creepy atmosphere of the game. Visual cues of interact-able objects are clear and noticeable, but you have to make sure you look everywhere, behind doors, and get close enough for the interaction icons to pop. The UI is really simple, which makes this game fit for VR.
Sound
The music in this game is very pretty, piano classical style music. The music plays only every now and then, but during the game you have constant environmental sounds and occasionally creepy sounds. There is a lot of narration in this game, which is done very well.
Gameplay
No70: Eye of Basir is a first-person puzzle adventure game in a horror setting. It has an interactive story: following and experiencing the story is the core of this game, and you’ll be walking through the story in steps, you won’t get an immediate information overload. During the gameplay you’ll encounter objects and find readable texts which reveal the story bit by bit, sometimes creating a bit of confusion or puzzlement what the text is exactly about, but this is the confusion experienced by the protagonist as well, so it’s fitting that you as a player have a lot of questions, which get answered later in the game.
The gameplay is simple: you’ll walk around and find interact-able objects, which you can open, inspect, read or pick up. The objects you can interact with are marked really well, but are sometimes hidden behind a door or another object. The puzzles are pretty simple: pick an object up, and place it in the right location. The clues are clear: look at shapes, context, or other clues as revealed by the Eye of Basir, the lens you’ll pick up during the game.
The Eye of Basir is a sort of looking glass which reveals clues if you look through it to certain objects. You won’t have it in your possession throughout the entire game: Each chapter you’ll need to find it anew. The story explains why this is the case: The eye is a powerful object which chooses it’s own master and does not like to be controlled.
This game is not a survival horror, and you won’t die from any of the monsters you encounter. However, the atmosphere is genuinely scary, which is very well done. The music and effects will give you the creeps: sometimes you’ll spot a shadow moving from the corner of your eye, sometimes a door slams shut right in front of you, sometimes objects just appear or move around in deserted rooms. The are no jump-scares per se, but a dark and creepy atmosphere combined with some sudden appearances does the trick of creating a horror-feel.
You basically walk back and forth a lot, solving rather simple puzzles (pick up object, use, continue), then walk around to see what was triggered, and where. Initially you walk back and forth in the house of the grandmother of the protagonist, gradually unlocking rooms. Later you’ll walk around outside, in a beautiful desolate environment. Walking feels pretty slow, especially because you have to go back and forth repeatedly, but the music and spooky changes to the environment will make this walking around a bit more interesting.
The game does not auto-save during gameplay, nor can it be saved by the player: the game only saves when a new chapter gets started. If you have all the time in the world to play, this is not a problem at all, but if you just want to play for 15 or 20 minutes or so, you have got to start over repeatedly, which can be a bit annoying. The game only lasts about an hour or so, so it is very much doable to complete in one sitting, but if you haven’t planned on gaming for a while you’ll run into this problem. It takes about 20-30 minutes before some chapters are saved, depending on how much time you need to explore and solve the puzzles.
Conclusion
No70: Eye of Basir is a good game for people who love a creepy horror setting, and a good and interesting storyline with well developed characters intertwined in the story. The gameplay is simple but functional and intuitive, and the great music and detailed graphics are really nice. The scares in the game are done well, not too over the top, and the spooky atmosphere really helps to give you the creeps.
No70: Eye of Basir - Review,
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