Developer: SadSquare Studio
Publisher: SadSquare Studio
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Visage – Review
Visage is a first-person psychological horror game that promises a pretty spooky experience in a haunted environment. The game originally started as a Kickstarter with just two chapters. Eventually, it was released in 2020 by SadSquaare Studio. Exploring a mysterious haunted house that changes every now and then, is something not many games have to offer. Furthermore the longer you stay in the dark, the scarier it gets. The struggle to keep oneself sane with the help of limited items such as lighters is a challenge of its own.
Story
The story of the game is about a family and its grim end. The story is presented in chapters and also with different subsequent mediums, such as pictures and comic strips of the family scattered around the haunted house. Each chapter represents the death of a family member. It also represents each one’s manner of death. The game is fairly slow-paced as you have to constantly be on the lookout for clues of what exactly has happened to each family member. There are unfortunately no dialogues, monologues, and cutscenes in the game that can give a better understanding of the story.
Graphics
The game is made with Unreal Engine. The graphics are stunningly realistic to the smallest details. Every nook and cranny can be easily distinguished from each other with just a glimpse of an eye. When the game is set on max settings, it delivers great visual results, although rendering objects from a distance is sometimes glitchy. For example, the TV in the living room from afar will look as if it’s turned off. Objects outside of the house seen through various windows will completely disappear with their corresponding effects. Unfortunately, there is no option to max the distance rendering which is sad. Further on to the effects such as lightbulb blowouts, ghost encounters, and even other paranormal effects, which are absolutely marvelously made to the point one starts screaming from the realism this game brings to the table. This is a true horror experience made as if one is part of a movie. One can only imagine what can be achieved if this game is ported to a VR-set.
With a mid-range graphics card, such as an RTX 2060, and its equivalent counterpart the RX 5600 XT, you can definitely enjoy the various mesmerizing graphics and their corresponding effects the game has to offer. Having a previous generation card such as a 1070 or 1080 can also run the game at max settings without a sweat.
Sound
Combining stunning realistic graphics with spooky sounds of screeching doors, footsteps on ceilings, and baby cry, the game definitely does not fail in this category. The various other horror sounds make the whole experience even scarier. Such sounds are the instant short bursts of instruments when a paranormal activity randomly happens around the player. Furthermore, in-game tracks, while walking around or when something is about to happen, enhance the fear players already have accumulated from the various first encounters with the paranormal. Sounds such as those coming from the character himself were found lacking however. The fearful panting and heartbeats were missing. If these were implemented they would’ve enhanced the overall gameplay by a significant margin.
Gameplay
Visage is a first-person survival horror game. The main goal of the game is to find out how each one of the family members has died, without the player joining them in the afterlife. The game allows you to choose your own chapter, and this is triggered by in-game events, such as opening a specific door. After that, the game will stage the house for that specific chapter and thus specific family member’s death experience. This will prevent the player from entering other specific areas for the other chapters. The player must go around the house and play detective. Finding clues, solving puzzles, using various objects to enter and exit the paranormal are the things the player must do to find out what has happened to each family member. While being busy with finding clues, the player’s character will experience paranormal activities that will lower his sanity. There is always something happening around the player. Doors will slam unexpectedly or the radio will turn on. This is all possible because of the randomizer implemented into the game, which makes every encounter unpredictable, adding a bit of extra fright to the experience.
If by any chance the sanity of the character becomes critical, then an encounter with the spirit will slowly start taking place. This will slowly but surely lead to immediate death and a restart from the last save if no actions have been taken to raise one’s sanity. Using various consumables such as pills and other items, the player can prevent the loss of sanity.
We noticed the thing that made the overall experience less enjoyable was the controls of the game. These were absolutely terrible to adjust to, as they are not intuitive at all. When the crosshair is a bit to the side of an object which the player wants to interact with, it will trigger the item which is being held at that moment. This is most of the time a consumable, which is invaluable when they are so limited.
Conclusion
Visage is a magnificent horror story bundled up in separated chapters. This combined with stunning audio and visual effects with a randomizer, make the game unpredictable and truly scary, even for the most prepared among the players. The game would probably have a tremendous amount of fame if it already had a VR-version, which will definitely make people scream for their lives in their living room. What really felt like a big setback were the game’s controls as they are not intuitive enough or the studio hasn’t invested enough time into them. All in all a great true horror experience we can recommend to basically everyone. Be warned though, the game does not come with diapers for possible accidents.
Visage - Review,
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