Charming horror in unequal parts

The juncture between the old and the new is the common haunt of indie horror games, but few are positioned at the crossroads as perfectly as Fear the spotlight Is. First released in 2023 by Cozy Game Pals, Fear the spotlightIts 2024 relaunch adds an extra layer to the experience While serving as the debut of juggernaut Blumhouse’s film production debut in game publishing. The game mixes a modern approach to storytelling and presentation with an unnecessary serving of analog fuzz that calls horror titles from the original PlayStation to mind and never imitates them.

Fear the spotlights story starts with minor stakesFollowing two high school girls, when they send themselves to a school library after hours. In the beginning to a candle-lit session of spirit summoning, conversation between the two characters sketches their outlines. Vivian is bookish and relatively thick, while her companion Amy is perfectly comfortable donning goth and gyming locks. Predictably, things start to go awry after the Ouija board is all set up, and Vivian ends up separated from Amy in a school that suddenly feels more alien and hostile.

Fear the Spotlight is a tale of two stories

The best time and the best time

Vivian and Amy remain the center of the story, naturally, however Fear the spotlights primary campaign plays around with a few ideas as it develops. For a while, the plot feels like a basic anti-bullying treatiseWith notes found around the school, which tell the cruelty of the teen and underline the ineffectiveness of the faculty’s attempts to resist it. From many of the same notes, the drama surrounding a high school stage production begins to emerge, playing a riff on The Phantom of the Opera Which points to the dark history of the school.

Over the course of two hours or so, Fear the spotlightIts main story never had much of a chance to be operative in its own right, but it still feels like it wastes some of its time. Most of the narrative elements are simplistic, and despite eventually building to a memorable visual climax, The plot doesn’t come together with much of a wow factor. After a certain point, I found myself longing for a more distinct voice, something that never emerged. Not in the main story, at least.

Thankfully, the Bloomhouse relaunches from Fear the spotlight is more than the main story. After beating the first campaign, a second one unlocksAnd it’s much more than just a trivial bonus. The last half of the experience approaches the story from a new angle, which Cozy Game Pals was careful to avoid spoiling. It is in addition that Fear the spotlight secures its standing, and although it is not of a dramatically different quality, It was enough to change my opinion of the game for the better.

There’s a lot to like about the second campaignAnd much of it centers around a story that ultimately feels more personal. This bleeds into everything else, from an environment that is less repetitive to the visceral impact of smashing a hammer through glass and rock when the situation calls for it. Tackling a game that is already complete in its own form, it is a bit Frankenstein in nature, but it comes across as a product of developers who are now just a little more experienced and confident.

A moderate fear factor has great moments

Equal thrills & chills

Both halves of Fear the spotlight have their strength. As a horror game, it doesn’t go for anything unnecessary, but it has moments that showcase a strong command of the essentials. The best bits usually lean on the sound planAlerting the player to off-screen presences in ways that keep any area from feeling completely safe. The primary threat is the titular spotlight, which leaves Vivian gasping for breath if she doesn’t have a fresh inhaler on hand, and the cat-and-mouse game that emerges is often gripping.

At times, the spotlight can feel more annoying than scary, especially when puzzles require repeated crossings of a hallway it monitors. This is another element that the second campaign simply makes better. Although the presence of the spotlight is not quite as justified the second time around, it is used in a way that attempts to make up for it, and More thoughtful choices about when and where to deploy the threat pay off nicely.

The game’s aesthetic also does some heavy lifting, with visual effects providing a layer of texture that can effectively incubate unease. It is often not the environments themselves that prove most compelling, but the empty spaces within them. Pixels crawling across the middle distance achieve a lot more than empty graynessEspecially when the emergence of the spotlight or an unfamiliar face comes as a genuine surprise.

Pleasant puzzling with a minor hitch

Intuitive solutions in an awkward interface

The puzzles themselves are generally good, even if none of the challenges are difficult enough to be memorable. With a lot of wondering how to grab the right tools for the right tasks, There’s a lot of point-and-click DNA in the effortSpice it up a bit with the ability to physically turn cranks, pull out drawers, and even pry clutched fingers apart in the style of an immersive sim. Once again, the second campaign finds a slightly more consistent groove with the puzzles, but both parts are satisfying enough.

One element of the system has seriously begun to rub off on meHowever. Rather than being able to select the appropriate tool from the inventory before interacting with an object, each interaction requires Vivian to first select it with her bare hand before bouncing to her inventory to select an item. It doesn’t sound bad, but it gets annoying when the cycle of interacting, searching for the right number, coming back, interacting, sitting through the same text box, and only then getting to actually select and use the number repeats ad nauseum.

Final Thoughts & Review Score

Solid horror without a silver bullet

Apart from this relatively minor problem, There’s not much to actively dislike about Fear the spotlight. It’s easy enough to criticize – much of the affair could still be punched up a bit, and the game often presents the awkwardness of teen relationships under a less intentional layer of clumsy attempts to replicate that. But It’s mostly good and occasionally greatAnd the second campaign makes it easy to walk away from the experience on a positive note.

more than anything, Fear the spotlight Argues a strong future for Cozy Game Pals, a studio that could achieve a lot if it keeps iterating. It’s also a good foray into gaming for Blumhouse, and its willingness to invest in something of its nature proves that the company may have value in this space. While Fear the spotlight Is not a definitive horror title, it is a largely charming experience that is better now than before.