The Shore – Game Review – New Lovecraftian Horror Game

The Shore is a story-driven Lovecraftian horror game that features incredible menacing creatures. We’ll have to explore the shore to unravel all the dark secrets and get possession of an ancient artifact as well.

Storyline:

We are playing as a sailor who’s trying to find his daughter on an island filled with otherworldly creatures. We’ll spiral down the rabbit hole along with the main character fighting the creatures of the deep.

Gameplay:

The gameplay is pretty simple. We have to explore the island to read notes, witness huge creatures get awakened, and run away from the ones that try to harm us. We also get to fight some enemies and solve simple puzzles along the way.

Pros:

1. The style of the game is mesmerizing! Especially the first part. It’s just beautiful and there are a lot of cinematic moments. The game also manages to create an otherworldly ambiance even when nothing weird happens on the screen.

2. The lore is captivating! All the notes are very interesting to read and most of them are voice acted so you can continue exploring the island while listening to the character reading the note and giving their thoughts about it. I admire the attention to detail and the story that’s being unraveled through them.

Cons:

1. Well, though the story of how the crew that was stranded on the island IS interesting, I felt absolutely no emotional investment towards the main character and his daughter.

2. The level design is bad. It’s hard to understand which surfaces are jumpable and which are not. The frustrating part is that this becomes crucial during the chase sequences, so you have to die tons of times before seeing a passage or figuring out that there is, in fact, nowhere to run and you were supposed to do something completely different. So, be ready to be stuck at some parts of the game for 30 minutes or so…

3. This game is unfriendly towards photosensitive people. You might experience motion sickness playing this as well. There are flashing lights and moving walls everywhere around you.

4. All the “being stuck and reliving the same chase sequence in a perpetual never-ending nightmare” sequences aside, the game is pretty short. You can beat it in under an hour. But it would probably take you about 3 hours with note-reading and dying, which is still pretty short.

Rating:

Honestly, I wouldn’t recommend the game. You can try it for the ambiance and some unforgettable creatures. But the level design gets frustrating very fast. It was a promising project but it turned out to be more frustrating than terrifying in the end. I rate it 4.9 Cthulhus out of 10.

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