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It never hurts to prepare our bodies with a scary game for Halloween, the problem I see in 2024 is that no one has bothered to find that void that many are trying to fill, that’s why I took the opportunity to analyze the only horror game that arrived in our editorial office these days and try to relax a little, dim the lights in the living room, take my headphones and listen to this Scholar’s Mate, from the Spaniards from Jandusoft, which seem to be passionate about the genre.
And it’s not that complicated to release a polished, finished product that allows you to experience a good moment of terror and achieve what’s on offer, whether you enjoy the scare, have some good scares and a few laughs if possible . In this case, They use a very common formula in this type of format, with a style and aura very close to Outlast, but introducing a large “Escape Room” component.that’s what the title implies.
In Scholar’s Mate we will be a girl who, for unknown reasons, is admitted to this psychiatric hospital lost in the depths of America. There isn’t much information on this, other than you think a family member left you lying there and never looked back. After an indeterminate amount of time, we wake up in one of his rooms that almost looks like a cell… but someone was there before and starts to help us.
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Technical section
With Unreal Engine as its flagship product, the truth is that it makes it much easier for most studios, no matter how small, to create immersive environments and that is just what we find here, a small psychiatric hospital, which we will end up knowing room by room and which is correctly represented.
In this case, HDR should be specially mentioned because it helps a lot in this task; some rooms will look more terrifying if we have the right lighting. It’s a shame that we didn’t know how to take better advantage of it or get the most out of it, because, in general, I have to say that some models are too simple, on par with the first titles of the genre, in 2018.
What I still don’t understand is how the pre-recorded intro looks so bad, compared to the game’s graphics, it’s almost like jumping through time and totally anticlimactic. The same thing happens with the voices of the protagonist and the enemy, which sound so frozen and like they’re playing on an old radio that it almost seems intentional, but to be intentional they should have put something more into context .
At the sound level, it is extremely important to listen to the footsteps of our pursuer, because only in this way can we effectively escape from him, at least until we know his patrol routine, which is always the even. In this sense, we must welcome the fact that feeling this pressure every moment is the fault of the fact that it is thunderous and paralyzing to hear it, speed up your steps..
Gameplay
Scholar’s Mate is a hide and seek style horror game in which you have to avoid the enemy by hiding in the shadows, because once they detect you you may have to play a little tag and with the mouse, which will probably end very badly for you. . But what makes the whole thing more interesting is its mix of immersive Escape Room type propositions.
We say it because It is a relatively small place where we will solve the puzzles to continue moving forward, finding each of the clues that we find.. We cannot exclude anything and in certain moments it will be better to take paper and pencil or press pause directly to think without having the constant threat of the enemy.
I admit to getting stuck in some of them because they didn’t follow the rules, but generally their structure is linear and easy to follow. Basically, if you don’t know how to solve something, you’ll be stuck because there’s only one way forward. And the truth is that it can be quite frustrating, which is why we have already warned that those who don’t want to get too complicated, there is a “story” difficulty level for them.
Interaction with some objects is also not the best and directly transferred from mouse operation, puzzles do not convey fluidityquite the contrary. Inexplicably, it never occurred to anyone that controlling the pointer with the right stick instead of the left was a good idea when the character wasn’t moving anyway.
Duration
I missed a little more development of the story, some additional cutscenes and a little adequate context to raise the level of the proposal, which for my taste ends up being very short, since in just under two hours Finally, we can provide one of the keys to this type of Escape Room and its convenience as a “one night only” title.
Conclusion
It’s true that I can’t deny that I had a good time with this Scholar’s Mate. It is a title that fulfills its proposition, brief, intense, immersive, but quite short. So much so that even the ending seemed a little abrupt to me. However, we have to be realistic, we are not facing an Outlast nor will it be extremely scary. The enemy that will constantly pursue us is true that it keeps you tense for almost 90% of the duration, and its pressure effect on the player is effective, but you end up missing that fear of the unknown, if it There really is something more worrying behind it.
If you want to have a good spooky time on Halloween and solve Escape Room type puzzles, but intuitive in company and you are one of those who have difficulty with horror games, perhaps this proposition is a bit light by Jandusoft is for you, but for those looking for a hardcore experience full of scares, you will be disappointed.
*Thanks to Jandusoft for providing us with the materials needed for the review.
Pedro Del Pozo
The good
- Escape Room type puzzles
- Good atmosphere and immersion
- The constant threat
Bad
- Sluggish controls in puzzles
- very short
- Simple mechanics
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