With the Indie Box, the entire XboxSquad editorial team offers you mini reviews of very little known or featured indie games. While some don’t deserve to step out of the shadows of the Xbox Marketplace, others might be worth a look. That is the whole subject of this section.
Offered in an episodic format, Horror Tale 1: Kidnappers brings out the good old puzzle/discretion combo fans are familiar with Hello Neighbor. Around the small town of Lakewitch, children go missing for no reason and the kidnapper remains elusive. As a child, you will soon be confronted with this mysterious person with an unknown motive. To seek shelter, you must work with your friend Harry to devise a plan to barricade yourself in and survive the night. If he’s the head of the team, you’re the arms and legs. So it’s up to you to conquer the surrounding countryside to collect the elements necessary for your defense.
Many puzzles will be in front of you to collect the requested tools and since the location of many of them is random, you will inevitably be forced to search each area thoroughly to find them all. Luckily, each level is accessible directly from the village map near your bike, and the latter’s basket allows you to carry several tools needed to achieve your goals. It’s up to you to think. Which to take and which to leave behind. Good point, if you drop an object on the ground it stays there even if you leave the area.
With honest performances for an indie game, as well as accessible and logical puzzles, Horror Tale 1: Kidnappers is easy to navigate for a player used to stealth games, especially since four difficulty levels are available from the start. These make the kidnapper more or less effective in his hunt and also tell you right away that “ghost” mode makes you invisible and untouchable.
Except for one particularly gruesome sequence in terms of gameplay (I’ll leave the surprise up to you) The game is easy to pick up and I enjoyed the experience overall. Only the price will certainly hold most people back, because at 9.99 dollars per episode, this could quickly add up depending on the ambitions of the developers.
I loved :
- A fun and random hide and seek game
- An easy finish to 1000G in under two hours depending on the difficulty chosen
I’m sorry :
- The kidnapper who moves with you without knowing where you are
- Don’t know the end of the story
