Video game developers are always looking for new and exciting ways to evolve a genre. Whether this is with new and interesting mechanics or a vastly unique open world that is unlike anything that has come before. The horror game genre is no different to this sentiment. There are a lot of exciting features and mechanics that developers have introduced that have changed the genre for better or worse. Out of Sight is the latest horror game to incorporate something new to the genre. Advertised as the first second-person game it provides players with a fresh and unique experience that shouldn’t be missed.
A New Perspective
The aforementioned second person perspective is the most unique part of Out of Sight, as well as it’s main selling point. As players will be playing as two lead characters, Sophie and Teddy, they must utilize both of them to solve the game’s many puzzles. As soon as you find advance to a new room you must find pink blankets to place Teddy down so Sophie can interact with certain objects. This is where the second person perspective comes in. You control Sophie with the left stick and Teddy’s line of sight with the right stick, occasionally moving Teddy around to get a better angle. Whilst it may take some time for players to get used to, the game doesn’t over complicate this mechanic with a multitude of button prompts and anyone can get the hang of the controls quickly. It’s definitely the most unique part of the game and some people may just right it off as a gimmick, but it provides a brand new experience that hasn’t really been seen in horror games for a long time.
That being said, it’s not flawless and on occasion I found the controls frequently working against me. The most prominent example was when I had placed Teddy on top of a box that I was moving. When I went and retrieved Teddy, Sophie started going into the animation to push the box and wasn’t picking him up. This largely is because the button for picking Teddy up and pushing the box is the same and it appears that the game kept overriding it; you would have to angle Sophie a certain way in order for her to do what you want. This happened quite often and was frustrating to experience — especially the first few times — but it could hopefully be made less obstructive in a future update.
Another surprise was the puzzles themselves. Most horror game puzzles don’t really require a lot of thought and mostly boil down to push some buttons or find a key. Whilst Out of Sight does feature those frequently, there are some puzzles that will provide quite a challenge. Various puzzles will test your understanding of the game mechanics and allow you to experiment as much as possible. Some of these will take a while to figure out, there was one puzzle in particular which stumped me for a very long time. I had no idea what to do and felt like I was going around in circles, even restarting from a checkpoint multiple times thinking the game had glitched. However, when I finally figured it out it felt incredibly rewarding and I moved to the next section with a smile on my face. It’s refreshing to get puzzles in a horror game that tests your understanding of the mechanics and how to apply them, however, those who despise the yellow paint that has plagued modern horror games will be sad to hear that it found its way into Out of Sight too — albeit not as egregious as other titles that have come before.
Mother Knows Best
Out of Sight sees players take the role of a little blind girl called Sophie, who recovers her sight through her childhood teddy bear aptly called Teddy. Trapped in a Tim Burtonesque mansion with danger around every corner, Sophie attempts an escape through a window on one of the upper floors, but she is stopped and falls to the lower levels. Sophie and Teddy must work together to get back to the window and finally escape the nightmare, whilst also uncovering the sinister happenings of the mansion.
Out of Sight’s story is one that thrives on its mystery. Throughout the game, events and characters will get introduced to the player each with their own story to tell. Things will happen along the way to further add on to this mystery and leaves the player with so many questions they are wanting answers to. Questions such as how can Sophie see through Teddy’s eyes will be stuck in players’ heads throughout their playthrough. Instead of the game dumping exposition in a lazy way it opts to use dialogue to expand the worldbuilding. Characters share things about themselves through the game giving an insight on their backstory, motivations, and feelings. You can easily read between the lines with what characters say to get a better understanding of the story, and some of them are quite heartbreaking when you fully understand them.
That being said the game doesn’t answer everything. The story’s most burning questions are left up in the air and by the time the credits roll you can’t help but feel a little disappointed by the various unanswered questions. It’s perplexing, and quite frustrating, as to why the developers have left some of the most sought after answers in the dark and by the time the credits roll you can’t help but feel slightly puzzled. If the end of the game is anything to go by, the real ending might be featured in some form of DLC or sequel, but if that is the case I can’t but feel like I’ve been robbed of a true resolution.
Cracks in the Walls
As mentioned in the preview, Out of Sight is graphically pleasing with a fantastic art style and a dark melancholy tone. Taking inspiration from similar games such as Little Nightmares and Among the Sleep, it has a gothic aesthetic that makes its characters and settings stand out. In addition to that, the sound design and music are amazing with no drops in quality or sudden cut-offs. The same can be said for the technical presentation where the only thing to break the immersion was a few cases of texture clipping. However, there was one noticeable technical problem that I encountered — the deletion of a save file. After spending an hour with the game I left and came back to find my save file completely gone. There was no explanation and even though the Steam files showed the save in question, the game left me no choice but to restart from the very beginning. Even though my save was only an hour in, it is still an important bug. Hopefully this isn’t anything major and can be solved with a quick patch, but the shock of seeing my save disappear is one that will stick with me.
Through the Window
Out of Sight is not one to be missed. It provides players with something brand new whilst keeping things simple for anyone to pick up and enjoy. Add in some great challenging puzzles, impeccable art design, and a story that keeps the mystery alive all throughout and you have a game that needs to be experienced. There are flaws for sure, less finicky controls and a much more satisfying resolution that ties up loose ends would have been appreciated, but they don’t hinder the experience too much. If you’re looking for an interesting new horror experience that evolves the genre, Out of Sight is what you’re looking for. Grab your teddy, don’t make a sound, and most of all…good luck.
The Review
Great
