“The Guest” (8 out of 10); Team Gotham/505 Games; available on PC
From the moment that I woke up in the eerie confines of the hotel that would become my world in “The Guest,” I immediately thought of the meticulously constructed environments of atmospheric horror games like “Bioshock” and “Soma.” Where the different locales of those titles don’t require you to look under every couch and peer through every keyhole, exploration and observation are the key to survival in “The Guest.” It’s actually a clever way to show off the work that Team Gotham has invested in creating their ominous little world.
There is very little that is clear to you at the beginning. You know that you’re in a hotel room, you know you’re a Russian scientist and you know that you’re on medication. It’s vague and weird enough to pique your interest into exploring the room to figure out what the hell is going on. Gameplay encourages you to carefully examine every interactive piece of the environment, and stash it away just in case. Progressing through the game depends on rummaging around for any clues as to what brought you here, as well as those that will help you eventually escape.
It’s an interesting mixture of first-person gameplay and old school point-and-click adventure games. Exploring the hotel in first-person is a fluid and beautiful process. The development team has not only captured the vibe of a creepy hotel, but they’ve managed to inject it with circa 1960’s personality. It’s not often that a game’s environment becomes a living, breathing character, and this is where “The Guest” is strongest. The moments in which the hotel changes from innocuously spooky to flat out nightmarish are what keeps you busting your brain against all of those interactive puzzles.
I’ve never been extremely patient with games that require me to solve environmental puzzles to progress, and this aspect of “The Guest” is where most of my criticism lies. Even when I factor out the fact that I’m a bit of a moron when it comes to in-game puzzles like this, I couldn’t help but notice some inconsistencies here. Regardless of these small executional problems, the need to discover your character and his purpose at this strange location offered up plenty of motivation to keep on trucking.
While it’s well-made and offers up an engaging storyline, “The Guest” is definitely not for those who are looking for action, or for a longer diversion. It only takes around seven hours to get through, and there’s nary a bad guy to be killed.
Ten bucks isn’t a bad price to pay for a quick, cognitively challenging exploration game–especially one that is as well-polished as this one. The soundtrack will leave you breathless, and the more time you spend navigating the game’s rapidly blurring line between sanity and insanity, the easier it is to realize that Team Gotham has a solid title to add to their growing repertoire.