This year seems to be a pretty fascinating year with horror games coming out of Brazil. Just a couple months ago I reviewed a game from Brazilian Devs at BlackChiliGoat Studio called “TAPE: Unveil The Memories” (Check out my review HERE). Now Pulsatrix Studios is dropping theirs, with Fobia: St. Dinfna Hotel, and I’m happy to report that while I enjoyed both of these titles, they’re also very different from one another even if they’re still in the horror genre. This survival horror doesn’t really reinvent the wheel by any means, but pays tribute to similar classics that have come before, such as the “Resident Evil” franchise.
You play as a hungry investigative journalist named Roberto Lopes, who is approached to visit the town of Treze Trilhas and pay a visit to the town’s infamous hotel, the St. Dinfna Hotel. There seems to have been many sightings of a girl wearing a gas mask. Unraveling the spider web of mysteries by traversing around the hotel, you will learn more and more dark secrets involving lots of violence and a crazy cult. There are even alternate dimensions/timelines thrown in to keep things extra interesting.
The gameplay itself is your standard first-person horror game, with an inventory of supplies you may need to ration as well as weapons. I personally didn’t have much issue with rationing bullets, enemies seem to die within three or so shots depending on how good your aim is. The meat of Fobia: St. Dinfna Hotel is in its puzzles. There are a plethora of puzzles that need to be solved, with many technically not needed to be solved for the overall story. Some puzzles will lead to another, and then another, before sometimes you’re even done completing the original puzzle you tasked yourself to do. Some of this can be frustrating, especially since a lot of the rewards to some of the smaller puzzles don’t feel worth it, which discouraged me from completing the non-essential ones.
One of my favorite aspects of this game was the use of the camera. The camera is essential to solving clues and to even to see through other timelines to help solve some of the bigger mysteries. Unfortunately, this leads me to one of my least favorite aspects, which has to be its lighting, or lack thereof. “Fobia” is a very dark game, I often had to up my brightness settings in order to find things. When I eventually got the flashlight that helped a bit, but there could be some tweaking/patchwork to give the look a more balanced presentation. Perhaps playing during the daytime was the wrong call, which made this matter even worse. But at the end of the day, that’s not a pretty bad gripe, all things considered. The story is engaging, I kept wanting to learn more, and the game itself, while it’s not on the level as the Resident Evil titles are, this is a worthy addition to the survival horror pantheon and a good get if you’re itching to play something new in that department. While this is still a small indie game, they swung for the fences, and while their budget tends to show, they spent their time and money on what makes this style of games fun. With a thirty-dollar price tag and around a 10-hour experience, this certainly won’t be a regrettable buy.
8/10
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Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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