After about 4 hours with SUFFOCATE, the brand new Taiwanese indie horror recreation from Naughty Cow, I’m left upset. What regarded like a promising entry into the nation’s rising horror scene — identified for atmospheric titles like Detention and Devotion — seems to be a largely forgettable expertise. Regardless of some moments of potential, SUFFOCATE struggles with repetitive gameplay, pacing points, and technical frustrations that smother no matter worry it tries to encourage.
A Promising Setup That Shortly Falters
SUFFOCATE begins with an intriguing premise. You play because the daughter of the Lin household, Tanya, who finds herself in a standard Taiwanese residence haunted by a vengeful feminine spirit. The prologue units up an eerie story involving guilt and Taiwanese cultural expectations, a setup that originally hints at psychological depth. Sadly, that promise begins to unravel by the center of Chapter 2.
The story’s pacing feels uneven, and for each fascinating little bit of Taiwanese historical past or chilling discovery, there’s one other long-winded cutscene that includes clunky-looking character fashions or a repetitive chase sequence that kills the strain. The narrative has flashes of competence however by no means builds momentum. It feels much less like uncovering a psychological horror thriller and extra like checking containers in a rote haunted-house walkthrough.
The Ambiance By no means Absolutely “Suffocates”
Visually, SUFFOCATE is ok. The environments, together with darkish corridors, flickering lanterns, and conventional Taiwanese structure, are competently designed and infrequently efficient at creating unease. The graphics gained’t blow anybody away, however they get the job achieved. I didn’t really feel Unreal Engine 5’s capabilities have been totally, or correctly utilized.
The sound design is one other blended bag. The background music and SFX are serviceable however uninspired. You’ll hear the usual horror tropes, however few of them land with any lasting impression. It’s all too acquainted and predictable, missing the nuanced layering that made video games like Devotion’s soundscape so haunting.
Most significantly, the horror environment falls flat. Regardless of the gloomy visuals and occasional leap scare, I by no means felt actually afraid. There’s no psychological dread, no sense of escalating terror, only a few delicate startles adopted by lengthy stretches of monotony. For a recreation referred to as SUFFOCATE, it hardly ever makes you are feeling the burden of worry urgent down in your chest.
Gameplay: Cover, Run, Repeat
If SUFFOCATE billed itself as a hide-and-seek puzzle recreation, it might need been simpler to just accept. However as a psychological or survival horror expertise, it merely doesn’t ship.
The gameplay loop revolves round hiding from a ghostly pursuer, looking for gadgets, and fixing primary puzzles. There’s little variation from one encounter to the subsequent, and the chase sequences rapidly lose their pressure. As an alternative of dreading the subsequent encounter, I discovered myself sighing each time the ghost appeared, because it turned a chore quite than a thrill.
Merchandise assortment and puzzle-solving provide some respite, however they’re hardly ever satisfying. A temple puzzle involving drums and gongs had promise till a bug froze me within the stock display, forcing a full reload. That type of technical hiccup is the very last thing you need in a horror recreation, although I think about such technical stutters is likely to be improved upon in future patches.
Technical and Efficiency Points
Efficiency-wise, SUFFOCATE runs high-quality with no preliminary crashes or main body drops, which is one thing. However a number of bugs and glitches undermine the expertise. I used to be enjoying with a hall-effect joystick controller, however generally, PC controller inputs simply don’t register, notably throughout chase sequences. Fast-Time Occasions (QTEs) really feel inconsistent. In Chapter 1, escaping the ghost by mashing the X button failed a number of occasions regardless of equivalent timing.
In the course of the aforementioned temple puzzle, opening the stock trapped me within the menu, forcing a full reload. None of those points utterly break the sport, however they chip away on the expertise piece by piece. For a horror recreation the place pressure and management are every thing, even small technical frustrations could make the distinction between true worry and the participant’s fatigue.
Verdict
What’s most disappointing about SUFFOCATE is that it doesn’t know what sort of horror it needs to be. It gestures towards psychological horror however by no means digs into its characters’ psychological states. It flirts with survival horror mechanics however doesn’t provide significant useful resource administration or fight. What’s left is a repetitive ghost chase recreation that feels hole and shallow.
By the point I reached mid-Chapter 2, I wasn’t terrified, I used to be simply drained. The sport’s title suggests panic, claustrophobia, and mounting dread. As an alternative, SUFFOCATE suffocates beneath its personal pacing, repetition, and lack of emotional weight.
SUFFOCATE has its moments, a stable technical basis, first rate visuals, and an intriguing idea rooted in Taiwanese folklore, nevertheless it by no means pulls these parts collectively right into a cohesive horror expertise. The scares are surface-level, the pacing is uneven, and the gameplay lacks depth or selection.
Until you’re a die-hard fan of Asian indie horror and don’t thoughts a sluggish, buggy hide-and-seek loop, it’s exhausting to suggest. For everybody else, SUFFOCATE will doubtless go away you gasping not from worry, however from frustration.
(6 / 10)
(6 / 10)Above Common
Depend on Horror Evaluate Rating Information
