Grotesque Beauty

Review

The game starts with a gloomy fog covering the screen, then the silence is disturbed by the vibration of an incoming phone call. It’s your friend Anita, ringing you to make sure that you’re still coming over to her house tonight. She says that she thought you might have changed your mind, but you assure her that you’re still coming over and that you aren’t far from her house.

You play as Rachel, an old friend of Anita’s.  Anita has been feeling afraid of being on her own recently. Her parents both work late, so you have decided to stay the night with Anita to keep her company, as you used to when you were both younger. She’s always been afraid of being on her own, but you had thought she was over it now. She lives about twenty-five minutes' walk away and before you know it, you’re there.

Upon reaching Anita’s house you’ll have your first choice of action to take; will you “Knock on Door” or “Serenade Her”? You will need to make many choices as you progress through the game, with each action you take influencing later outcomes. You enter Anita’s house after she greets you at the door, and after a bit of chit-chat Anita tells you about how uneasy she has been feeling lately.

Ever since this mysterious fog appeared around a week ago, which seems to be isolated to just the street where Anita lives, Anita explains that she feels like she is being watched, although she can’t see anyone around as the fog is so thick. It’s not just outside, the feeling of being watched is still there inside her house; she is unsure if she’s just being paranoid. Rachel always knew that Anita was a little skittish, but she genuinely seems afraid that something might happen.

After some more chat you both move into the living room where Anita offers you a drink. The living room looks just like it did the last time you visited, with one exception; the painting hanging above the fireplace. The painting is of a naked woman surrounded by fog, just like the fog surrounding Anita’s street. Anita then tells you how she doesn’t like the painting, and that her father is obsessed with it after getting it from some auction house. 

After hearing about how they got the painting, you connect the arrival of the painting and the mysterious fog with the uneasiness of Anita. Anita wonders whether Rachel is trying to scare her, or she is just being crazy. A painting can’t bring the mysterious fog to the neighborhood or make Anita feel like she’s being watched … or can it??? Suddenly there’s a loud bang on the front door; from here things start to get weird and creepy.

There’s not a lot in the way of Settings; Save (ten game saved slots), Load, Hide Message, Skip Message and Back to Title.

The game has that eerie feeling with the sounds and music, the graphics are well done with animated characters which had me checking myself a couple times (I was OK … honest). The storyline is good and there are thirty different endings to the game. I’m not sure how many endings I have currently found as I lost count and sadly there is no way to keep track of them unless you write them down yourself. Hopefully this is something which can be sorted sometime in the future. Overall though I’ve enjoyed playing the game and think it’s worth giving a bash. Thumbs UP!

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!