Stitched

Review

Catherine Stockholmes is a charming 18 year-old young lady. She might seem very healthy at first glance, but in fact, she is suffering from a heart condition. Every time she has a fright, her heartbeat goes absolutely bonkers and can bring on a powerful heart attack. Thankfully, she has some stability pills to counteract this condition. Despite this life threatening challenge, today is a good day. She is going home for her winter break, leaving her studies behind for a few weeks. Sitting in the train by the window, she wonders about her future . . . that’s the last thing she remembers before waking up, stiff and stitched!

Stitched is a horror/puzzle / RPG maker game where you play a young lady named Catherine who wakes up in the basement of her father’s toy factory looking rather. . .  different.

It has been a while since I’ve played this type of game and I must admit, I am truly stitched to this game for many reasons. The story is very well written and interesting; the puzzles are brilliantly thought out and most of them will keep you going for a while trying to resolve them. Being chased by murdering dolls and a massive teddy bear will give your fingers a good workout (on the keyboard) and might occasionally give you a few frights here and there.

The gameplay is pretty much what you would expect for this genre of game; search the rooms for clues and story elements. There is the option of opening most of the cabinets and drawers if you’d like to do so, although all the relevant items, puzzles and information will be highlighted by a small flashing light on the furniture, walls and floors. You’ll also have to find five keys in order to escape the factory. These keys can be found on the factory floors (five levels in total, including the basement) and all of them will come with an interesting puzzle to resolve. There are a fair few variations here, from math, finding the correct words, sequences, riddles and more. Fabulous!

In terms of enemies, you have dolls and a huge teddy bear to avoid. There are several types of dolls. The ones that look like nuns are on a rotation system. The ninja’s toys will come at you like crazy, and the small dolls don’t have a set path, which can be very tricky in small rooms. In regards to the bear, you’ll hear him coming and then it will be time to run for your life or hide somewhere.

The factory has limited lighting, and Catherine has only a torch to find her way around.  Her limited vision makes her easy to scare.  Remember, she is suffering from a heart condition.  There is a heart gauge on the top of your screen from 0 to 100%. Each time she has a fright, the gauge will start to fill in and if it reaches 100%, she will die. Oh, I forgot, avoid making her walk on blood stains.  Make sure she has plenty of stability pills to help fight this condition. There are two ways to accumulate these pills. The first one is by finding them within the factory, and the second one is to trade threads with a boy named Fi, who is also a resident of the building. Two other types of pills can be found within your play-through: speed and clarity pills. Take a speed pill and Catherine will run faster for several seconds, or take a clarity pill to see the entire room for several seconds.

Apart from Fi, she will encounter a few other characters. One will help her by answering questions throughout the game and the other will want to kill her.

Nice 2D graphics and I really like the dark atmosphere of the game. In terms of voice-overs, there are a few here and there, but nothing special, which is a bit of a shame. To be honest, the voices are pretty good.