REVEIL [Review]

REVEIL fails to thrill despite the creepy circus.

Image credit: Pixelsplit / Daedalic Entertainment

REVEIL is a first person horror thriller from developer Pixelsplit, published by Daedalic Entertainment. The game is entirely linear and narrative based. The story and the ambiance are what’s key in a game like this and unfortunately they’re marred by the game’s overall execution.

You’re Walter, husband to Martha and father to Dorie, a mother-daughter team of trapeze artists in a circus. After waking up alone in your bedroom, you begin searching for your family. It’s clear very early on that this experience is internal to Walter’s mind; the psychology books strewn all over his home are a bit on the nose. After each sequence, you’ll wake back up in your bed, experiencing changes to the world as Walter learns or remembers more about his situation. The game features a few different endings, though truth be told, I found the end result underwhelming and cliche.

Image credit: Pixelsplit / Daedalic Entertainment

If you’ve played games like the Amnesia series, you’ll be familiar with how this game plays. You’ll walk through environments, occasionally solving puzzles and picking up key items to progress while avoiding a monster. Despite my mixed feelings on the story, I liked the game’s environments overall; I especially enjoyed the imaginatively designed, creepy circus settings. None of the puzzles are too difficult and they feel rewarding to solve.

Image credit: Pixelsplit / Daedalic Entertainment

The game’s environmental storytelling is effective. Levels are filled with details to take in and notes to read. This is undercut by the game’s principal narrative device, wall-to-wall narration of Walter’s every thought. The pervasive narration tells me that the developers were either poor writers or didn’t trust the player to understand clues and context on their own. It’s not helped by the atrocious performance with line readings that don’t convey real emotion most of the time from Walter. It’s entirely unconvincing considering the harrowing, terrifying situation he finds himself in; it fails to heighten the game’s impact as a horror journey.

REVEIL features great environments and a promising concept that are wasted with weak writing and execution of the narrative. Still, I’m eager to see what this team does next as they evolve.

REVEIL is available now on PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X.

Overall Score: 4/10

Played on: PS5