Explore a Terrifying Nocturnal City in the Heliophobia Alpha Demo

It seems that the success of the critically-acclaimed and brilliantly traumatic Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and more recently of Hideo Kojima’s cult-classic PS4-teaser Silent Hill P.T., continues to inspire within indie circles. There certainly has been a lot of first-person horror games in recent years that involve a disempowered protagonist sneaking around in the dark and hiding from unspeakable nasties, all while trying to piece together prior events and tackling a variety of environmental and inventory puzzles. I’m not complaining though, I can’t get enough of this stuff.

The latest to follow in this trend is Glass Knuckle Games’ Heliophobia, still very much a work in progress, but for a very limited period you can try out the playable alpha demo available directly from their website (details at the bottom of this article).

According to the Heliophobia site blurb, it promises a dark mystery presented in a non-linear fashion with each player experiencing something different and a deep multi-layered story that invites additional playthroughs. It also boasts of a narrative structure not dissimilar to films such as Memento or Mulholland Drive, and no two areas of the game will feel the same in terms of mechanics or design. That’s a helluva lot to live up to, but colour me interested anyway.

The demo commences with you regaining consciousness in a small bathroom. It’s an impressively atmospheric start. The murky apartment is in complete disarray, illuminated by a neon hoarding opposite the window that advertises coffee from an all night diner. The floorboards creek ominously above, muffled voices or a TV can be heard coming from somewhere nearby, and the sounds of the city pour in from outside.

As you explore your immediate surroundings, you find a series of notes, mysteriously signed J.R., purporting that you were out cold so they locked you in the bathroom for your own safety. They go on to warn that something is after you, and that anyone you see is unlikely to be human. Your immediate aim seems to be to escape from the building. The narrow corridors of the complex are eerily quiet, and it’s not long before your first encounter. All you can do is run and jump out of a window.

The demo seems to, rather jarringly and unexpectedly, jump from scene to scene, though I’m not sure whether this is an intended feature or simply a device within the trial version to give you a quick flavour of the different locations and gameplay elements. But I was definitely digging the deliciously noirish and nightmarish nocturnal city that Glass Knuckle Games have constructed, a surreal reality where everything feels just a little off.

Encounters with the monsters are genuinely terrifying, especially using headphones and with the curtains drawn, as all horror games should be properly experienced! Reacting to sound and sight, the naked humanoid forms limp and lurch menacingly towards you – made all the more sinister by a lack of distinct features and their unhurried, almost leisurely pace.

Like Amnesia, you can interact with virtually everything like flicking off light switches and closing doors to make yourself less visible, throwing random objects to create temporary distractions, and opening/shutting drawers and cupboards to find useful items. A nice touch is being able to furtively peak around corners to see what’s lying in wait.

At one point I hid in a wardrobe for what seemed liked forever, crouching in the darkness, watching the thing through the slats of the sliding partition and waiting for it to pass. The chilling experience was heightened by the VCR-like screen distortion and radio static that intensifies as it draws closer. Eventually, it moved away and wandered off somewhere to my left, and the directional audio is excellent by the way. Finally, I plucked up some courage and chose that moment to do a runner. It’s moments like these that truly make a great horror game.

Unfortunately, the rest of the demo was a letdown by one of the recurring follies of the genre. The narrative is imparted almost exclusively through a series of written notes. Not only are they scattered all over the bloody place, but they sparkle in the shadows, standing out like sore thumbs. On top of that, crucial information held within them is highlighted in red. It’s a huge immersion breaker, particularly given the present day setting, and unimaginative game design.

I also hope that there’s a bit more to the gameplay than rooting around for keys and solving the occasional simple puzzle. Otherwise, it will suffer from the same tedious repetition that dogged Alien: Isolation once the initial novelty of the premise wore off.

Heliophobia undoubtedly has a lot of potential in terms of its atmosphere, the unfolding mystery of its world, and its ability to generate intense, heart-stopping moments. However, for me at least, the above concerns could be a real deal breaker. Still, it’s only in the alpha stages, so a lot could change and there’s plenty of scope to flesh things out.

Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, you can download the Heliophobia alpha demo here. It expires on Wednesday (19th October) when it presumably will stop working. And don’t forget to provide feedback afterwards via the online survey, which can be accessed on the same page.