Volumetric Games’ Left Alone is one of the latest in a steady stream of horror games to emerge from the burgeoning indie scene. Much like many of the up-and-coming film directors did back in the 1970s and 1980s, it seems that nowadays a lot of indie game developers are choosing to cut their teeth in the horror genre. Great for fans like me, but as I’ve found out recently, they’re not all classics. Disappointingly, Left Alone also falls into this category.
A first-person psychological horror game, it sees you take on the role of Joel Dent, a former US Marine captain and Medal of Honor recipient. Discharged following a major head trauma while on duty, Dent spent 18 months in a medically-induced coma, during which his wife eloped with another man, taking the kids with her. Now he’s stuck in a job he hates, while still suffering effects from the injury and trying to rebuild his life. Seems that what he needs is a nice camping trip away from it all with two of his old army buddies.
Following a rather dryly written introduction, the gameplay commences on a picturesque hiking trail in a fictional Wisconsin forest area. You’ve only just arrived and the other guys have gone fishing, so you set up camp in their absence and wait for their return. But just as you catch a glimpse of a shadowy outline in the trees, you blackout. When you come to, it’s night-time and your friends have been texting frantically. Unable to resist investigating an abandoned school on their way back (what could possibly go wrong!), they now find themselves locked inside. The lights have gone out and they’re convinced that someone is stalking them.
Looks like it’s up to you to save the day. First, you’ll need to negotiate your way through an almost pitch-black forest, find the school, and somehow gain entry. Armed with just a flashlight, you’ll probably be wanting to avoid whoever or whatever is out there toying with you and your mates. It sounds pretty daunting, particularly as you have no idea what to expect or what you’re up against.
Left Alone starts off well enough and it’s certainly atmospheric. The highly-detailed environments are believable and well rendered, while the low-key industrial/ambient soundscape creates a real sense of immersion. When you first arrive god-rays pour through the forest canopy, leaves glide leisurely on the wind, rabbits scurry across your path, and the air is filled with bird song. It’s a picture of tranquillity. In contrast, you regain consciousness to find everything shrouded in a dense blackness, unable to see more than a few metres ahead without the aid of a light source. Mist blankets the trail, the wind batters the trees, a full moon looms large in the night sky, and wolves howl in the distance. Plus, there’s the lingering image in your mind of that mysterious figure. It’s a sharp change in mood that sets the scene nicely for some horror and suspense. Shame the developers fail to capitalise on any of this.
Simply put, there’s just not enough to do and very little happens. The gameplay largely amounts to constantly to-ing and fro-ing around two large but heavily gated locations. As you collect necessary items and solve puzzles, new areas open up while old ones close behind you. If you’re lucky, you’ll be treated to a scripted event. Which, for the most, constitute sinister messages appearing on walls and easels. Indeed, the frights are few and far between and you never really feel in any danger, but that’s because you’re not.
The puzzles themselves are, aside from one or two of the code/sequence riddles, far too easy, as well as too few in number, mostly boiling down to searching for missing parts, tools, and keys. For instance, the access code for an electrical substation just happens to be printed on a public map board, whereas repairing a walkway over a lake means grabbing a couple of wooden planks in the immediate vicinity. Not necessarily a problem, but with little else to do and nothing to fight or hide from, this becomes Left Alone‘s sole focus. So, the puzzles really need to be more involved.
I also found that scouring the dark yet intricate settings while trying to conserve my flashlight batteries became fairly tiresome after a while. Especially as you’re replacing them every three or four minutes. That said, later in the game I noticed that batteries respawned at old locations, though I’m not sure if this is intended or not. And it’s annoying that, other than your stock of batteries, you can’t actually review what you’re carrying. Though it does seem that your pockets are large enough to rival even Guybrush Threepwood. On top of this, the game saves very infrequently and unpredictably, with anywhere up to an hour between checkpoints. That’s a hell of a chunk of progress to lose.
The story also fails to engage and follows the usual horror clichés without offering anything new. As you advance, the dark history of the school is revealed through the usual series of clippings, etc., that just happen to be lying all around the place. The narrative is initially intriguing, and I was genuinely curious to see how it would develop and what direction it would take, but the game suffers from serious pacing issues, and I quickly found myself losing interest. And when it does finally come to a conclusion, it’s dragged out, hugely anticlimactic, and features a very weak and contrived twist that borrows heavily from a certain movie. Though to be fair to the developers, the game doesn’t take itself too seriously and there are some humorous moments and cheeky in-jokes.
Despite a strong start, atmospheric graphics and sound, and well-realised environments, Left Alone fails to excel in either its horror, story, or puzzle elements. There’s simply too little content, the pacing is all over the place, and the narrative struggles to keep you hooked. It’s also far too linear and scripted, and it suffers from a handful of odd design decisions. Shame, because I think the developers have real talent and potential. Let’s hope they learn from their mistakes and their next offering fares a little better.
Developer: Volumetric Games
Publisher: Volumetric Games
Platform: PC
Release Date: 28th April 2016