Is this Game Trying to Kill Me?

Developer: Stately Snail
Publisher: Sometimes You
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S (Reviewed), PC
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $19.99 USD – Available Here

Overview

Creating a unique blend of genre has made for some interesting games in the past. In fact, many indie games have the ability to take some risks, experimenting with concepts that try and push the mold a little and we have seen many such titles over the years see quite a lot of success. This is especially true when a developer tries to blend horror into a different package than expected and Stately Snail has tried just that with Is This Game Trying to Kill Me?. With Sometimes You bringing the indie game that blends horror and unique reality bending puzzles all centered around an ancient computer game, does it make for a spooky brain scratcher that is just as ready to punish players with death as it is with advancing further into its unknown depths?

Story

With no knowledge of how they got there, players wake up in an incredibly strange cabin scattered with odd decorations, a mish-mashed door, a computer, a few random pieces of puzzles laying around, and oh yeah, a skeleton laying right next to them. After a little looking around, a balloon floats by the window only for a terrifying being to slide through the window and threaten the player, saying that their only hope for escape, and great treasure, is to complete their little game, activating the “Castle Serpentshtain” video game on the computer. It quickly becomes clear that the cabin itself is tied to the events happening within the game, with one of the first things players do is piercing their hand on a spike, revealing the blood stained solution to unlock the door in the game only it is painted on the cabin wall to their right.

Things only grow more dire as players try to navigate through the game and find themselves needing to solve puzzles both in the real world of the cabin and within the computer game, blending items together to craft puzzle solutions and allow for progression. Oh and failure? Results in a painful death that mimics that same death in the game. Pierced by spikes in the floor in the computer? Those same spikes will shoot through and slaughter the player. Slip into the water and the bottom will fall out of their chair, leaving them to drown helplessly. Even stumbling into a bomb will send their body flying to a separate corner of the cabin. Only by solving these puzzles and making their way through the twisted creature’s game and defeating the “Evil Wizard” in the tower of the castle may the player survive this stormy night, but what awaits them is far more twisted than they could have ever expected.

While we won’t spoil the exact details about what most of the puzzles involve nor the reveals that eventually happen as players progress through the game, it is worth noting that there is something of a plot to Is This Game Trying to Kill Me?, but it is rather thin. Throughout completing the various “in-cabin” puzzles players will uncover numerous signs of past victims and hear more about the dark experiments that the “wizard” has conducted over their time here. It also must be said that players will need to find the optional (but mostly hard to miss except one) floppy disks that serve as extra lore. Not only do they provide extra information about what is happening, but they are required to obtain the “best” ending.

Again, while we don’t want to spoil things, Is This Game Trying to Kill Me? offers three different endings depending on what players do, as there are hints throughout the game as to how to obtain separate endings. There is of course a “bad,” “good,” and “best” ending with the latter two having additional puzzles and even confrontations to solve but it is also worth noting that while there are extra endings in the game, the actual lore itself is left for players to mostly try to figure out for themselves, especially in regards to the final section. While it is good to keep things vague sometimes to let players come up with their own ideas, a little extra lore here and there couldn’t have hurt.

Gameplay

Is this Game Trying to Kill Me? is a unique blend of adventure puzzler thanks to its dual-world design. Players will find themselves needing to solve puzzles both within the computer game and the cabin itself to progress through both locations. This may mean something like traveling through a new area and opening up a treasure chest only to find that it is empty inside the computer game and then finding that exact same chest in the cabin is no longer locked and instead contains items that can then be used to solve a puzzle within the cabin instead. Similarly, players may need to use things like light bulbs in sockets to activate torches within the computer game to help them navigate through a room filled with spike traps, shifting the bulbs around as they progress.

This makes for some clever little puzzles and solutions, especially since a few can be figured out in different ways and very few are as simple as they initially seem. In fact, a few involve clever little workarounds to trick the in-game characters and cheat the system in interesting ways and constantly keep players guessing as to how the puzzle might need to actually be solved. Thankfully for those who are stumped with how to solve a puzzle, most have “hints” that players can unveil if needed. Some are simply nudges in the right direction while others can directly spell out the answer to the player if needed with puzzles having anywhere from three hints total that players can unveil to just a single one and there is no punishment for taking a hint.

Despite being almost entirely a puzzle game, Is this Game Trying to Kill Me? does feature a handful of boss battles throughout the game’s fairly shot runtime. Clocking in at anywhere to two to three hours depending on how stumped players might get, they will find most of these boss encounters are rather simple such as needing to dodge spinning blades, moving to a non X marked tile to avoid spears, or dodge bombs and then run into an elemental tile that is meant to target an enemy’s weakness, though players will need to remember what certain enemies are weak to via a board in a separate or rely on trial and error. These little boss fights help mix things up and add some extra variety to an already bursting with variety game, though do feel a little easy. In fact, the second to final boss’ biggest challenge was actually finding how to “attack” it, not dodge its attacks. 

Audio & Visuals

Is This Game Trying to Kill Me? does a great job splitting the difference between the 3D environment of the cabin and the 2D sprites within the computer game. The cabin itself is filled with a blend of spooky and silly elements that provide a great atmosphere, something similar to a haunted house, especially whenever players unlock a new room, while the 2D sprites within the computer work quite well, though they could have used a bit extra color in some instances pertaining to a boss battle. The animations within the cabin are minimal but used to great effect especially when the player is suddenly slaughtered by something happening in the computer game. The 3D models of the few things players will interact with are also similarly eerie, be it the unknown man or others that we won’t spoil here.

There is no voice work of any kind throughout the game but it is nice to note that there is a solid set of haunting background music playing in the background throughout every part of the game, including sped-up versions during the few action moments such as boss battles and a certain game of hide-and-seek.

Overall

Is this Game Trying to Kill Me? finds a satisfying balance between providing a unique set of challenging puzzles with plenty of variety and satisfying solutions all while ensuring that, even if players are stumped, they can still find a way to advance through hints. The storyline may be a bit too thin for its own good, but the interesting setting and blend of computer game and cabin adventuring makes for a solid blend conceptually, even if it may not be quite as long as some would hope for given the price tag.

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