A very dark and sad tale of childhood traumar and fear, Fran Bow is a P&C/Adventure Game about the titular Fran, an 11 year old girl committed to an asylum, and her terrifying and sometimes whimsical adventures. If you like point & click games, try Fran Bow; if you like Alice in Wonderland, try Fran Bow; if you like American McGee's Alice games, prithee play Fran Bow!
A game is the sum of its parts. Good writing is not enough, and the open world is generic or average, the kind that 12 years ago was all the rage and when the game was made, it must have been good, but in 2025 it just feels wrong, the kind of game where your eyes spend most time looking at a minimap, but the kind of game that doesn't work without a mini map.
There's this concept floating around the white liberal RPG scene (D&D and other bland mass appeal games) that state that horror is never about scaring the player, only their characters. I despise them! When I watch a horror movie, when I play a horror tabletop RPG and when I play a horror video game, I want to be scared. I have played for two hours in two one hour sessions, and I don't picture myself playing longer sessions, one hour is enough, the stress and dreadful atmosphere get under my skin in a matter of minutes. If you are one of those white liberal RPG people that think the player should never feel any disconfort, please play this and sh*t in your pants, you deserve it. But if you are a normal persona, play this game because it's absolutely amazing (at least the two first hours, and with the perfect track of excellence from Frictional games, I am sure the rest of the game will be just as good. I only hope I don't have a heart attack and that I find bullets.
A few hours in, and what all the reviews say is true: This games rules!
