An Exercise in Style over Substance
Downfall is an interesting and atmospheric take on a story concept all-too familiar to horror aficionados. Your character, Joe, starts out with his wife, Ivy, in a hotel. Ivy doesn't seem well, and soon after the couple check in, the fit hits the shan.
While the graphics are a fairly simplistic, hand-drawn affair, they add to the somber mood and sense of horror and other-worldliness. However, they ultimately are the games biggest, erm, downfall, but not because of quality.
To put it succinctly, this is one of the worst pixel-hunt driven adventure titles I have played in a long time. Objects blend in completely with the background and are very hard to find. Making matters worse, not every object is important to your quest, setting you up to be frustrated in your efforts to find the relevant objects. The puzzles themselves are very easy, but finding the things you need to solve them is maddening. There is no journal or hint system, either. And finally, the setting is fairly open, meaning you can find objects well in advance of when you need them. This is fairly normal for adventure titles, but in Downfall, you can also MISS them that much earlier, leading to having to backtrack and pixel hunt in every single screen.
All in all, it's a worthwhile endeavor, though the story resolution is a little bland. If you like horror and are not particularly squeamish, you might be interested in this. But know that it's not very good game play and an ultimately a shallow story, but still creepy and engaging nonetheless.
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