Visage – Early Access Horror Review

Now it’s officially Spook-tober, many of us will be wanting to get our hands on some of the scariest and creepiest games we can find. With a plethora of horror games on offer, it may be difficult to know what to choose. But, have no fear (or do) because I have found an incredibly scary horror game that will have you quiver in your slipper-socks. Visage is a new game in early access developed by SadSquare Studio. And, man, is it terrifying.

A terrifying start

It is going to be difficult for me to give this review without giving away too many spoilers but I will do my best. The game starts off as enigmatic as any game could. A man with a revolver and 3 people tied to chairs. I’ll give you three guesses what happens. There is no context just straight into the creepiness. The next thing you know, you’re in a large house all alone. The minute I stepped through that door, I was on edge. And I knew this was going to be a good game.

The story however, still eludes me. From what the trailer portrays, there are going to be three different stories that run through the game. The first chapter, is Lucy’s Chapter. As I navigated the house, I found various clues as to what happened to this girl called Lucy. Seemingly and innocent child was possessed by a demon of some sort and started wreaking havoc. There isn’t much to suggest how this story relates to what you see in the opening sequence. It doesn’t even really seem clear if your character Dwayne, knew the family or was part of the family that lived in that house. Regardless, it was intriguing and made me want to keep playing on.

Be smart, be resourceful

The first thing that Visage tells you is that it is going to be a tough game. You only ave a limited inventory and you must manage your light sources carefully in order to not lose your mind completely. So far, the things you can acquire as lights are lighters: they don’t produce much light and don’t help your Sanity (which I will talk about momentarily); light bulbs to replace broken ones in the game and candles: can be used as static light source and help with Sanity but cannot be carried around. These will all help you along the way if used correctly and if you manage them. If not, you could find yourself in a dark situation with nothing to help.

Now, I mentioned Sanity. This works much like in Amnesia: The Dark Descent, in that you have to stay in the light to stay sane. The more your sanity decreases, the more likely bad stuff will happen. As discussed before, you can use light sources to help with this as well as pills which can be found dotted about. If you find yourself in a stressful situation, your sanity will decrease much faster. If your sanity gets too low, you will likely die. So, make sure you keep an eye on that because bad things will happen if not.

I did find the control system to be a little awkward at times and found myself dropping items instead of storing them. And, the management system felt a bit jarring on occasion. But, other than that, I can’t really complain. I think for the most part it was fine, it was just when I was panicking and started pressing buttons that things went wrong for me.

Scares and spooks galore

Something a lot of people dislike about horror games is jump scares. And, I would have to agree that most of the time they feel overused and unnecessary. Visage however, uses them very cleverly. They don’t just come out of nowhere to spook you. Throughout the game, you have this constant feeling of dread. You know something is going to happen, you just don’t know when. The atmosphere is incredible. And the sounds are even more terrifying. Walking around the house, you here whispers and noises that you just aren’t sure where they are coming from. So, when a jump scare does happen, you are sort of already expecting it but it is still terrifying. It doesn’t just throw a scare in your face for no reason. And I love it.

Find the clues and keep moving

One thing that I did find frustrating was that there seemed to be no direction to the game. Sometimes it was difficult to know what to do or where to go next. That being said, I think that it added to the creepiness. Visage is very good at building tension. Not to mention the graphics are incredible; which isn’t surprising considering it was made on the Unreal 4 engine.

Anyway, I have to admit, as much as I like this game there are still so many questions unanswered.  I realise that this is in early access, so I can forgive it a little. But, there are doors and areas in this version of the game that you can’t access yet. Which has me thinking, how much more are they going to add to the game? So far, you can play the first Chapter; Lucy’s chapter. My worry is, that if the game gets too much longer, you will lose the sense of terror and it will become like every other horror game out there.

But, they are still working on it and want all the feedback they can get from the community to help them finish the game. This is a stunning game and a great one to play if you are looking for some frights. Check out Visage on Steam right now and let us know your thoughts. Also, let us know if you got the easter egg as well.