“Gridberd” is an action horror game created by Wareberd that takes place in the fictional Jonson mansion. I usually compare a game to something it resembles (the horror style, game play, etc.), but it’s hard to compare this game to anything. A lot of people were saying this was going to be a great game because of its P.T. (a renowned horror game) style seen in the demo.
This was absolutely true … until you played the rest of the game. Once you get past that first section, it doesn’t P.T. style at all. This was not the only problem the game had.
As the game starts, your ears are immediately filled with the poorly acted and written speech of Kary. Kary is sharpening his ax getting ready to murder you—so not off to a great start for our main character. He explains sort of where you are, but not much past that. You go through the intro and learn how to play the game, and then you get to explore the mansion. Right away you are met with a long eerie hallway.
This is where P.T. comes in. You search around and have to find clues to complete certain tasks, which are never actually assigned to you, to progress through the hallway. This part of the game was really creepy! There were spiders on the wall, creepy noises and even unsettling shadows at the end of the hallway. If the developers left the game like that or built off of it, this game would of been so much different. Alas, they did not.
One problem with this game is a lack of connection with the main character since you learn nothing about him. The shortness of the game doesn’t give the player enough time to learn the main character’s side of the story. At some point you are rooting for your own death because it seems that you are the bad guy. Plus, a connection is formed with the character Kary, who is supposed to be the antagonist. These two aspects created major problems with the game.
Another problem in the game was the subtitles. They never seemed to follow the speaker, either leaving before or staying up too late. Not only this, but spacing became an issue in the words later on. Sometimes there would be no spacing between three words in a row. This is very minimal, but it gets annoying when you are trying to follow along with the story.
Kary’s voice also doesn’t help because he sounds like a Russian prisoner who has been smoking for the past 40 years which occasionally causes you to stop and ask “what the hell did he just say?” The writing isn’t the best either. The developers could have taken more time to immerse us in the story. Yes, I felt bad for Kary, but not bad enough to get an emotional reaction. It was more of a passing thought.
At this point you might be asking yourself, are there any redeemable qualities? For one, the graphics are phenomenal for an indie game. The mansion’s layout is positioned well to add to the effect of a large house. The beginning was really scary as well since it had a really fun P.T feel in the intro.
Overall, however, this game is not worth the buy. Right now it’s going for 13 bucks on Steam, which is way too much. Between the short game play, dull storyline and weird voice acting, it’s not worth your time. It would be easier to watch a YouTube video of the game and get the same feel. If you are interested in watching a full game play that’s under 50 minutes check out MrKravin on Youtube.
