FREE GAMES REVIEWS
EXPECTTOPAY
Free
DEVELOPER
Bit GolemLINK
bit.ly/2Zw f15tNEED TO KNOW
D
agonisprobablythemost
authentic adaptation of an
HP Lovecraft story yet,
although it achieves this by retelling
the short story word for word.
While the narrator relates his
dreadful tale, the player is free to
look around each scene and hunt
down a collection of optional trivia.
It’s only nominally interactive, but
the sights do justice to the
deliciously wrought text, as the
POW protagonist escapes his
captors only to arrive on an ocean
floor that has risen to the surface,
ancient fishy horrors and all.Dagon is an early and very brief short
story that contains the mythos in a
prototypical form. The game
embellishes it with strong voice
acting and slick slideshow art assets
that support the text rather than
overpowering it. I lingered in eachscene,oncethenarrationwas done
with it, taking in the atmosphere and
searching for collectibles.
These pickups essentially act as a
director’s commentary, not just on
Dagon, but on Lovecraft as a whole.
Did you know he hated fish, for
example? Well, of course he did. Ol’
Howie was also dead against booze.
What you won’t find is any
mention of Lovecraft’s racist views,
which I did find odd given the
grab-bag of facts that the game does
present to us. You don’t have to bring
it up, of course – it’s common
knowledge that Lovecraft spouted
some horrible nonsense – but in a
game that finds the time for so many
topics, from his views of tobacco and
religion to his stint writing marketing
copy, its absence made me
more uncomfortable than
any soggy horror lurking
under the ocean.HP SOURCE
DAGON is a slick Lovecraft adaptation
BELOW: (^) There’s collectible trivia in almost every scene.
EXPECTTOPAY
Free
DEVELOPER
katanalevy
LINK
katanalevy.itch.io
NEED TO KNOW
BELOW: The music changes depending on where you are.
T
here’sanarttocreatinga
game without dialogue,
narration, or any overt story
to define what’s going on, and
Symphony of Seven Souls is a strong
example of the form. The only text
in the game is the title, and two
simple instructions: right click to
prep your violin, and hold left to
make it play beautiful, context-
sensitive music.
You’re the game’s composer as much
as you’re its main character, scoring a
handful of locales – a gloomy church,
a rain-drenched graveyard and hedge
maze, a shadowy asylum that would
surely house monsters in another
horror game. Here you’re alone –
minus the hidden souls you’ve come
to collect. You can choose whether to
soak up the atmosphere, listening to
the rain fall from the heavens and
watching lightning illuminate the sky
astheviolinnoticesyour
surroundings and shifts its music
accordingly.
You’ll do both, of course, popping
out your violin and stowing it, partly
to give your ears a break, and partly
because you move faster when you’re
not wielding the instrument.
The seven souls only become
visible when you are performing,
however, so you’re encouraged to
play as you explore. I found half of
the ghosts without really trying,
while the others required tedious
backtracking. Ultimately, the ending
was worth it. I was poised to state
this wasn’t a horror game at all, but
your final performance takes a darker
turn that the violin is aptly equipped
to soundtrack. A bit of backtracking
shouldn’t put you off a
game that lets you wield
something other than a
gun – to great result.
STRING EERIE
Collecting spirits in SYMPHONY OF SEVEN SOULS
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