PC REVIEW | Creepshow

Welcome horror fans to an all-new game from developers PHL Collective and publishers DreadXP. This time we have the Shudder anthology series Creepshow in game form, and I absolutely loved watching that series. So is the game any good, you ask? Hold your horses; I’ll get there in a moment or two.

For those of you who have never heard of Creepshow, it started out as a comedy horror film which was kind of based on the Tales from the Crypt comics and featured writers like Stephen King. It became a cult classic, and then … fast forward to 2019, and Shudder released the Creepshow series with some amazing stories and horror-filled moments.

Now we move on to the game. I personally did not know that Creepshow was being made into a game or that it was coming out this month; however, when I received the key to review it, I immediately started playing to get the Creepshow fix I had been missing. Would I be pleasantly disturbed? Would I find myself shuddering with horror? Or would this game be a disappointing mess of entrails and gore?

Read on… If you dare!

Things I liked!

• Graphics | The graphics for Creepshow follow a comic book-style aesthetic which works extremely well; from the title screen through to each mini game, it just looks gorgeous. I especially liked the hand-drawn style of the clouds in the second chapter (no spoilers). The comic book style of the graphics doesn’t detract from the horror in any way either, with some scenes actually making me feel a little sick, to be honest (as they should), and others giving me pause as I thought I saw something moving that shouldn’t be. I think even folk who might normally avoid this aesthetic would actually enjoy the nuances that it brings to the stories being told.

• Soundscape | Creepshow is fully voiced, and you can tell the voice-over artists had a lot of fun playing their roles. Nobody sounds bored or like they are phoning it in; in fact, they help to make the spooky atmosphere feel more real. The sound effects are amazing too, with simple footfalls echoing nicely and more visceral sections having just the right amount of squelch, crack and gristle (sounds like evil Rice Crispies), which makes every stomach-churning moment that much more real. A lot of work was put into making this game sound as good as it looks, and it’s effort that I appreciate a lot.
  
  
• Puzzles and Minigames | There are a few wee puzzles and mini games to get through, some of which might take you just a little time to get the hang of. From making burgers one moment to fixing a circuit breaker box the next and even at one point solving what appears to be a centuries-old puzzle box in a church basement (and it wasn’t easy). The puzzles are balanced just right so that they are difficult, but with perseverance and patience anyone should be able to get through them. They might take you a wee while, but trust me when I say everything you need is close by in most cases. So if you enjoy puzzles in your horror games, this is going to make you very happy.

Mixed & disliked!

• Story | This is a little bit of a sore point for me. I really enjoyed the writing in the two story chapters; they kept me hanging on, wanting to find out what was going to happen next. But the wrap-around story about the teenagers exploring the abandoned mall while starting strong didn’t seem to go anywhere. To me it feels like there should be more happening; it feels like there is a big empty space where a script should have been, and this might be because of future DLC, but even then there wasn’t any real closure to the game. Again, though, the two anthology stories were amazing; just the wraparound needs more!

• Length | Creepshow is too short; there I said it. It feels like it’s unfinished and that perhaps they either ran out of time to finish off plot points or they are going to bring out more chapters in the future. If that’s the case, a little indication other than some empty item boxes on the pause screen would be greatly appreciated. I managed to finish the whole game in 3 hours, and I was left feeling a little unsatisfied at the end. So I really hope there will be more to Creepshow in the future.
  
  
• Controls | Creepshow was meant to be a point-and-click game, but I needed to use my controller to play it. Not quite sure what happened there, but I mean, I guess I can see the point for it coming out on consoles, but everything in the game felt like it could have been handled by utilising the point-and-click systems of games like Broken Sword or Monkey Island, and it would have still been perfectly playable. Using the controller just felt off to me for this one, so I hope it was maybe just a prerelease thing where the controller was required.

• How long did I play the review before publishing? 3.2 hours
• How long to beat the story? 3 Hours
• How many Achievements did I earn before publishing? 13/16
• How long to get 100%? | 4 h
• You’ll love this game if you like these | Broken Sword, Sanitarium, Monkey Island

Score: 65/100

I would dearly love to say this game is amazing; I really would, but it just feels like it is unfinished and missing elements that could have made it better than it is. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for more chapters in the future that will wrap up the stories so far. But for the moment I would say that Creepshow is a game that just misses the mark.