Test - Fear the Spotlight : Test: Dark indie horror with the charm of the 90s

The '90s were a wild time for horror fans. Cult films like The Blair Witch Project and Final Destination were shown in the cinema, and Scream ushered in a renaissance of the teen slasher. But a lot has also happened when it comes to video games, and now legendary series such as Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Alone in the Dark took the first tentative steps on their way into the annals of gaming history.

Fear the Spotlight draws inspiration from precisely these beginnings of gaming horror and masters the often fine line between endearing homage and irrelevant transfiguration. Literally at first glance you can see where Fear the Spotlight actually wants to be classified.

The survival horror title comes in the roughest 90s 3D polygon graphics, including (switchable) picture strips that only the older generations of antediluvian tube televisions would be familiar with. At least visually the illusion is perfect. So all you have to do is keep up with the story and gameplay.

Like an asthmatic deer in headlights

The story isn't particularly long, but it does have a few surprises and offers plenty of room for interpretation. Bookworm Vivian and her rebellious emo friend Amy make a whole lot of stupid decisions in one night. First they break into their high school, then they steal an old Ouija board from the library and then conduct a séance to communicate with the spirit realm.

Of course, something goes wrong at the séance and Amy disappears into thin air right in front of Vivian's eyes. Vivian then finds herself in a nightmarish version of the school. In the search for Amy, she has to solve puzzles, explore the school and always hide from the mysterious man, whose neck is decorated with a searchlight where a head should actually be.

This explains all gameplay elements. Most of the time you wander through the pitch-dark hallways of the school, combining objects and solving smaller puzzles and puzzles with the light of your flashlight, like those found in genre greats likeorknows. Fuse boxes, pipes, valves - all the classics are there. Spotlight Man keeps appearing out of nowhere and you sneak from cover to cover to avoid the flaming eye of the viewfinder.

By the way, there is no life bar. Instead, Vivian's asthma gets worse when she is under stress. So if an opponent gets too close to you or you're in the spotlight too often, you'll literally run out of breath (or burn if you stay in the light for a particularly long time, but you don't have to be an asthmatic to do that). We only recently got a similar mechanic in the video game spin-off of the film seriesto face. At the moment, asthmatics seem to be really in vogue as protagonists in horror games.

Did something just move?

But you don't necessarily have to have a lung condition to take your breath away in Fear the Spotlight. With its dense atmosphere, the game manages to create a permanent aura of potential danger. You constantly have the feeling that you are being watched from the surrounding darkness and often enough it doesn't just remain a feeling. Shadowy figures keep scurrying through the darkness or staring menacingly at you.

But it's not always that obvious, because the very small moments of shock that you sometimes only notice subconsciously are much more impressive. At one point in the game, for example, you are on the roof climbing from one open window to the other, while below you lies a garden including a cute tool shed in the dark.

As I crossed the roof, out of the corner of my eye I saw an eerie human figure standing at the bottom right corner of the monitor in front of the open and internally lit shed. By the time I turned around to get a better look, the figure had already disappeared. How can one not become paranoid when such events occur?

Unfortunately, the stealth passages are a bit disappointing. They are a bit too light and could be a bit harder. Most of the time you can see very quickly in which pattern the headlight cones are moving and you just have to wait for the right moment. I wasn't even sure until the end whether it was even possible to die, but I was finally proven wrong in the finale.

This may also be due to the fact that the camera and movement in Fear the Spotlight work very well and, unlike games of the older generation, there are no additional difficulties such as a lack of visibility and unwieldy controls. In the end, the lack of challenge doesn't really bother you. The mysterious story, well-interspersed puzzles and of course the nostalgia club definitely pull it off.

Jasons Blumhouse of Horror

The CozyGamePals are behind Fear the Spotlight, a small development team of just two people. So far, the two have only worked on developing a few browser games in their free time. The support of publisher Blumhouse Games has now made their first major title possible.

This is worth mentioning because it is also the publisher's first game. Until last year, Blumhouse was purely a film production company and was responsible for horror bangers like Speak no Evil, M3GAN,Paranormal Activityand Five Nights at Freddy's. It's entirely possible that the implementation of a video game series like FNAF inspired Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum to take a closer look at the indie game scene and open his own video game division.

At the Summer Game Fest 2023, Blumhouse Games announced six games that would be released there in one fell swoop. All smaller indie games with a budget of under $10 million that are intended to bring fresh blood into the horror genre. Of the half dozen, Fear the Spotlight is the first and only game coming to market this year. We won't see everyone else until 2025.

Although the budget of the titles is rather manageable, some of them even boast really big names. The story for Project C, for example, comes from Sam Barlow, who alreadyandwrote and of course for the interactive filmsandis known.

Meanwhile, the futuristic psychological horror title Sleep Awake is in development at studio Eyes Out, which is led by Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck and Cory David, the lead designer of, was founded. It could be well worth keeping an eye on Blumhouse's portfolio for fans of fine indie horror.