Estimated reading time: 6.5 minutes
What is your greatest fear? Is it death? Feeling pain? Being forgotten? Or maybe it's something a little more mundane, like spiders or snakes? Well, maybe it's time to take a dive into Enigma of Fear, and find out what the greatest fear really means?
Enigma of Fear is a really amazing title by Dumativa/Cellbit that's a really cool combination of what feels like Silent Hill and Resident Evil in the style of Yomawari. A nice package that combines some old-school qualities with modern amenities, wrapped in an aesthetically and brain teasing package. A sort of 2.5D-esque art style, good visuals, a solid soundtrack, and some puzzles that I thoroughly enjoyed, I have a lot of praise for the team behind Enigma of Fear.
In the game, you will take control of Mia, a paranormal detective who has come to the site of a great paranormal disturbance in order to find her father. Accompanied by her two friends Agatha and Samuel, as well as her trusty dog companion Lupi, Mia will have to brave the dangers of the Perimeter, a place that "doesn't exist" and is rife with paranormal disturbances and dangers. Can you fight against the blood zombies and specters, solve the mysteries of the Perimeter, and discover the clues and research notes left behind by the team that was researching the Perimeter? Only you can find the truth.
The main premise behind Enigma of Fear is controlling Mia, a 2D character sprite style in a 3D environment where you fight enemies, explore various locations, and solve puzzles. And man, what a journey Enigma of Fear was! With a gun with limited ammo and your trusty crowbar that you totally don't need to steal from the first area you explore, your arsenal of protective gear is limited. Couple this with a combat sense that rewards a stealthier approach, enemies that will chase you pretty hot on your heels, and how aiming the gun can be a little awkward, and you have an in-game scenario that makes you treat combat as something to take care with. Fair warning, you move in an eight directional format, so aiming at things slightly off one of those directional lines will usually result in you missing. You definitely need to make sure enemies are in appropriate spots before you attack them. While the combat may feel a little janky, I honestly thought this actually worked well with the style of game. Direct confrontation should not be your goal here, so it rather works out.
As you explore the Perimeter you will find various tools to help you get around and solve the puzzles and problems you will encounter. One tool that you start with is a UV toggle on your flashlight. This can be used to reveal hidden messages or interact with different mechanics in order to activate mechanisms. Different areas of the Perimeter all have their own themes and overarching mechanics, and require items from other areas of the Perimeter to fully complete. This is a neat interaction because you can choose wherever you'd like to start, but still need to visit other areas to progress all the way through.
In addition to the main exploration and puzzle solving, there is a sort of bonus puzzle solving section where you can engage in some rather lateral problem solving for some cursed objects you can find around the Perimeter. These puzzles require thinking outside the box, and range from fairly straightforward to "good god how do you expect someone to solve that". Out of all these puzzles there were only about four I'd say that were particularly rough, one of which I literally had to guess half of, but they were all really unique and I found them quite enjoyable. Thankfully these are more so bonus puzzles, so if you aren't good at them or are having a tough time, they aren't necessary to complete the game.
You aren't alone though! Your trusty doggo will travel through the Perimeter with you, and he isn't just for show! You can switch to Lupi in order to get through small spaces, hit switches and buttons, follow scents, or bark in order to trigger certain effects! While the dog companion aspect is a little underused, it is really nice to have a companion with you!
Let's talk a bit about the aesthetics. I found that the art style was rather endearing and it grew on me quite a lot over the course of the game. You have a sort of 2D pixel art for character models dropped on a 3D stage, with 2D artboxes popping up during conversations. At first the specific art style of the pop-up character boxes felt a little weird to me, probably just because I'm used to a different style, but after a short while I realized it was actually really fitting for the game style, having a sort of "dark graphic novel" type feel to it. The musical score was also really good. It was all really ambience evoking and fitting for the spooky nature of the Perimeter. Special props to the song from the culmination of the Graveyard, as I really liked it. It also deals with a trope I'm particularly fond of as well, but I won't reveal as it gives away some spoilers. The voice acting was also mostly decent. I realize the original language isn't English, so I understand if sometimes it can be a bit of a struggle to get voices in other languages, but I feel like the team did a really good job here.
As a sort of round up of some miscellaneous points, I would like to point out a few things of note. First up, at the time of writing this, the loading times can be a bit...lengthy. Nothing too egregious, but noticeably longer than what you would normally expect. Considering on release it took me literally five full minutes to even boot the game though, I'd say there have been a lot of improvements in this regard. The load times have been dispersed over transitions instead of front heavy now. Also, there are a lot of updates and bug fixes that the developers have put out. Even right now, I just got a notification saying that Enigma of Fear has received a patch for me to install, so props to the devs for taking such a hard effort at improving their game based on feedback. The only other issue I ran into was that occasionally it could be hard to see something you needed to interact with, but an interactive prompt appears if you're close enough to something, so for the most part it just involves a little more walking around the different areas.
I also really enjoyed how Enigma of Fear provides a help/healing situation. Certain areas have a radio you can use to contact your two friends, as well as a mat for your dog to sit on. You can talk to your friends to get clues about your objectives for the area you are in, and these will change depending on where you contact them from. You can also "discuss" your problems with your dog as a sort of sounding board. He can't really tell you anything, but what Mia says while thinking aloud may help you figure out what to do. You can also hug your dog to restore any sanity damage you've taken! Or just because you want to. No physical healing though, you'll need a medkit for that.
Overall, I have to say I was immensely pleased with my experience in Enigma of Fear. The storyline was engaging, the mysteries were interesting, the music was fitting, the artstyle worked well with the theme and the puzzles were brain teasing. While the load times may be a little harsh for some players, and the combat controls can be a little janky at times, don't let these small details distract you from what an amazing time Enigma of Fear can be. I highly recommend you give it a shot.
Score: 9.5 / 10
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