Angel Engine Review (Xbox Series X|S & PC)

Five Nights at Freddy’s made me feel anxious, but Angel Engine made me feel as if a heart attack would be imminent if I failed to connect the dots in a timely manner. Previously, I was able to juggle the security malfunctions of a pizzeria—the battery-powered doors and the dated surveillance equipment, for example. But in the tower of a dystopian operating room, I had no control over the situation. Everything would fall apart, and every subject, despite being in a coma, could easily spring from their deep sleep to pierce the veil and elevate my heart palpitations.

To call Angel Engine a claustrophobic experience just wouldn’t be doing it justice. If anything, it’s an utterly bleak, terrifying affair that does enough to rattle the bones and keep you on the edge of your seat. It isn’t just about juggling the pieces of a jigsaw to ensure that the power supply doesn’t die out; it’s about doing “God’s work” to keep the human species from losing its balance. To put it mildly, it puts a lot of pressure on your shoulders. If, say, you aren’t able to operate to the highest standard, then Angel Engine will certainly tell you that. There is no room for error, only a firm handful of mini-games that will test your patience, your mettle, and your ability to learn on the fly.

Angel Engine is a lot more than a glorified package of time-sensitive mini-games. In short, it’s a treacherous and highly turbulent experience that actively forces you to adapt, to synchronize, and to execute extreme operational procedures at a rapid pace. With a coma patient on the table ahead of you and an hourglass to whet your nerves, you are essentially given a deadly feat to overcome. Time is disgustingly short, and yet the only thing that matters is the procedure and how quickly you can complete it. Oh, and the equipment malfunctions, too.

The whole point of Angel Engine is to treat patients from the “comfort” of a booth. Ahead of you, you have a computer screen, a series of options, and a patient. In order to treat the patient, you must carefully tackle a series of mini-games, some of which require you to simply connect the dots in a maze-like fashion, and others that require you to input a series of buttons as quickly as possible. If you successfully cure a patient, then you essentially earn the right to unlock tougher procedures and, with them, the chance to wrack your brain over more complex puzzles and mini-games.

It is worth mentioning at this point that Angel Engine isn’t the type of game to spoon feed you information and hold your hand as you wrap your head around the basics. On the contrary, it’s a tight-fisted experience that prefers to keep you in the dark and without the aid of a light source. Even though a lot of its in-game puzzles are self-explanatory, at no point does it ever tell you what to do, when to do it, and how it might impact your final grade. Simply, it hands you a timer, and it drip feeds you a series of puzzles to complete.

If you thought Operation was a stressful game to hack at, then I can tell you now that you’re in for a real treat with this one. Aside from the fact that it requires you to carefully critique and execute contextless procedures on the fly, Angel Engine also peppers its world with a sickeningly dark atmosphere that’s as equally invasive as it is bleak. From the moment you step foot into the booth, for example, you are greeted with an orchestral echo of disgruntled whispers, a metallic chain of heartbeats, and harrowing silence that illuminates each and every actions. It isn’t the least bit comforting, and it does a lot to keep you on the verge of a breakdown. But, given the concept, that actually works in its favor here.

While Angel Engine can begin to feel a bit predictable after several procedures, the game does offer a well-rounded collection of mini-games to work through. Moreover, it makes a good effort to keep you engaged throughout, with a library of narrative-lining emails, and a whole bunch of temperamental machinery to fix. Combined, it feels like a lot to juggle — and it is. In fact, during the final stages of the game you have to operate on your patient, complete various puzzles, and tend to various components simultaneously, all whilst keeping tabs on a timer that loses its power the more you play. It’s mentally taxing work I’ll admit, but it’s also oddly rewarding.

Given that Angel Engine centers its entire ecosystem around a simple loop, the game does offer a genuinely enthralling experience that comes across as both fun and challenging. For fans of the earlier Five Nights at Freddy’s chapters, it’ll feel like an ideal homecoming gift. For fans of the original indie analog series—a saga that has been popularized by the likes of TikTok and Instagram—it’ll feel like a perfect complimentary piece to the existing narrative. In general, though, it’s fair to say that, fan of the original series or not, Angel Engine is bound to swivel a few heads and get a few hearts racing.

Verdict

Angel Engine is the digital equivalent of a lobotomy: excruciatingly painful, barbarically dubious, and about as anxiety-inducing as a malfunctioning heart monitor with one too many flashing components. But, it’s also a surprisingly entertaining game, all things considered. Stressful, yes, but disastrously enjoyable and questionably entertaining all the same. And that’s what I’m willing to take away from all of this — that it makes for a great experience, despite its limitations and oftentimes predictable puzzle sequences.

Let it be said that, if you’ve yet to bury your head in the ever-expanding indie analog series on social media, then consider Angel Engine as a golden ticket to the darkest depths of its dubious world. It’s eerie, morbidly fascinating, and above all, terrifyingly good. What more could you want from an entry-level horror?