DON’T LOOK AT GRANDMA Review (PC)

Grandma isn’t out for the loving embrace of her kin; she’s a thirst for blood and satanic tendencies, anti-ritualistic behavior and, above all, an opportunity to enlighten her dear grandchild about the importance of keeping eye contact when being spoken to. In her realm, the lack of cookies and homely comforts merely illuminate the darker side of her once-humble abode. Oh, grandma isn’t her usual self. There’s something awfully strange happening in the underbelly or her home, and it falls to us to figure out what’s taking place from within the ominous chambers that dwell beneath the surface. Here, DON’T LOOK AT GRANDMA isn’t just a title; it’s a warning.

Imagine a regular game of hide and seek, only, instead of searching for two size eights poking out from behind the curtain, you’re actively scouring the room for a pair of bloodshot eyes in the dark; a deadly glare that beckons you to gaze deeper into their iris. If you find them, you need not tell them; you turn away, and you shield your incompetence before the catch wind of your presence. This is, in short, the basic setup for DON’T LOOK AT GRANDMA: a game of hide and seek with a satanic twist. The only issue is, contrary to the rules of the schoolyard game, grandma wants you to find her.

DON’T LOOK AT GRANDMA is all about rescuing an elderly woman from an aggressive demonic entity that only wishes to pull her deeper into the clutches of evil. As a starry-eyed grandchild in this supernatural tale, you have the responsibility of locating heirlooms, performing a ritual, and banishing the demonic spirit that latches itself onto your family tree. Much easier said than done, mind you.

Stop Looking at Me, Grandma

The rules of the game are as simple as they come: find various heirlooms scattered around the house, and unearth the ritualistic grounds to expel whatever evil attaches itself to your grandma. A roadblock or two, of course, comes in the form of an elderly woman who, true to the spirit of horror, has an unnatural tendency to stalk and watch you as you make gradual progress toward the objective. The bad news here is that, if you do happen to accidentally stare at grandma directly in the eye, then it’s basically game over. The good news is that, if you manage to keep your wandering eye on the task at hand, then you can ultimately banish the foe from the darkness and, in turn, restore peace to your family. As I said, a straightforward setup — but one with a few caveats to keep you on your toes.

There isn’t a great deal for you to do in DON’T LOOK AT GRANDMA. It’s a bit like a collect-a-thon, only you don’t chase coins and pocket monsters, but family heirlooms and objects of interest that bear the power to expel the evil that looms in the shadows. Think MADiSON, Layers of Fear, or perhaps most horror games that adopt a offering table of some sort, and you should have a rough sketch of DON’T LOOK AT GRANDMA, in a nutshell. It doesn’t leave much to the imagination, but it does lean into a concept that has been trialed and refined by countless iterations. And if you’re wondering if it adds more to that timeless mix — no, it doesn’t.

DON’T LOOK AT GRANDMA has its own unique way of captivating its audience, but ultimately turns to a lot of the same genetic tropes that we’ve slugged through hundreds of times before to help construct its world. It’s hide and seek with a satanic theme; a game of cat and mouse with a watchful pair of eyes and a bag of loose skin. It’s like playing a game with an OAP, except that they don’t know the rules, and they can’t help but smile and wave whilst you try to explain it.

All Eyes on You 

The toughest part of DON’T LOOK AT GRANDMA isn’t so much the act of finding the ritualistic relics to expel the evil, but averting grandma’s gaze as she finds countless ways to sneak into your peripheral vision and thwart your progress. It’s a headache, and it often brings about some tedious moments that can cause you to turn up the chance to make a second, third or fourth attempt. But it’s a bit of a double-sided thing, really, as it gives you something to fear, but at the same time it also means that you have to worry about losing your progress to some form of supernatural tomfoolery that, annoyingly, isn’t always easy to decipher.

The good news is that DON’T LOOK AT GRANDMA takes full advantage of a procedurally generated world and all of the randomized trappings to help boost its overall replay value. For example, when you start a new ritual, you have new relics, new locations, and different hiding spots to explore, as well as frightful encounters with ol’ grandma to anticipate. Sure, the process of rummaging through the various nooks and crannies of the granny’s home is a bit of a pain in the backside, but it’s also a surprisingly diverse one that feels oddly rewarding to complete. Is it always fair? No. Does it do enough to keep you immersed in the moment? Absolutely.

Of course, an indie horror is likely to harbor a few loose teeth here and there. Sadly, DON’T LOOK AT GRANDMA is no stranger to a lack of dentures, either, especially when it comes to the graphical style that it adopts. To give credit where credit is due, the world that the game brings to light is, according to the developer, a faithful recreation of their grandmother’s home. I can’t scrutinize that; if anything, I applaud the creator’s effort to make it a slightly more personal affair. However, DON’T LOOK AT GRANDMA does frequently fall short in its audiovisual composition. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t always bad, though I wouldn’t say that it exhumes the best of its potential, either. It’s, eh — passable, but I wouldn’t say that it’s in receipt of anything particularly extraordinary.

Verdict

DON’T LOOK AT GRANDMA might be a few teeth short of a full set of dentures, but it does manage to accomplish its goals with the unsettling atmosphere and pensioner-centric jump scares that it fosters in its simple but weirdly engaging collect-a-thon casket. It isn’t the greatest horror game that you’ll play this year, but it is one that you ought to consider checking out if you’re ever feeling, well, spooky.