Reviews
Fear the Spotlight Review (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, MacOS & PC)
With Halloween just around the corner, it makes sense that gamers will be scurrying the internet, piling up the best horror games they can find. And while Fear the Spotlight might not be the most obvious choice for spooky lovers, it may very well make it to the must-have category on your wishlist by the end of this review. It’s not even that it’s the most terrifying game you can play. It’s no Amnesia or other bone-chilling survival horrors that make your forehead flood with bouts of sweat and tummy heart from extreme fear.
In fact, the game is deeply humble in every sense of the word. It hardly relies on cheap jump scares or even intense monster encounters to get the job done. I guess you could say that Blumhouse Games and Cozy Game Pals go back to the drawing board at the inception of the survival horror genre. They stripped away all the next-gen ray tracing technology in favor of low poly PS1 and N64-era graphics.
Further, the game tells a cohesive story that, despite its relatively short run-through, does manage to surprise you at every turn. The end result is a deeply thought-provoking and spine-chilling adventure best experienced at the peak of the Halloween season. Enough jibber jabber, though. Let’s explore the specifics you can expect from the game in our Fear the Spotlight review below.
Seance Gone Wrong
It’s all fun and games when performing a seance until things go horribly wrong. This is the spine that Fear the Spotlight’s story builds on top of. At the heart of the relatively five-hour playthrough is Vivian and Amy, two high school girls who sneak into Sunnyside High after hours. Both Vivian and Amy are likable characters, each donning a unique personality. Amy is your standard goth, while Vivian appears bookish—she works at the library, too.
It’s probably during her stint at the library that she spots the spirit board (or Ouija board in our world) and revels at the idea of performing a seance. Amy, being the occult-hyper girl she is, probably jumps on the idea, however terrible it is. It’s especially terrible because Sunnyside High has a tragic history. Thirty years ago, a fire wiped out several students. The tragedy, though, seems to have been swept under the rug, with no clear explanation for the events that unfolded.
And so, you’re left with a dark mystery that grows branches and roots the deeper you trudge into the campaign. At the seance, you connect not only to the ghosts of Sunnyside but also to the dark mystery at the heart of the story. And ever so suddenly, Amy is taken away. You lose touch with her. So, now, you have to roam about the haunted walls of the school to find her.
More Than Meets the Eye
Fear the Spotlight can, at times, juggle too many story elements all at once. With its short lifespan, which takes about two hours to complete the main campaign and then some two hours more to beat a bonus campaign or “epilogue” – almost –, it wastes no time setting the stage for what’s to come. And while a quicker onset of events can be just what you need, it may also irritate some people who want a slower burn.
As a result of the multiple moving parts in the story, too, when the friendship and queer love story between Amy and Vivian is explored, it can feel rushed over. It can feel like minimal time is taken to fully explore the complexity between Amy and Vivian’s backgrounds and personalities. The same goes for the ghosts you encounter, relayed as glowing eyes out of the shadows and empty hallways that follow you around – watching your every move. And even the enemies you face, including the antagonist's massive spotlight whose gaze can drastically drain your health. They can all leave you wanting more—a deeper dive into their backstories.
Fortunately, the bonus “epilogue” campaign connects the dots for you. Well, only to some extent, since the additional content also digs deeper into another perspective and features more challenging puzzles. In any case, both campaigns, with the first following Vivian as she tries to find Amy and the second exploring a fresh perspective, all exceed expectations. The campaign is invigorating. It throws surprising twists and turns your way while employing the clever use of strong voice acting. Plus, you enjoy immersive sound effects that ground you into the atmosphere and tone.
Eyes Peeled
Exploring empty school hallways and rooms couldn’t have been any more perfect setting for Fear the Spotlight. From the dilapidated pathways, largely aided by the expert implementation of eerie low poly graphics, to the haphazardly lain tables and chairs around you, treading deeper into the school leaves you almost always alert.
You simply never know what you will find, even as you make your way through familiar locker-lined walls and cafeteria tables. There’s also low visibility, with darkness completely enshrouding some places. Others, however, are only visible from the dim shine of your flashlight. Still, you must always keep your eyes peeled for valuable objects. They can be notes on the ground that delve deeper into the lore or screwdrivers that pry open doors.
The screwdrivers, pliers, and other such items come in handy when solving the puzzles you come across. It's nothing too complex, just your usual flipping switches, pulling levers, and prying open doors and lockers. And it’s all very standard, except Fear the Spotlight takes it a notch higher. You’ll find the puzzles satisfyingly interactive, where pulling a lever actually needs you to switch to first-person point-and-click to drag the lever from top to bottom.
This kind of attention to detail can easily be disregarded as unimportant. However, it does go a long way into immersing you in the events that unfold. You feel engaged throughout the playthrough. When coupled with the ever-present eerie sound in the background that is sparingly dotted with creaking doors, slow-approaching footsteps, faint crying, and more, it does make a complete horror package worth checking out.
Back to the Basics
Part of what makes Fear the Spotlight’s adventure horror phenomenal is the stripped-down gaming experience. You cannot fight the enemies and bosses you come across, which chips away at the survival aspect of the game. The only thing you can do is walk, run, and crouch, the latter of which comes in handy when “the spotlight” tracks you down.
You must evade the massive spotlight at all times, even when it hunts you down throughout the school. And because it’s almost always lurking somewhere in the school, you cannot just wait for it to pass. Not when you have puzzles you can solve. Merging solving puzzles and exploring the school while keeping an eye out for the spotlight just makes the experience that much more thrilling.
And if you’re wondering whether the spotlight is anything to fear, you’re damn right it is. The animation, once it grabs you and ignites you, leaves your body panic-stricken beyond. Scratch that. The simple way in which it paces around the room, casting its golden brazen light far off into the distance and forming a clear-cut pathway in the darkness, is fearsome. And so are the sparks of fire it leaves in its wake, sometimes setting rooms on fire.
So, yes, you absolutely must evade the spotlight lest it burns right through you. Whether that’s crouching underneath tables and sneaking past them using the cover of corners, you must do all you can to avoid getting caught. And in those moments, when you’re holding your breath and waiting for the perfect moment to make a break for it, those moments are the best part of the Fear the Spotlight experience.
Verdict
Fear the Spotlight has been a touchdown achievement for Cozy Game Pals and Blumhouse Games' first venture into the horror gaming world. It has skyrocketed to the very top of the must-play horror games this Halloween season, and for good reason, too. You don’t get cheap jump scares here, despite the numerous times the developers could have concocted some clever ones. Instead, all you get is a deeply engrossing story about two girls exploring friendship and queer love. But also grappling with the darker mystery behind a tragedy at their school.
Each moment in the game feels intense, not from combating fierce monsters but from trying to get away from them. At each turn, the spotlight will hunt you down and fry your brains when it gets its hands on you. So, you try not to make a sound and navigate the school’s haunted walls and dilapidated rooms, crouched beneath tables and hiding behind corners. Whatever happens, you must stay alive long enough to reconnect with your friend Amy. And so you’re not always focused on one thing only, Fear the Spotlight gives you fun puzzles to keep you busy. Nothing too complex, just highly interactive puzzles that pull you further into the story.
Fear the Spotlight Review (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, MacOS & PC)
Retroesque in Every Perfect Way
You can tell Cozy Game Pals have a soft spot for the original Resident Evil, Alone in the Dark, Silent Hill, and other low-poly PS1 and N64-era games. Except they’ve gone beyond adopting the wobbly geometric designs of the game’s characters and environments to merging them with modern over-the-shoulder perspective and dynamic camera angles. The result is a smooth and fluid adventure-horror gaming experience that every gamer will love. At just $20 a piece, Fear the Spotlight feels well worth it within the perfect price range.