The 18th Attic Review (PC)

The 18th Attic blurs the lines between cobwebs and claustrophobic quarters, heirlooms and haunting premonitions in an effort to thwart your perception of reality and its natural curiosities. It takes you into the dark, dank, and decrepit depths of a time capsule in which trinkets gravitate towards the lens of an old camera, and supernatural occurrences frequent the twilight hours. Unholy, unnatural, and daringly mischievous, the attic shuns precious memories and casts an ominous shadow over another world of historical phenomena. It isn’t a friendly place to hang your coat, and it isn’t always the safest spot to engage in some good old-fashioned photography, either. It is, for better or worse, a world where anomalies imitate clutter, and photographs bear the power to eradicate those who dare to shroud reality.

From the outside looking in, The 18th Attic comes across as a familiar anomaly-hunting game—a journey that you would have most likely taken before, not with a camera, perhaps, but with a tool that would have allowed you to bend the boundaries and unclog the darkest shadows from the bottleneck of reality. In a nutshell, The 18th Attic is, in some ways, a lot like an ordinary anomaly-hunting expedition, in that, like a traditional spot-the-difference excursion, it grants you the opportunity to venture deep into the depths of a perpetual nightmare and, through stern analysis and wishful reflection, pluck out the peculiarities from fleeting memories to descend even deeper into its seemingly endless cycle. A fragmented smile; a sudden change in the atmosphere; a mannequin with gloomy eyes of crimson and black. In The 18th Attic, familiarity is everything.

If you haven’t taken the plunge into an anomaly-based bout of spot-the-difference, then here’s how it works: a player enters a room, analyzes their surroundings, either with the naked eye or a piece of equipment, and makes a decision on whether or not to catch an object in its tracks and label it as an anomaly, or discard it and progress further into the unknown. Typically, an incorrect answer will reset the loop, and a correct answer will take you just one step closer to the next layer in the process. In The 18th Attic, it isn’t all that different, in that your objective is to comb over your environment and, with the power of a pocket camera, take swift snapshots of anomalies in order to remove them from the world. It’s a simple setup that, frankly, you would have encountered a dozen or more times before. The question is, is it better than the alternate anomaly-smitten realities on the conveyor belt?

To put it bluntly, no, The 18th Attic isn’t all that different from what you would have seen before. This isn’t to say that it’s bad; it’s simply echoing the fact that, camera and original setting aside, it is, for better or worse, the exact same experience as you would have had numerous times before. Again, it primarily involves scooting through rooms, carefully analyzing set pieces and random objects, and making a swift judgement call on whether or not there’s something out of the ordinary before whipping out your camera and taking a quick snapshot. Honestly, there’s isn’t much more for you to ponder here. Does that mean you shouldn’t take the opportunity to explore it for yourself? It depends, really, if you’re willing to subject yourself to a lot of the same progression hooks, or if you’re looking for something with a different feel to it.

The 18th Attic is a rather short game, and with only a handful of anomalies and jump scares to keep your itchy trigger finger on the release button, you might just find yourself mopping up all that there is to see and do in a single sitting. This isn’t uncommon for an anomaly hunting game, mind you. However, if you’re hell-bent on sinking your teeth into a journey that has a whole bunch of twists and turns and episodic events that require multiple retries to comprehend, then you might be in for a bit of a shock with just how little The 18th Attic brings to the table. But don’t let that fool you into thinking that it’s a poor choice for an indie horror. It’s short, and it’s without the meat of a full-fledged game, but that isn’t to say that it’s without the facets of a memorable voyage.

On the bright side, The 18th Attic has a solid variety of jump scares and creative anomalies, as well as a good underlying plot that does just enough to keep you second guessing your next snapshot. Granted, it isn’t the toughest cookie to crack, though it does generate a fair few difficulty spikes and curveballs for you to overcome. For example, your camera can only take so many shots, and several anomalies can attack you. The silver lining here is that, where you would usually have a “safe room” of some kind to keep the demons at bay, The 18th Attic offers you a feline companion to customize and pet. It’s a small feature, but one that severs the tension surprisingly well.

To counter its relatively short journey, The 18th Attic comes clean with a mostly glitch-free experience that harbors little to no interference or technical flaws. It also features a clean interface and a claustrophobic ambiance that suits the needs of the setting incredibly well — and that’s great. It isn’t the grandest of worlds, nor is it one that pushes the boat out to incorporate bigger, better and stronger elements. That said, The 18th Attic stands tall as a genuine contender in its own field. It isn’t the best of its kind, but it’s a far cry from the worst.

Verdict

The 18th Attic makes for a great entry-level anomaly-hunting indie horror with a whole lot of heart and soul to call its own, despite its claustrophobic scale and sheer lack of frights and gameplay facets. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a far cry from the worst anomaly hunting game, but due to its smaller size and slower pacing, it does fall short of a memorable expedition into the great beyond. Still, if it’s a quick thrill that you’re on the market for, then you could certainly do a lot worse than The 18th Attic.