Gylt Review (Xevion)
Pros:
+ Amazing art style reminiscent of 'horror' cartoons masterpieces like Coraline and Paranorman, enviroments, characters and monsters are beautiful to look at and wonderfully animated
+ Precise and tight controls that allow the game's various system to flow effortlessy, being it in combat, stealth or exploration
+ Simple yet charming story that tackles various traumas that can affect children and adults alike, child bullying is evidently the most explored of them, yet loneliness, paranoia, hopelesness are all touched upon in a classy and well told way
Cons:
- While it does not hinder the value of experience per se, the difficulty is quite low, anyone with a bare minimum knowledge of survival horror will find no problems in handling the game's enemies and resources
- On the short side, around 7 hours for a fully complete run with all collectibles found, yet the game never feels like its padding its runtime, Gylt its all meat and no fat
- Overabundance of resources, it would have been nice to have a few less flashlight batteries and health kits around to make stealth slightly more prominent, i'd say 20% less of both would have done great
Gylt has been a very pleasurable and unexpected find, a small yet beautifully crafted survival horror game that follows young Sally in her journey to find her cousin, disappeared in a shadowy, twisted reflection of their hometown where, akin to classics like Silent Hill, your traumas take form and wish only to harm you.
The game has been clearly made with a lot of love, the voice acting for Sally is top notch, i encountered 0 crashes, 0 bugs and 0 gameplay annoyances in my entire run. If you ever wished for Coraline to be a videogame then playing Gylt is the closest thing you can have.
Reccomended 8/10