Thick rain is pouring from the foreboding, black skies. The person in the go well with kilos at the door. “Mara! Open up. It’s me. We’re going to be late.” He continues hammering away, his rage rising. “Did you alter the locks on me?!” He’s demanding to see “the boy,” Fret. Inside, a lady sends him to go disguise. The person retrieves a crowbar from his trunk, and as he smashes by a window we see Fret run up the stairs, and into his room. He grabs a guitar from his mattress, and slips behind the bifold doorways of his closet. Out of the blue, every part is shaking, he seems at his arms, and all of it disappears as the world fades to purple, then black.
I’m barely two minutes into this demo, and already my coronary heart is pounding. I really like horror, however I’ll be the first to confess that scary video games do, in reality, scare me, even on a vibrant and sunny day throughout Play Days at Summer time Sport Fest, the place I went hands-on with Don’t Fret, the upcoming puzzle-infused survival horror sport from Scary Child Productions. I don’t must know who these characters are to know that the “Jack from The Shining” power from the man in the go well with is unhealthy information, and the intentional vagueness of who he’s, and what’s taking place, has my mind filling in the areas in scary methods. It’s horror at its first-impression most interesting, and an indication of what was in retailer for me. Okay, deep breath, keep calm and, most of all, don’t fret.
Songs and Screams
As the sport begins, we see by the eyes of Fret, the younger boy from the intro. Gentle returns as he opens his eyes, and pushes up the velvet inside of a guitar case lid with a puffy white hand that appears taken straight from a basic Mickey Mouse cartoon. That’s odd. He seems down as he begins to face up, his physique now a wood guitar – particularly, a six-string, although 4 of them are damaged. OK, that’s even stranger. As I absorb my environment, I see I’m in some type of reception space, with a desk at the middle, checkered tiles under, and music notes adorning the purple partitions. Yep, that is going to be bizarre.
As the title suggests, music is at the thematic coronary heart of Don’t Fret. That is sensible, given Scary Child Productions’ origin, because it’s fashioned by the minds behind standard YouTube music channel Rockit Music, whose songs on every part from Skibidi Bathroom to 5 Nights at Freddy’s to Rainbow buddies have been seen thousands and thousands of occasions. The soundtrack itself has contributions from a who’s-who of horror and web culture-focused YouTube musicians and bands, like The Residing Tombstones, The Stupendium, and JT Music. Along with the basic survival-horror lore objects, a complete 25-song album is scattered by the sport, to be collected and performed.
Your objective in Don’t Fret is to outlive on this unusual music college, piece collectively how you bought there, and get out alive. The matted rooms, with scattered papers, stacked information, and damaged home windows, inform a narrative of a college that’s been deserted – although a cigarette on the desk, nonetheless smouldering, tells me I’m not utterly alone. I choose up a hat, journal, and radio off the floor. An unknown individual over the radio is aware of my title, and warns me that I’m not secure, and that I must discover a solution to the foremost corridor. I discover the door to the corridor, however the keypad that controls it’s offline. Heading the different manner, I discover an administrative workplace, with an previous desktop laptop inside. Booting it up allows the G-PAD, as the management is known as, although slightly than numbers or a code, it asks for cords. I enter requested notes, and the solution to the foremost corridor opens.
The voice on the radio returns, and tells me I must retrieve a expertise canister from one in every of the purple doorways scattered round the college. I don’t know precisely what meaning, however I transfer ahead, clearing a path to climb over a barrier blocking the corridor by throwing a guitar right into a damaged gentle to create a path. Quickly I come to a pedestal, although it seems extra like a memorial. Surrounded by candles and flowers, it’s coated in posters asking for data concerning the whereabouts of a lacking woman, although the face on the image is distorted and twisted. The pedestal is lacking an merchandise: a violin.
Exploring and fixing puzzles type an vital a part of the expertise in Don’t Fret. Cracking codes or discovering key objects are simply a few of the ways in which Fret might want to assume on his toes to outlive. In a single part you might be taking part in particular keys on a piano to open a secret lock, and in one other you might be in search of packing containers or different platforms to assist attain excessive locations or open new paths. This mission violin is in a locker at the finish of the corridor that’s partially coated in damaged glass, previous a bizarre ball of tape caught to the wall, close to a locked AV room. Once I return to position the violin, a small drawer opens with the key to an AV room inside it.
This time, as I method the amalgamation of tape, it begins to maneuver. It pulses and undulates, and a determine emerges, falling to the flooring with quiet thud. Because it rose, so too did my pulse. My thoughts struggled to make sense of what I used to be seeing. It seemed like an individual, although… flawed. Bits of its flannel shirt poked out from underneath a criss-cross of cassette tape protecting its physique, head, and eyes. It appeared to have two units of arms, although one pair is made up of a violin’s neck and bow; one higher hand is regular, as is the decrease on the reverse facet, making a disturbing asymmetry.
Because it begins a chaotic, gyrating stroll in my basic route, I notice it’s blind. With my vacation spot on the different facet I crouch and slowly stalk previous, peeking round the fringe of the creature. My coronary heart is pounding, however I believe I’m in the clear till… CRUNCH. I’d forgotten about the damaged glass. The monster lunges towards me, and I mash the dash button in my panic. There’s no hiding my heavy footfalls now, the pursuit is on. I velocity again into the room with the violin, turning to position the pedestal between the monster and I. I slide again towards the rear of the room and wait. The creature races to the left, I dash previous the proper. My stamina is dwindling, the footsteps are rising louder as I attain the AV room. It looks like the monster is correct on prime of me as I rapidly unlock the door and slam it behind me. It’s solely then, as my adrenaline releases, I discover I’m chilly, I’d been sweating, and I hadn’t realized it.
Creature Discomforts
I’ve discovered a guitar tuner. Not solely does it (presumably) assist tune your instrument, however it has a meter to detect hazard, and might be charged to launch a sonic blast to briefly stun enemies, although it operates on a really restricted battery provide to take action. I discover myself gazing the hazard meter as I proceed additional into the college, although admittedly I take little consolation from it.
My subsequent few encounters with no matter resides on this college aren’t significantly better than my time with the violin creature. There’s the Music Principle classroom, the place I met a instructor with a black gap the place their face ought to be, who stared at me as I performed the assigned notes on the close by piano. The silence is damaged once I full the tune, and gaze in horror as the faceless determine bashes its head repeatedly into the desk, black blood spattering, earlier than it collapses in a heap. Or there’s the determine that seems to be a younger woman with a bag over her head that stalked me by a darkened, speaker-filled generator room, ambushing me from the shadows.
The worst, although, is that creature with a cassette tape for a head. I encountered this one once I lastly got here throughout one in every of the purple doorways because it burst by the partitions prefer it was the Nemesis from Resident Evil 3, and gave chase. As tall as the room, its head is a literal cassette tape, although as extensive and tall as a door turned sideways. Its lengthy, lanky, decayed-looking physique is adorned in what seems like a dirty girl’s shirt, although any female appeal was misplaced on me when it caught up and twisted my head off of my physique.
If there’s a bridge between the unbridled horror of Resident Evil Requiem and the considerably extra accessible gateway horror of FNAF Safety Breach, Don’t Fret is perhaps it. It’s legitimately terrifying, however the concern I skilled was principally couched in dread and anticipation. As a humanoid guitar, dying isn’t an train in gore and extreme violence, as there is no such thing as a blood or entrails to be seen. That doesn’t imply I appreciated being ripped to items, however it seemed cool sufficient that I could not be that mad both.
As my demo got here to an finish, I’ll admit to some reduction. Not from the terror itself, which, in line with my blood stress, was expertly crafted, however from the probabilities of everybody round me listening to a scream from an octave I couldn’t recreate on goal. That is the type of sport I look ahead to taking part in at house (in all probability with all of the lights on). And it comes at simply the proper time; Don’t Fret brings music-infused terror to Steam on October 1st.