So far, the ‘Horror Show’ has grimly trundled to America, Canada, the UK and even Indonesia, but today, we take our first trip to Scandinavia with the acclaimed Swedish horror title, Year Walk.

Probably best described as a ‘2D first-person side scroller’, Year Walk is an adventure game that was first released on iOS before appearing on Steam earlier this year. The gameplay involves the player scrolling back and forth, exploring the snow-blanketed wilderness and solving puzzles.

The player assumes the role of an initially anonymous protagonist who decides to embark on a ‘year walk’, i.e. a spiritual journey in which the traveller can catch glimpses of the future and the past by enduring physical and psychological strain.

It involves wandering through a menacing forest at night at the behest of several supernatural beings, solving puzzles in order to progress.

The gameplay is suitably minimalistic, as all the best mobile games are, but the puzzles are fiendishly clever, requiring the player to think outside the box (if you’ll excuse the cliché). They demand thought and are rewarding to solve.

The only issue with the puzzles is that it is incredibly easy to lose one’s bearings. To move from area to area, the player simply has to scroll until an arrow pointing up or down appears on screen, at which point they move to an area located in the implied direction.

There is an unintuitive map screen, but as I said earlier, it’s still hard for the player to keep track of where they are. It’s a small gripe, but it did get frustrating spending five minutes trying to track down a shed I had wandered past previously.

With its sombre colour palette and paper-style art direction, Year Walk is one of the prettiest games I have ever played. It shows how much can be done with so little. Despite the sinister music and disquieting imagery underscoring each area, it manages to be beautiful.

The only real criticism I can muster for Year Walk is that although the story is backed up by a well-written wealth of mythology, to truly understand the game to even the slightest extent, the player has to read through an ‘encyclopedia’. It’s not great story-telling when the developer literally has to slam a book down in front of the player and say ‘read all of this first, then you can play’.

Despite its unsubtle methods of delivery, Year Walk’s story is evocative, confusing and vague, but in all the right ways. When the game is finished (to get a complete ending, it’ll take two walks and probably an hour and a half), the player won’t understand everything and will be left to draw their own conclusions. It gives you something to ponder, which is always enjoyable.

Aside from its astounding visuals, Year Walk’s biggest triumph is in the effectiveness of its horror. It’s subtle enough to allow for the player to be drawn in by its haunting soundtrack and ominous atmosphere, but it isn’t afraid to pay-off the build up with the odd jump scare.

Despite the fact that many people tend to look down on them, jump scares can be effective if applied right. Rather than devolving into a predictable punishment, as is the case in the anomalously popular Five Nights at Freddy’s series, the jump scares in Year Walk are sporadic and unnerving.

More specifically, it doesn’t rely on its jump scares to completely carry its horror. The supernatural beings encountered on the walk are grotesque enough without making a peep, and the horror is juxtaposed by the soft, comforting visual style which gives the whole game a twisted ‘Grimm’ fairy-tale vibe.

Year Walk is a near flawless horror experience defined by its art-direction and chilling tone. It might not be the most terrifying horror game out there, but it’s certainly one of the most interesting.

 

9/10

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