Sally's hometown is abandoned and looks like an earthquake hit it, while its corners and doorways are infested with black sludge monsters. Sally searches for Emily, who's been missing for a month, through the desolate rooms of their school as monsters stalk her footsteps. Gylt is a third-person horror title that follows tween Sally into a twisted, Upside Down style world that has also consumed her young cousin, Emily. Stylistically, it's different than anything the studio has created so far it's narratively thin, though its world is rich and eerie, filled with creeping beasts and light emotional turmoil. Tequila Works' latest release, Gylt, fits this mold perfectly. Overall, the studio's strength lies in building moody worlds bursting with emotional intrigue, rather than completing a single, clear narrative arc. The studio's approach to storytelling works best in The Invisible Hours, a non-linear VR experience that sacrifices player input in order to resolve multiple narrative threads. They're slightly creepy, with a touch of ennui and too much story for a single game to contain. After that, Tequila Works released a murder mystery set inside a trippy mansion casino, a heartwarming platformer about a long-lost civilization, a narrative-driven VR title, a world-building app for iOS, and the official VR project for Sony Pictures' Groundhog Day.ĭespite the differences in mechanics, a common thread runs through many of Tequila Works' titles. ![]() It starts with Deadlight, a dark, side-scrolling action title set in a lonely zombie apocalypse. At least, that's how it seems after scrolling through a list of games the independent Spanish studio has released since 2012. The numerous key hunting puzzles and occasional fuse box mini-games feel like they are lifted straight from BioShock. Take all of these elements out and nothing is left but a story about two cousins who were both bullied and subsequently tortured by both internal and external demons.The developers at Tequila Works get bored easily. The characters and main story are reminiscent of Life is Strange. The combat is Alan Wake without the gun alongside stealth sections which could fit into almost any game with ease. The many aspects of gameplay which make up Gylt all feel ripped from different titles. By not clarifying just why exactly the nightmare is punishing Sally and Emily, making them dwell in their unhappiness and (again, not wishing to spoil the ending) giving them a conclusion which answers few, if none of the questions players may have, Gylt is robbed of any emotional impact it was trying to provoke. Not to spoil anything, but this is not the case, and the game itself is all the weaker for it. The player would think, then, Sally's titular guilt stems from the revelation she was one of Emily's bullies as well. The game takes place almost entirely inside the girls' school and the surrounding area, and thousands of messages which are persistently reiterating their bullies' thoughts are scrawled on walls and depicted in pictures on blackboards and even acted-out, constantly, by clothing store mannequins which appear throughout the world. Bullies chased Sally into this world, and bullies sent Emily there as well, and Sally feels guilty about it. To recap: Gylt sees Sally putting out fires while shining the light on both her and Emily's problems. ![]() ![]() Most enemies can be both stunned and destroyed with the flashlight, and the ones that can't still are thankfully able to be easily frozen. ![]() Occasionally problems will arise which require Sally to shine her flashlight at things like solar panels and gigantic eyeballs attached to amorphous blobs, and later on her extinguisher can be used to not only put out fires but also to freeze steam vents and puddles of water. These combat sections are interspersed with rudimentary puzzles, such as BioShock-like hacking mini-games and one-item-at-a-time inventory puzzles usually amounting to the player carrying something across a room and placing it in a nearby location.
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