Not all spooky season experience needs to scare you. Starting with beloved classics like Scooby-Doo to endearing shows including Over the Garden Wall, plenty of spooky-season staples are enjoyable without raising your heart rate. Additionally, a expanding collection of eerie-charming games including autumn atmosphere, though lacking the sleep-with-the-lights-on intensity of fear. Gloomy Eyes arrived in the fall, and serves as an excellent comfortable option to the truly terrifying titles of 2025.
A Distinctive Collaborative Solo Quest
Described as a solo collaboration problem-solving title, Gloomy Eyes pairs up a undead youth named Gloomy and a living girl called Nena as they embark on an mission to bring the sun back to their shadowy realm. They look evokes stylized dolls combined with the puppets from a Laika film. The light-complected and heavy-lidded appearance is influenced by the visual style of Burtonesque cinema, and the plot is a classic all-ages journey. These two builds an unbreakable friendship over the course of the game’s multiple stages as Nena attempts to demonstrate to her religious guardian that, look, perhaps the undead are actually good.
Innovative Puzzle Mechanics
The innovative term comes about from the game’s world-based challenges. After Gloomy and Nena cross paths, gamers switch among the recent allies to complete challenges and progress through the stages. Being a zombie, Gloomy is unable to traverse through the light of a streetlight, while Nena may be grabbed by idle zombies without a lamp is shone on them.
They have to cooperate closely — in practice, gamers operate them simultaneously — to advance through areas. Nena could adjust or temporarily shut off lamps to create passages for Gloomy, while the intellectually curious boy will utilize his supernatural ability to move objects in the environment, revealing routes for Nena.
Captivating Level Design
These challenges bring to mind a little of The Gardens Between, in the fashion the levels are suspended, diorama-like designs that the camera moves across in coordination with your characters. Gloomy Eyes’ environments are highly entertaining, taking the friends around a carnival and through a spooky mansion, among other locales. The game includes a “diorama view” feature that enables you to zoom out and spin the levels, both for admire the artwork and hunt for ways that may not have been clear.
Minor Issues and Overall Experience
And that’s one of the few problems with Gloomy Eyes. Similar to other titles with a static view, it’s not always clear where the heroes can and cannot go. Players might have to just bump into a multiple different objects to determine which ones are interactable, as clues aren't consistently provided.
However, those slight obstacles don't hinder of a ghostly-charming fun adventure. Gloomy Eyes has a compact length, with roughly three to five hours worth of puzzles. Later levels blend together light stealth and action elements with the problem-solving, as Gloomy Eyes advances to a fulfilling — and moderately surprising — ending.
Accessibility and Conclusion
Gamers steering clear of the frights of fear-inducing games ought to experience Gloomy Eyes. You can find it on Nintendo Switch, Sony system, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X, and is available at a reduced price for a quarter off on online stores.
The spooky-cute adventure is out now on multiple platforms and provides a pleasurable choice for fans seeking spooky entertainment without intense scares.
