Not every Halloween horror experience has to terrify players. Including well-known tales for example mystery-solving cartoons to charming series such as Over the Garden Wall, numerous spooky-season staples are enjoyable without requiring causing fear. There’s also, a expanding collection of ghostly-adorable titles featuring Halloween vibes, yet without the sleep-with-the-lights-on level of terror. Gloomy Eyes was released in September, and stands as an outstanding relaxing choice to the intensely frightening games of 2025.
A Unique Single-Player Cooperative Journey
Labeled as a single-player cooperative puzzle game, Gloomy Eyes pairs up a undead youth called Gloomy and a living girl called Nena as they begin an quest to restore sunlight to their dark, dark environment. Their appearance resembles Funko Pops combined with the puppets from a stop-motion animation. Their fair-toned and baggy-eyed style borrows heavily from the visual style of Burtonesque cinema, and the narrative is a classic family-friendly journey. These two forms an strong bond over the course of the game’s numerous levels as Nena strives to show to her clerical relative that, you know, maybe living-impaired beings can be friendly.
Innovative Puzzle Mechanics
The innovative description comes about from the game’s world-based challenges. After Gloomy and Nena cross paths, gamers switch between the recent allies to solve puzzles and move forward through the levels. As an undead, Gloomy is unable to traverse through the brightness of a light source, while Nena can be captured by idle zombies except if a light is directed on them.
They have to cooperate closely — in practice, you’ll use them simultaneously — to complete stages. Nena might relocate or briefly disable lights to clear paths for Gloomy, while the open-brained boy will use his zombie strength to shift around objects in the surroundings, opening up paths for Nena.
Engaging Environment Creation
The puzzles bring to mind a little of The Gardens Between, in the fashion the areas are hovering, model-like designs that the camera rotates in sync with your heroes. Gloomy Eyes’ settings are highly entertaining, leading the friends around a amusement park and through a haunted house, including other locations. The game includes a “diorama view” feature that allows you to view from afar and rotate the areas, both for admire the designs and hunt for paths that may not have been obvious.
Minor Issues and Overall Experience
Here lies one of the sole problems with Gloomy Eyes. Similar to other games with a static view, it’s not always clear where the protagonists may or may not travel. Gamers could require to randomly encounter a multiple different elements to discover which ones are interactive, as it’s not always intuitive.
Nevertheless, those minor challenges don't hinder of a eerie-adorable enjoyable experience. Gloomy Eyes runs on the short side, with about a few sessions worth of puzzles. Later levels blend together light sneaking and exciting moments with the puzzle solving, as Gloomy Eyes progresses to a fulfilling — and somewhat unforeseen — ending.
Release and Final Thoughts
Those shying away from the terror of fear-inducing releases won’t want to miss Gloomy Eyes. The game is out on Switch console, PS5, PC, and Microsoft console, and is presently discounted for a quarter off on digital platforms.
This charming title is out now on several consoles and offers a enjoyable choice for players looking for autumn enjoyment without fear factor.
