Not each spooky season experience must scare players. Including beloved classics like mystery-solving cartoons to delightful stories such as Over the Garden Wall, plenty of Halloween-themed staples provide fun without causing fear. Additionally, a increasing selection of eerie-charming titles featuring Halloween vibes, yet without the sleep-with-the-lights-on degree of terror. Gloomy Eyes debuted in the fall, and acts as an superb comfortable alternative to the intensely frightening games of 2025.
A Unique Single-Player Cooperative Adventure
Labeled as a solo collaboration problem-solving title, Gloomy Eyes unites a zombie boy called Gloomy and a living girl known as Nena as they begin an adventure to bring the sun back to their dark, dark realm. Their design resembles Funko Pops blended with the figures from a animated feature. The pale-skinned and heavy-lidded style borrows heavily from the look of Tim Burton’s films, and the narrative is a archetypal all-ages tale. The duo develops an unbreakable friendship over the course of the game’s 14 chapters as Nena strives to prove to her priest uncle that, hey, perhaps the undead are actually good.
Creative Gameplay Systems
The “self-coop” description stems from the game’s world-based challenges. Once Gloomy and Nena meet, you’ll swap between the newfound friends to solve puzzles and progress through the levels. Since he's not alive, Gloomy is unable to traverse through the light of a streetlight, while Nena may be grabbed by wandering undead without a lamp is shone on them.
They must work in tandem — well, you’ll use them in tandem — to advance through areas. Nena may move or temporarily shut off lights to clear paths for Gloomy, while the intellectually curious boy will employ his undead power to move obstacles in the environment, revealing ways for Nena.
Immersive Level Design
The puzzles evoke memories a bit of The Gardens Between, in the manner the areas are suspended, miniature structures that the view pans around in sync with your heroes. Gloomy Eyes’ settings are highly entertaining, leading the duo around a fair and through a haunted house, including other locales. The game includes a “diorama view” button that permits you to view from afar and spin the stages, both to enjoy the artwork and look for paths that may not have been obvious.
Small Hiccups and General Adventure
This represents one of the sole difficulties with Gloomy Eyes. Similar to other games with a static view, it’s not always clear where the protagonists are able to move. Gamers could require to just bump into a several various elements to figure out which ones are interactive, as it’s not always intuitive.
However, those slight challenges don’t get in the way of a eerie-adorable good time. Gloomy Eyes runs on the short side, with roughly a few sessions worth of puzzles. Advanced areas combine subtle sneaking and exciting moments with the challenge completion, as Gloomy Eyes progresses to a fulfilling — and moderately unexpected — ending.
Release and Final Thoughts
Gamers shying away from the terror of fear-inducing titles won’t want to miss Gloomy Eyes. You can find it on Switch console, PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series X, and is currently on sale for a quarter off on game marketplaces.
This charming title has been released on multiple platforms and delivers a pleasurable alternative for gamers looking for Halloween fun minus the intense scares.
