Song of Horror Review
A world famous writer, Sebastian P. Husher, has mysteriously disappeared. His editor has tried to reach out to both him and his family, but no one seems to be answering his calls to their house. The editor decides that he has to have the latest Husher novel immediately and so he sends his assistant, Daniel, to go find out what is going on. Little does that editor know that he has just sent Daniel chasing after a dark evil simply known as The Presence in Song of Horror. As soon as the adventure (or maybe some would say “horror”) begins you, the player, will be tasked with trying to keep everyone alive as well as unravel the mystery behind what is really going on, and how many people are affected by The Presence.
This game is broken into several chapters, you’re going to be given a roster of characters for each section that you will choose from to try to complete that chapter. There will always be one constant name across all the chapters and that is Daniel. If Daniel fails to reach the end of the chapter you will have to restart the entire chapter over again. If you choose another character and they do not make it to the end of that chapter, as long as you have another character to use, you will be able to pick up where the last character died (literally, you’ll have to go back to their last location and find a messenger bag that will provide you with all the items the character has picked up, up to this point). Speaking of items, each character will have a light source that they will be using to light their way through the chapter, some will have a lighter, a candle, or a flashlight. As much as I would love to say that you could further lighten up a room, especially if you have a candle or a lighter, all those extinguished candles you find everywhere will continue to stay in the “off” position.
The thing that makes and/or breaks this game is The Presence. It is that one thing that creeps in the shadows and will literally take you out ANYWHERE it decides to appear. As you advance through the game, you are going to run into different versions of The Presence and you will be tasked with what amounts to mini-games to try to save your life. There will be times where you will have to act fast and close the door before The Presence breaks in. You will have to control your heart rate, your breathing, try to claw yourself out of a hole that is trying to suck you into the ground, run and hide in a safe spot, or even catch its reflection in a mirror and burn it with the light from a lantern (this last one is so frustrating for so many reasons, one being that the lantern magically appears when it is time to use it but you can’t use it at any other point in the game). I’m going to be honest I PRAYED that I would only run into a couple of these variations of The Presence, if it was any of the other ones I knew I was dead and unfortunately those moments of hopelessness came when I didn’t have any more characters left (so a complete chapter restart was at hand). Here’s the final twist about The Presence, which is AI driven, so it's in a way randomized, there is no sure-fire way of knowing when you’ll run into it, so you’re constantly on the edge of your seat holding your breath.
This is definitely a game for those who are looking for very good jump scares. I put in over 20 hours into this game, so I think it’s easy to see that I stayed with it and although my frustration did almost get the best of me a couple of times, I was able to see the game all the way through. I definitely enjoyed the story (well enjoyed is an interesting word to use, I would say I feared the story or elements of it in the end), but there were some parts in there where I got lost and wandered aimlessly until I accidentally figured out the next step, or I met The Presence and I was going to get to play that section over again, and hopefully this time I would catch on to something I missed the first time through.