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Devil’s Hideout review: scattershot horror through a surreal urban hellLike a Stephen King story in its best moments
Like a Stephen King story in its best moments
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Cosmic Void
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Cosmic Void
The game casts you as Lauren, who’s attempting to rescue her missing sister from cultists. Lauren’s journey starts in a hospital, but pretty soon the whole unnamed city turns out to be the titular “Devil’s Hideout,” and unexplained creepiness starts occurring with great gusto. Skeletal arms pop from walls, corpses hang from fishhooks in a local butchery, and bodies are either pushed from rooftops or appear in mounds with their eyeballs gouged out. Even Pennywise from It - sorry, a clown who just looks and talks like Pennywise - makes a random appearance.
Ominous dialogue about this game’s setting… Oh yes, and that guy’s poofy hat is actually used to solve a puzzle. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Bandai Namco
Devil’s Hideout boasts an interface and appearance that’s part hidden object game, part ’90s adventure from yesteryear. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Cosmic Void
Aww look, a cute little cat. I wonder what strange array of inventory options I’ll need to combine to catch you. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Cosmic Void
Some great pixel work on display here, though I find the perspective of these huge head interactions a little odd. Seriously, look up Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Comet for an apt comparison. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Cosmic Void
Whether you like the graphical choices that were made or not, there’s no denying that the game is expertly drawn. When it comes to the puzzles, though, expect a degree of obfuscation. I’m not saying that anything here is as flabbergasting as Gabriel Knight 3’s infamous “use cat fur and maple syrup to create a false mustache” puzzle, but some of ‘em come dangerously close. Items appear in unexpected places (why is there a telescope embedded in a corpse’s guts?) and you should also get ready to click on as many things as you can until you find the right item combination. Just as there’s not much internal logic connecting the horror themes here, there’s little logic to the puzzles, alas.
Ah yes, let’s make idle analysis of this poor fella nailed to the wall. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Cosmic Void
Nevertheless, Devil’s Hideout still has a compelling atmosphere that makes me overlook its flaws. In its most evocative moments, it reminded me of a Stephen King story, and I’m not just referring to the Pennywise cameo. A city that’s lost all of its wholesome Americana and fallen to evil is simply something that King would write about, though Devil’s Hideout would probably be one of those ’80s King paperbacks where he was coked up and in need of a better editor. LikeKathy Rain, another point and click that had a lot of random horror stuff happening behind the scenes, I feel like Devil’s Hideout could benefit from a director’s cut at a later date to help flesh out the bits I liked and hammer down the parts I didn’t. There’s tremendous potential at play in the alleyways of this urban hell, in other words, and even if it was imperfect, I finished Devil’s Hideout wanting more - which is not something I’ve ever desired from an abandoned American city ever before.
