The Charnel House Trilogy Review
Developer – Owl Cave
Publisher – Mastertronic
Platform – PC
Release Date – Out Now
“A train’s whistle sounds in the dead of night. Snow falls on deserted tracks. Somewhere, in the city, a woman prepares to leave on a journey that will change her life. Somewhere, in the country, a man drives to his final destination.”
As someone who generally avoids horror games like the plague, and finds any miniature jump scare to be terror-inducing (thank you, Slenderman…), in this case, I was not aware that this game was, in fact, in the general area of the horror genre.
However, upon playing it, I was genuinely – and pleasantly – surprised.
While it was a short few hours to the completion of the game, it was an enjoyable experience, and has lit a small flame of hope for other games and media in the horror area.
(…But we’ll build on it slowly. Don’t want to scare myself silly.)
The Charnel House Trilogy by Owl Cave is a classic point-and-click game, made up of three parts – which are related, but do not follow a chronological order. Sepulchre, which was released last year as a free download, is now squeezed between Inhale, the first part, and Exhale, the final part.
Inhale starts off in the shoes of a miss Alex Davenport, a young woman in her twenties, fresh out of a relationship when we meet her, and surrounded by issues in her life that she doesn’t have the strength or patience to deal with. So instead of dealing with said issues there and then (a certain writer can relate), she embarks on a personal journey by train to Augur Peak Island, after receiving some bad news. Various themes of the game will present themselves to you in Inhale, though you won’t realise their significance until much later on. Not devoid of humour, despite her circumstances, Alex will narrate descriptions of various objects around her flat as the player clicks – in turn, they will slowly paint a picture of the character, and reveal clues as to the run of events prior to the game.
Without giving too much away, Sepulchre switches the player to another character, Dr. Harold Lang, whom Alex meets at the train station. This scene takes place on the train ride to Augur Peak, which is where things get unsettling. Though it starts out as mundane, and dare I say, normal, Lang soon discovers that something is very wrong, as strange and horrifying occurrences break his perception of reality, and gripping Lang in a nightmarish situation – bringing Sepulchre to an abrupt and terrifying end.
Finally Exhale, which comes back to Alex (giving players a small reprieve), has her exploring the above mentioned train, though she is hardly off the hook – cracks appear in her perception of reality and memory, as images and people in her past come back to haunt her. Exhale is the tying together of both Inhale and Sepulchre; the “aha!” moment is immediately shunted by “Oh dear God”, as the story ties everything the player is given in the first two chapters – though that is a can of worms in itself.
The voice acting is provided by quite a mixture of people from different walks of life, who have not necessarily been in voice acting for a particularly long time, or at all. These include Madeleine Roux, NYT bestselling author of “Asylum” (who also got a well-deserved plug for her horror novel in-game), Cara Ellison, game journalist, developer and smoooooooth talking late night radio host in the game, Nina White, co-founder of the studio and developer, and Jim Sterling, a video game journalist and a YouTube personality, bringing all the creepiness he could muster to his character.
(Note: While I don’t mention all cast members, they each bring great performances to the table.)
For a game that is as heavy with dialogue and narrative as Charnel House Trilogy, it relies on great writing for it to survive, which this game has in spades. Combined with a beautifully immersive soundtrack – one of my favourite aspects of the game – and voice acting that is on point for the dramatic scenes throughout, there are moments when the game can really get under your skin. Working seamlessly with the art style, in all its detailed pixel-art glory, the game doesn’t serve up huge jump scares as part of it’s repertoire of horror, but instead wields atmosphere and chilling revelation in equal measure to bring about that intensely uncomfortable feeling, the one that makes you look over your shoulder every now and again, while the left side of your brain fuzzes over with paranoia.
Maybe the brain fuzz thing is just me. Yeah. Probably just me…
Creepy, skin crawling, and riveting with great drama as it is revolting with horror, my only gripe with the game is that I wanted to play more – an engaging and absorbing story, despite my initial misgivings of it being in the dreaded horror genre. But, that gripe may be eased by next year – post credits scene is promising more tales of Charnel House and Augur Peak in 2016, and I am, unexpectedly, itching to play.
To give you a little taste of the game, here’s the teaser trailer:
The Charnel House Trilogy is out now, and available to play on Steam.
Please Join us on your Social Platform of choice
