Song of Horror | Xbox One Review

I have always loved stories based on Lovecraftian elements. The dark and eerie style has always appealed to me, especially being a huge fan of horror films. These stories have the potential to travel to the deepest crevasses of the mind and pull some terrifying thoughts into existence. With that being said, when I got the chance to play Song of Horror from the developers at Protocol Games, I dove in head first. So without further ado, let’s take a trip down the rabbit hole and see whether or not Song of Horror should be on your list of games to check out.

That Old Feeling

Song of Horror is a third-person survival horror game that harkens back to older games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. You have been tasked to uncover the secrets of some disturbing stories and the disappearances of people in various locations. Song of Horror is also an episodic game that unravels over five chapters, each taking place in a different location. Each episode introduces new mechanics to learn and use to survive in your journey. At the beginning of each episode, you are given a choice of character to use, but be careful: if they die in the game, they aren’t coming back. 

The Meat of It

The actual gameplay of Song of Horror feels similar to the older games mentioned earlier. The same tank style controls and fixed camera angles of Resident Evil are used with some slight modifications. Which, being a fan of that style of game, feels awesome and brings back tons of nostalgia. Where Song of Horror begins to divert from the pack is that you don’t fight back. If you come across something, you have to run and hide. When you do this it starts a mini-game of battling back against your fears. A few of the mini-games are fairly simple, in which you must keep time in slowing down your heartbeat or shoving a door shut with various button combinations. Some of the others are a little more irritating and require timing, which I failed doing a lot.

The gameplay is a bit slow but that is on purpose. You move around from room to room looking for clues and items to help you along your way. However, when you move from one room to the next you have the option of listening to the door and checking to see if there is something on the other side. It can be a bit tedious, but  it brings an interesting mechanic to the game. You can just rush the room and risk dying if you want, but that would slow your progress down in the long run. Also on occasion, when you listen to the doors you can hear some pretty unnerving sounds. I would tell you but it’s something to experience.

Lifting the Veil

For me, the best part of Song of Horror is the atmosphere and world building the developers have pulled together. Each area of the game has an intense and creepy vibe that is delivered in an almost beautiful sense. The sound design is also something to behold. The quiet music has this dark lullaby that subconsciously lets your guard down and then scares you back to reality with certain scares in the game. At one point while I was playing, I was startled by a figure walking backwards into a room out of the corner of my eye. From that point on, I grew super leery of other random occurrences or encounters. 

That Dragging Feeling

Song of Horror does have many things going for it, but it also has some fairly large downfalls to its credit. First, for many newcomers to this genre of game it will feel dated. While I love the style, many will not. One of the biggest knocks for me, though, is the random death factor.

There will be times in the game that you can turn a corner or open a door without checking it and just lose a character. This can be a major problem at some points in the game. In the second chapter I lost a character that has a gun. While this doesn’t seem like an issue, after he dies he becomes a ghost that can auto kill other characters. So after you’re running away from something, you can turn a corner and randomly lose another character in a hallway. I had to start the entire chapter over again because of this and it got to be pretty irritating. Also, the targeting system in the game seemed like it needed a little bit of adjustment as well. At times it just seemed to be a little off, especially when trying to pick things up.

The Escape

At the end of it all, I started off so strongly loving Song of Horror. However, as the game progressed on it really did feel a bit Lovecraftian, but in a bad way for me. The game began to get to the point of wearing on me and questioning whether or not I ever wanted to play something like it again. I love the premise and the style, yet its slow pacing and repetitive game loop of listening and running away killed my hype. There are quite a few gamers out there who will still love this game. I would say let this one marinate on the backburner and wait until it hits a sale before picking it up. It is a great story, yet overtime it can wear you down in a bad way as well.

To hear me talk more about Song of Horror, be sure to listen to Episode 350 of The Gaming Outsider Podcast.

This review is based on an Xbox One copy of Song of Horror provided by Renaissance PR for coverage purposes. It is also available on PlayStation 4 and PC.