Worse Than Death review

Worse than Death tells the story of Holly who is attending her high school reunion. Unfortunately, the event takes a turn for worst (and we’re not talking annoying former classmates) as a shadowy creature hunts the protagonist throughout the school and all over town. Holly needs to use her puzzle solving skills if she wants to uncover the mysteries haunting the school.

Worse than Death is a 2D game where players will explore various areas of the town in order to figure out what happened to not only the town but Holly’s best friend, Flynn, as well. The game features spooky and creepy areas where players are tasked to solving puzzles in order to progress forward and uncover the mystery. Unfortunately, things aren’t as easy as they seem.

Holly is chased by a mysterious figure which she needs to hide from if she doesn’t want to die. Thankfully, most areas have one or two handy spots to hide to avoid certain death. As Holly walks around, if the shadowy figure is close, her heartbeat increases and the stamina bar becomes pink. Once that happens, pay attention to where the figure is coming from and go the other way to find a hiding spot or return to a previously visited section. Note that if the figure spots you, it can chase you into the next room.

Holly can run only for so long before reaching an exhausted state; running will take away at the stamina meter and once it’s out, players will need to walk or stop to let it refill. There are also obstacles or small entrance that can be jump over or entered by pressing the A button.

As mentioned above, to progress through the game’s areas, players will come across a handful puzzle; some easy, some which requires a bit of thinking and exploring. Unfortunately, being restricted to use the joystick makes some puzzles adds an unncessary difficulty to them as it’s movements are as precised as a d-pad. Much like classic old school games, exploring each areas will rewards players with clues not only as to what happened to the town, but also solutions or items to clear puzzles, meaning there’s some backtracking to done as most of the time, you’ll find the way forward before encountering the clues to solve the puzzle. Thankfully, the map is small and it’s technically impossible to get lost.

While the game is mostly straightforward, there are a few Achievements that will encourage replays as a few of them cannot be attained through a single playthrough. Obviously, Achievements for harder difficulty settings might also require a first run under the Normal setting in order to get a feel for the game.

The game’s presentation is fine. Visually, it has that 8bit look giving the game a bit of old school feel, but also takes away from additional scare or creepyness. Additionally, the loading screen between chapters is very reminiscent of Silent Hill 2’s footstep ridden loading screens. On the audio side of things, we’re treated to a highly creepy score which complements the game’s atmosphere perfect; especially when the shadowy figure shows, it’ll tense you up especially when it comes out of nowhere. Some levels will only feature ambient noise increasing the game’s tension a notch.

Worse than Death is an interesting Silent Hill-esque 2D horror title perfect for the upcoming Halloween season which sinks its teeth into you. While it does feel a bit short and simplistic (it was ported from Mobile after all) and the visuals look a bit rough around the edge even for an 8bit title (you might want to check out Claire), Worse than Death is a fun, albeit short experience sure to give you a scare or two.