This Ghostly-Charming Brain-Teaser Functions as the Perfect Substitute to Spooky Scares

Not every Halloween horror experience needs to terrify you. Including iconic favorites such as Scooby-Doo to delightful stories like Over the Garden Wall, numerous spooky-season favorites offer entertainment without requiring raising your heart rate. Moreover, a expanding collection of ghostly-adorable titles with autumn atmosphere, though lacking the sleep-with-the-lights-on degree of terror. Gloomy Eyes was released in September, and serves as an outstanding comfortable choice to the deeply scary titles of 2025.

An Original Self-Coop Adventure

Known as a single-player cooperative puzzle game, Gloomy Eyes teams up a zombie boy known as Gloomy and a mortal child called Nena as they begin an mission to bring the sun back to their dark, dark environment. They look is similar to stylized dolls combined with the figures from a stop-motion animation. The fair-toned and baggy-eyed appearance is influenced by the visual style of Tim Burton’s films, and the plot is a archetypal family-friendly adventure. The duo forms an enduring friendship over the span of the game’s multiple stages as Nena attempts to prove to her clerical relative that, look, maybe the undead are actually good.

Creative Problem-Solving Features

This unique label comes about from the game’s interactive problem-solving. Once Gloomy and Nena meet, gamers switch amidst the budding companions to solve puzzles and advance through the stages. Since he's not alive, Gloomy is unable to traverse through the brightness of a light source, while Nena can be captured by wandering undead without a lamp is focused on them.

It's necessary for them to work in tandem — actually, players control them simultaneously — to finish levels. Nena may move or momentarily deactivate lamps to create passages for Gloomy, while the intellectually curious boy will utilize his supernatural ability to rearrange items in the surroundings, creating paths for Nena.

Engaging Level Design

The puzzles bring to mind a touch of The Gardens Between, in the way the levels are hovering, diorama-like constructions that the perspective pans around in conjunction with your heroes. Gloomy Eyes’ settings are very enjoyable, guiding the companions around a fair and through a haunted house, among other locales. The game includes a “diorama view” option that allows you to pull back and turn the areas, simultaneously to admire the designs and look for routes that may not have been clear.

Small Challenges and Complete Gameplay

Here lies one of the few hiccups with Gloomy Eyes. Like other titles with a locked camera, sometimes it's unclear where the characters can and cannot go. Players might have to just bump into a multiple different items to determine which ones are usable, as the game doesn't always indicate.

However, those slight obstacles don't obstruct of a spooky-cute good time. Gloomy Eyes runs on the short side, with approximately a few sessions worth of puzzles. Advanced areas combine subtle stealth and action elements with the problem-solving, as Gloomy Eyes advances to a fulfilling — and moderately surprising — finale.

Accessibility and Final Thoughts

Gamers avoiding the frights of terrifying games should definitely try Gloomy Eyes. The game is out on Nintendo platform, PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X, and is currently on sale for 25% off on online stores.

Gloomy Eyes is available on several consoles and delivers a pleasurable alternative for gamers in search of Halloween fun without fear factor.