Nothing is scarier than the concept of a home invasion when someone or more come into your home forcibly, disturbing your peace and taking your peace of mind. Now imagine that through the eyes of a 13-year-old. That’s what players are expected to live through in Intruders: Hide and Seek. I want to thank Daedalic Entertainment and Tessera Studios for the reviewing opportunity!
Intruders: Hide and Seek is about Ben, a 13-year-old who while staying at his family’s holiday home with his parents and little sister. The peace is shattered when three individuals, a large brutish man, a smartmouth tech-geek woman, and a disturbed man wearing a deer skull mask, force their way into the mansion taking Ben’s parents hostage.
Now onto the game itself! Intruders: Hide and Seek‘s controls are limited as there’s really not much Ben can do as he’s mainly trying to stay out of sight of the intruders and not raise too much attention to his presence. It actually helps take some of the tension away that the controls are not complicated. Graphics-wise, the game visually is deceptive, with its cartoonish looks of the characters that mask a scary experience the player will go through, I actually really like that!
The only issue I have with the game’s visuals is how “short” they made Ben’s height in the game with how you see things through his eyes… he’s a bit… too short. According to everything about the game, he’s 13, but how we see things, he looks like he’s the height of a 7-8-year-old. When I was 13 I was 5’5 before my growth spurt… grew one inch and the devines said “meh good enough.” and stopped… ANYWHO, unless I’m missing some information about the character of Ben, it looked like his character was originally a younger child before making him older.
The sound of Intruders: Hide and Seek helps add to the tension of gameplay and musical stings are what cues you to being spotted by the intruders. the soundtrack is well done and the voice acting is superb with voice acting talents from actors with impressive resumes from voice acting in video games and animes. The issue I have is with some of the sound mixings, especially when it comes to the location of the intruders. Depending on where Ben is in relation to an intruder they sound like they’re right there with Ben while the intruder is actually a floor above or below him.
Gameplay is pretty cut and dry. Ben has to sneak past the intruders and avoid drawing attention to himself. Ben can hide under furniture or in cupboards and closets where depending on the situation you’ll have to control Ben’s heartbeat to prevent him from panicking and revealing his hiding spot. Ben has to complete objectives while sneaking around the mansion and depending on where you look, you may find a puzzle piece which if you collect them all will make a picture. If players forget their tasks, they can radio their little sister (who is hiding in a panic room) who will help Ben from time to time in the story.
Overall I really enjoyed playing Intruders: Hide and Seek as I’m forced to call upon my skills of stealth from games like Alien Isolation, MGS, and Assassin’s Creed to sneak around a sprawling mansion at night. With the exception of the negatives mentioned previously, I’ve found more positives, especially with the tension of the game that’s mixed with a mysterious story. On my scale of 1-10 Intruders: Hide and Seek is a 9.5 with great voice acting, graphics, soundtrack, tense gameplay, story, but the way the world looks too big through Ben’s eyes, and some sound mixing issues with character proximity lightly affected the score.
Intruders: Hide and Seek is out now on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
