OhDeer Studio and 100 GAMES are taking players on a psychological-horror ride with their first-person horror Anthology of Fear with their recent release on PlayStation consoles. I missed the game when it came out for Xbox but the devs were awesome enough to toss me a lifeline to check it out, so a big thanks to them for that! Unfortunately, I don’t think they’ll like me much after this.
Anthology of Fear takes players on a journey to discover what happened to Nathan by exploring the psyche of others and seeing the world through their perspectives.
Now onto the game itself! Anthology of Fear‘s controls are hard to grasp as there’s no tutorial and the mechanics seem to change on a whim. When it comes to sound, it’s OK for the most part but it needs to be adjustable as music, sound effects, etc. are all on the same volume, which at times can be overwhelming.
Graphics-wise, if you’re prone to seizures or migraines, STAY AWAY! There are a lot of flashes in this game, especially on the main title screen for some reason. I’m not prone to photosensitivity but I’ll admit, I almost did not play at all after witnessing the main menu.
Gameplay overall, I’m afraid to say there’s nothing original here as it’s telling what should be an interesting story but trying to use the Layers of Fear method of telling the story. Speaking of story, it’s really hard to grasp what the story is actually about. There’s no clear “This is what’s going on.” kind of beginning that you normally see in a game, you’re just dropped in the middle of it.
Overall, my experience with Anthology of Fear was mixed. I enjoyed the tense atmosphere, but the copy-and-paste style of Layers of Fear became obvious the more I played. What ended up ruining the game for me was a game-breaking glitch where I’m supposed to pull out my teeth but there’s no prompt telling me how to do it, or the controls won’t respond at all.
I know I’m usually gentle on indie games but on my scale of 1-10, the unoriginal gameplay, lack of control, overuse of flashing light effects, and game-breaking glitch caused me to rank Anthology of Fear low with a 4/10.
Anthology of Fear is available now on PC, PlayStations 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.
