Blumehouse has made a splash in the film industry with multiple horror franchises and cult classics which resulted in them branching out with other productions one of which is the gaming industry. Announced back in 2023, Blumhouse Games will be the publisher of horror games, the first game for this maiden voyage of this endeavor is Fear the Spotlight by Cozy Game Pals, a two-person team consisting of husband and wife duo Bryan Singh and Crista Castro. I want to give a massive thanks to Blumehous Games and Cozy Game Pals for allowing me this opportunity to check out this game.
Fear the Spotlight follows High school outcasts Vivian, a quiet girl who volunteers at the school library, and Amy, the school’s Goth girl. The pair snuck into the school one stormy night to use a spirit board that was on display in the Library, but the girls woke something up from the school’s past and now Vivian has to traverse the school searching for Amy, all the while trying to avoid the Spotlight that hunts her.
Now, onto the game itself! Fear the Spotlight‘s controls are limited and simple, not a bad thing as this allows you to get right into the action. The game’s graphics are low-poly 3D but I ended up lowering all the poly effects in the settings as I found it too much on the screen, I know the retro look is in but it could have been dialed back a bit.
The game lacks a soundtrack which I find helps with keeping the game suspenseful with music only playing during certain moments in the game. The voice acting for the game is really good and sells the characters.
The gameplay consists of players exploring the school and finding documents relating to both puzzles and the school’s mysterious past involving an incident with a fire in 1991. At times players will have to hide from the light of the Spotlight that will either be coming from the ceiling or a humanoid monster.
Overall, I enjoyed Fear the Spotlight. The game can be completed in a couple of hours but it’s not bad considering a two-person team made it. The only drawback I saw with the game is the story, not going too far into details, but I felt that they played it too safe with it. Some of the elements of the plot I saw coming from the start as it’s been done in multiple school-horror-themed games, movies, and TV shows. Other than that, I liked the game.
On my scale of 1-10, I give Fear the Spotlight a 7/10. Fear the Spotlight comes out on October 22nd for PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
