《Tenebris Somnia》融合像素艺术与 FMV 打造完全独特的生存恐怖体验[评测]

When a game has as strong of a visual gimmick as Tenebris Somnia, that can be all people talk about. The combination of retro pixel art and live action cutscenes certainly is as noteworthy as it is effective, but nothing in the marketing gave me any indication of the exceptional narrative hiding behind that artstyle. Andres Borghi and Saibot Studios have crafted an extremely compelling tale about relationships, memory, and the dark depths holding onto them can drive you to, all wrapped up in a passion for arthouse cinema. While it has the puzzles to back it up, the survival horror elements leave a little to be desired, distracting a bit from the overall experience.

Julia has been plagued with nightmares. When she goes to sleep, she sees her ex-boyfriend, an independent filmmaker and cinephile, being torn to shreds by horrific creatures. When she returns to the apartment they shared to check in on him, she gets sucked into a terrifying world constructed from his memories, created by the actions of a mysterious cult that he has apparently gotten involved with. To make your way closer to the truth, you’ll be solving adventure game-style puzzles while fighting your way through monsters that roam the halls of these reflections of the past. It’s an incredibly compelling setup that had me gripped throughout, deepening my appreciation for the main character as twists and turns were revealed.

Narrative was such a driving force for me in this game. I was truly engaged with the characters and their complicated relationships not only to each other but to movies in general. As someone who studied filmmaking, the way that their different creative drives were integrated into their relationship really spoke to me on a personal level, drawing me into the story more than I expected. There are multiple endings, I got two of the four endings in my nine hours with the game, and the “good” ending had me feeling extremely satisfied with the place it left Julia.

Not only was the relationship a strong foundation to build upon, the mythology of the game was extremely well crafted, creating lore that felt unique even when it was taking inspiration from other sources. One of the strongest parts about the game is that no matter how much it explains the mechanics of the cult and their strange rituals, it never loses its mystique. Too much explanation generally kills the vibes for me, but every new piece of information revealed about what was going on only drew me in more. Tenebris Somnia also creates very strong bits of visual language that it plays with throughout, making things feel cohesive and unique.

As I mentioned before, there are two halves to its presentation, the pixel art gameplay and the full motion video cutscenes. When playing the game, all the rooms, along with the characters that populate them, are crafted in an 8-bit retro style, which isn’t always my personal favorite aesthetic. Fortunately, they find just the right level of detail to convey character through their models and place through their environmental props. Even when it’s lacking in detail, a smart use of color brings everything to life in a way that’s stylish and captivating.

What really works for me is the full motion video cutscenes, which look incredible. They resisted the temptation to add any sort of film grain or VHS filter, presenting them in a glorious crispness that pops off the screen. Not only does it look nice, the scenes themselves are directed with a deft eye for framing, not feeling like a cheap afterthought like much FMV has a history of doing.

It’s impressive when they use it to pull more emotion out of a scene, as seeing a tear run down Julia’s real human face has so much more impact than watching a pixelated character model cry.

According to New Blood, the game’s publisher, the same team behind the effects for When Evil Lurks worked on Tenebris Somnia’s live action sequences, and it shows. There’s a smart combination of practical effects and CGI that brings to life the monsters, bringing it up to a quality that would be impressive even in a theatrical release, much less a video game. They even produced a full version of “Devora”, the ex-boyfriend’s in-fiction award-winning short film that’s central to a lot of the game’s plot. Even though the team chose to have FMV sequences be dialogue-less, yet it always manages to wordlessly convey whatever emotion or information with ease.

Enemy design looks amazing in both pixel art and live action, with a lot of effort going into creating unique-looking monsters that stand out compared to other modern games. They are an excellent combination of disgustingly gory and nightmarishly twisted, with strange distended mouths, blood-slicked tentacles, and unsettling shapes. My favorite, which is featured in the trailer, was the first boss of the game, a man with the top half of his head replaced by lit candles and melting wax. It takes a lot of skill to create distinct designs that will be readable and exciting in two vastly different visual styles, but they somehow pulled it off.

A retro aspect that worked perfectly for me was the sound effects, which are deliciously crunchy. Standard monster moans sound even weirder when compressed down, and each of them has their own distinct set of noises that identify them before you even see them. Footsteps also change depending on your surface, which isn’t necessarily novel but sounds unique in the low-fi audio when you’re crunching through broken glass or squishing on pools of blood.

All of this takes place in a version of the apartment complex that’s merging with memories, which makes for a narratively interesting and surreal location that doesn’t have the same level of creativity level design-wise. It’s a nicely rendered space, but it doesn’t have that classic survival horror interconnected and dense layout with a series of shortcuts unlocked as you go. The footprint of the game isn’t too big, so it wasn’t like I had a lot of trouble getting around, it just wasn’t additive to the experience in ways that I love in the genre normally.

The part about survival horror that it nails is the puzzle design, which is full of clever little adventure game logic. Even though many of the puzzles operate on dream logic, it’s never too difficult to figure out what the game is asking of you. Many of them even made me feel clever for figuring them out, requiring more than just combining items to solve them. One of the most clever ones involved using various containers to add and subtract liquid from a giant glass container to try to get the tone it makes when you strike it to match that of a nearby bell. Puzzles were easily my favorite part of the gameplay, and they not only challenged my mind but also felt narratively relevant.

While the enemies visually looked good, they were rarely that fun to fight. You have a combination of melee and ranged weapons, but they feel a bit clunky to use. You don’t really have to kill everything you come across, but even navigating around them can feel stiff. As the game progresses, more enemies will be spawned in places you’ve already been, which can clog up areas with monsters quickly if you’re not clearing them out. Given the ammo and health economy in the game, it’s not really practical to kill them all, but it can be kind of punishing when you get to a hallway and there are three guys on top of you immediately when you enter.

Boss fights magnify this problem, as they often feel like they are more complexly designed than the mechanics really capable of keeping up with. A few of them have fun little gimmicks that give you some business to puzzle out as you fight them, but even once you figure them out it takes a little too long to complete the fight. There are two options for the final boss based on your choices, and both of them felt way more difficult than the rest of the game to me, requiring pattern recognition and reflexes that felt more frustrating than fun. I loved seeing their wild designs, but rarely enjoyed actually playing them.

There were a couple of encounters where you were being chased by creatures rather than having to directly fight them, and those felt like a good fit for the game’s mechanics. They were tense and interesting, bringing a cinematic and exciting feel to the gameplay. Part of me was thinking about if the game would have been more consistent if it focused on chases and puzzle encounters rather than actual combat mechanics. Given this game’s excellent puzzles, I kept wondering if this game would have been better served taking inspiration from point-and-click adventure games rather than classic survival horror.

Despite my issues with combat and boss fights, I was completely charmed by Tenebris Somnia. Its combination of pixel art and FMV to present its engaging narrative is completely unique, creating a game that looks like nothing else. The love for cinema is clear not only from the quality of the live action footage, but also from its inclusion in the narrative, making it a movie lover’s dream. It’s a video game story that will stick with me for a long time, featuring well-written characters and interesting mythology. I think if they take some time to rebalance the bosses or maybe add a lower difficulty mode that allows you to focus on the clever puzzles, this could end up being an all-timer.

Review code provided by publisher. Tenebris Somnia launches October 16 on PC via Steam and GOG, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series.

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