Ellen

Genre: Graphic Adventure / Horror

Players: 1

.

Review:

Ellen, released on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in 2019, is a Graphic Adventure with strong Horror elements and a bit of Stealth. Not to be confused with the famous comedian or her self-titled talk show, Ellen is a game that has players take the role of James, an investigator checking out the house of a murdered family to search for their missing daughter, the titular Ellen.

The presentation in this game features extremely simple pixel art visuals paired with some absolutely phenomenal sound that really does an excellent job ramping up the creep factor. Echoing footsteps, creaking floors, a large monster bloodily disemboweling a cat… much of this game’s horror is heard rather than seen, and this is perhaps all for the better as it helps to really play on your imagination.

I wish the gameplay were more up to the quality of the sound, though. It’s hard to see anything in Ellen, not just because of the dark tones of the atmosphere, but because the pixel art visuals make what little you can see indistinguishable. It also doesn’t help that your flashlight often feels like it’s doing little to illuminate your room. Add to that a frequent uncertainty where to go, a stamina meter that drains far too quickly to make the run button a solution to the game’s frustratingly slow movement, and a clunky interface that’s far too frustrating to use. The little snippets of story you get here are nice, but they hardly make up for this game’s mechanical issues.

If you have the patience for a Graphic Adventure game with a lot of flaws, Ellen does a good enough job with its Horror elements to make it worth a look, especially its excellent use of sound to build atmosphere. However, those same flaws make this a game that most players, even fans of Graphic Adventure games, may be better off skipping.

tl;dr – Ellen is a Graphic Adventure with strong Horror elements that has players searching a cursed house for a missing girl. The Horror elements here are fantastic, thanks to some excellent use of sound. The Graphic Adventure gameplay, on the other hand, is riddled with frustrating flaws, and as a result only more patient fans of the genre will find this game worth trying.

Grade: C+

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