911: Cannibal

Genre: First-Person Graphic Adventure / Horror

Players: 1

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Review:

911: Cannibal is a First-Person Graphic Adventure and Horror game released on PC and Nintendo Switch in 2023. This game puts players in the role of a teenager abducted and brought to the home of the titular cannibal, a man wearing a creepy pig mask (why would a cannibal wear a pig mask? Because it’s creepy, of course!). Players must scrounge whatever they can to try to make their escape, all while keeping their efforts hidden from the cannibal, making sure to return everything to the way it was so he doesn’t suspect anything when he comes to check.

It’s a clever concept, and one I don’t think I’ve seen used in other games of this type. Having said that, I don’t think this game mechanic is quite as thoroughly used as it could have been – apart from a few doors that players need to close and lock back up, everything else can be reset back to normal immediately after you use it. It’s still a fun mechanic that makes players scramble to get everything put back the way it was whenever an unexpected noise catches the cannibal’s attention (he’s far too busy in the kitchen to check on you until something like this happens).

Unfortunately, the way this game incorporates this core mechanic has some serious problems. From start to finish, if you know what you’re doing and the order of events, you can complete this game in maybe 10 or 15 minutes, tops. However, getting yourself to a point where you know this order of events will take some trial and error, with you getting caught multiple times over the course of the game. When that happens, it’s game over, and you need to start from the beginning again. Needless to say, this can get really irritating when you have to repeat the same actions for the umpteenth time.

Another issue with the game is that once you get past the creepy concept and the occasional child-sized bloody handprint, this game just isn’t very scary. Partly this is because everything is so well-lit, but a major contributing factor to this is the game’s 3D visuals which seem like they would have been low-quality fifteen years before this was released (that would be 2008, the year we saw games like Dead Space, Bioshock, Condemned 2, Siren: Blood Curse, and Fatal Frame IV, all games that put 911: Cannibal to shame, graphically). This is joined by somewhat creepy sound, and voice actors who all have heavy accents.

In the end, I think 911: Cannibal is a great concept, but the execution here is lousy. The game’s short length necessitates forcing the player to restart from the beginning whenever they get caught, and the atmosphere just is not scary. If you can get it on sale super-cheap, it might provide an interesting and unique experience for Horror fans, but it is far from a great game.

tl;dr – 911: Cannibal is a First-Person Graphic Adventure and Horror game that puts players in the role of a teenager trying to escape from the house of a murderous cannibal. There are some clever gameplay concepts here, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired, taking a 10-15 minute game and stretching it out with repetition and tedium, and it just isn’t very scary. Horror fans may still find something worthwhile and interesting here, but most players are better off skipping it.

Grade: C

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