By Dora | September 6, 2013 | Add to Favorites
Categories: adventure, araze, bchandler, download, free, horror, indie, mystery, owlcave, pointandclick, rating-o, surreal, windows
Owl Cave's free indie point-and-click adventure game Sepulchre is a horror story of sorts without blood, violence, or jump scares. As the game begins, you, Dr. Lang, are wiling away the time in your train car when the desire for a drink hits you, and... well... to say any more would really be spoiling it, since the game is a mere fifteen minutes to half an hour long. Left-click to interact, and right-click to examine, while mousing over the top-screen brings down your inventory. The game's few puzzles are typically straight-forward affairs that require you to just use or examine your inventory, and the biggest issue is the backtracking, which is mainly only frustrating across such a small space given how slow our hero moves. Plus, I'm just going to go ahead and point out right now that Dr. Lang looks far too much like Yahtzee Croshaw because if I can't unsee it, then neither can you.
Largely, Sepulchre is maybe more eerie than scary, the sort of thing that feels like it would have fit perfectly on ye olde black and white Twilight Zone. It's suggestive of its means and concepts more than anything else, and as a result, it's a strange sort of blend of at once being a bit too obvious in its big twist by being heavy-handed with its clues, and also potentially far too vague and symbolic for players that tend to prefer more plainly stated stories and resolutions. Still, Sepulchre is, for what it's intended to be, incredibly well executed, with a gorgeous visual style, and the voice acting is largely well done despite the recording quality being hit or miss. Sepulchre is worth a look despite its comparative simplicity and brevity for taking an approach to horror seldom entertained by any sort of media these days, and if you like dreamy, melancholy moods, this might be right up your alley.
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ottoman • September 8, 2013 12:28 PM
This was a very beautiful, haunting game.
Dandy • September 8, 2013 3:24 PM
Finally got around to playing this! I completely agree with you Dora about it being too obvious and too vague. With a name like Sepulchre and then meeting the other passenger I figured out where this was headed... but now I just have questions!
Chiktionary • September 9, 2013 7:33 AM
Hmm... I hope there's a sequel or even a prequel to this game, because I really want to know more about
...the lady in the photos...
But the game is convincingly haunting, stark and well crafted.
Dora Breckinridge • September 9, 2013 8:33 AM
I don't think a sequel is planned or even needed. I'm reasonably certain
she's just there to be creepy and revealed as a Death Portrait, given her description, and possibly also as a manifestation of whatever guilt he has over the woman's name he calls on for forgiveness.
Personally, I think any additional extrapolation would ruin the entire mood and concept they're going for, but that's just me. :)
merchantfan • September 10, 2013 10:28 PM
Very well-written. Were they referencing a real book or a fictional one? I couldn't find any references to the author or title online.