Your distant relative has recently passed away, but also knew your late mother who used to own a mine at Scarlet Hollow. Without delving into spoilers, the story starts off compelling and uses death to take itself seriously right away. Its first episode takes a customizable player into the outskirts of town, where they immediately meet their first character.
Its denizens, though cynical and forgotten, are also carrying some secrets of their own. Scarlet Hollow‘s horror relies on the player’s curiosity, which builds its payoff up as they continue.
Howard throws no punches during these scenes and its gory images are a taste of bigger, bitter revelations. Stella becomes the first in a handful of main characters who can take players out on an adventure, later uncovering a sinister presence which border on the horrifying to unbelievable. The choice of following them throws players into different rabbit holes, each given their own set of strange myths and weird characters. I was completely thrown off by the change in tones once the first episode dove into other characters. Howard’s experience of building the tension comes from its real-world factors, while the real scares come from adding in the supernatural when players least expect it. In fact, it’s made more impressive that the game’s short first episode can pack enough mystery and payoffs before the credits roll. This is backed by a bone-chilling whisper of unknown entities in a dark forest or the sudden freezing of a soundtrack for the next panel.Ĭharacters like Tabitha paint a gloomy scene while her introversion creates more questions than answers in early chats. This drops a huge horror ball, making Scarlet Hollow effective in executing scares. But when Howard brings her brand of supernatural monstrosities in, players could be dropping their jaws at the sheer sight of things they’ve been investigating. Going against point-and-click nature, Scarlet Hollow actually sends some chills by touching on human themes. Stellar writing makes these characters, frozen in panels, realistic and immediately likeable from Episode 1. This gives players a satisfaction of interacting with characters the way they actually would.
Instead of throwing exposition, each dialogue choice is more subjective than other past titles including Telltale Batman and Mass Effect. Despite their shared tiredness from living in the town, I was impressed by how their quirks and identities unfolded in discussion. Players are thrown into an all-too familiar mystery story, but finds its footing by introducing some of Howard’s unique characters. Of course, the game is set in the titular town of Scarlet Hollow. Fans of these franchises will feel immediately welcome at the moment they wake up in a bus carrying them to Scarlet Hollow. Players can quickly become comfortable under a toned colour palette, blended with a campy but noir atmosphere to ooze Stranger Things or Gravity Falls.
STELLA SCARLET HOLLOW SERIES
In the likes of Telltale‘s series of point-and-click games, much of Howard’s production is idea-driven through characters. If Scarlet Hollow sounds like a motion comic, that’s because it plays out like one with some welcome layers. For Scarlet Hollow, this thriller changes with characters and each panel springing to life at players with a constant motion of choices and text dialogue. It’s also a Kickstarter-based collaboration with indie studio Black Tabby Games and injects pure creativity for the sheer fun of it.
STELLA SCARLET HOLLOW FULL
Hand-drawn by artist Abby Howard, her range of neo-gothic horror and monster making are in full force. These are also well-executed, enough to pull players along for more episodes in the future. They each give players opportunities to navigate the town, which later rewards curiosity with unsettling moments.
STELLA SCARLET HOLLOW FREE
The first episode, free on Steam, does a great job in settling new visitors with a cast of likeable characters. Its chills come from an old-school suspense and discovering that not everything is as it seems when players sink further into a brief episodic tale. Its execution in a horror visual novel works well through old-school mysteries and slow buildup in its short time. Scarlet Hollow proves not all horror games need jump scares or hyper violent animations for them to work.
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