I really hate putting a value on other people’s work, because in reality, what their time is worth to them is going to vary and my goal here isn’t to be insulting. Usually. Maybe only once in a while. I generally gauge my own entertainment purposes on a “How many hours did I have to slave away at work to afford this?” metric. Generally, if I can get more or less that amount of time from it, I am happy with the length for what I’ve paid. Unfortunately, even in getting Shines Over – The Damned for free to review, I kind of felt like I got the dirty end of the stick.

It’s probably going to take me longer to dictate this review than I did to “complete” this “game”. There are quotes there because first off, I wasn’t able to complete the game. I did do all the things and got to the end of the narrative, but as the ending was about to roll and my trophy should’ve popped, the game crashed, which I confirmed via a YouTube Let’s Play. I also am using the term “game” loosely, as it’s really more of a short demo that you pay for, and even most demos offer more to do before you wrap them up.

This title focuses on a nameless, faceless protagonist who is warned that every choice has great consequences, or great power requires great responsibility. Whatever Uncle Ben told Peter Parker, basically. From here, you’re mostly accompanied by a dog (one you cannot pet which is a huge missed opportunity and would’ve easily earned an additional point on the final score) as you travel through five extremely short levels. By short I mean shorter than anything else you’ve ever done in a video game. The walk across Call of Duty’s Nuketown or Shipment maps would seem like a long journey compared to these levels. I have a longer walk to my mailbox from my front door.

Outside of the previously mentioned bug preventing me from actually crossing the finish line and the overall length and replayability being non-existent, the issues are somewhat minor, but present. One nagging issue for me was you can’t pause this game, because the first one warns you that hitting it again will dump you on the menu, which you likely will miss before hitting it again, resulting in a boot to the main menu and being asked to start a new game. You’d think this wouldn’t be a problem, but here we are because even though this is only about a 45 minute game, some areas are tedious and this issue also applies to the quick resume feature on the PS5, which closes the game entirely if put in sleep mode. Keep in mind, this timeframe is counting the three times I had to start over combined and I could probably speed run this in about 11 minutes or less now after knowing what to do.

The gameplay is almost entirely walking from your starting point to the exit portal, with the occasional QTE, a single puzzle, light collectible gunting, and navigating one of the most frustrating vehicles I’ve experienced in recent gaming. I wish I could say the narrative makes up for it, but again, there really isn’t much of one. There is almost entirely no dialogue, written or spoken, very little music, and a handful of jump scares. This is the virtual version of that Willy Wonka Experience from recent headlines. This is very much a minimalist video game that I wouldn’t say I hated, but I didn’t have fun either.

I am going to break down this entire game here, so just skip to the end if you’re seriously considering this and want to go in with a fresh take. The first level tasks you with walking down a short rocky hill, and experiencing a jump scare, mashing L1 and R1 frantically, then walking through a portal. The second is a little more involved, but is also one of the more frustrating ones – here you’re going to do some of that amazing first-person platforming that rarely works, but the fun part is that some of the platforms are going to disappear after you go so far, so it’s more of a leap of blind faith that will likely have you raging once you get here. The third level has you wandering some tomb-ish structure, collecting blue orbs, and then solving a puzzle that will kill you if you fail, but if you collect all of the orbs, the solution will show up right before your eyes. Hardly a challenge. The fourth sees you wandering through a somewhat creepy village after making contact with a lady in a cocoon that keeps repeating “Desynchronized” over and over, while you evade some falling blades and the same jump-scare fellow from earlier in the game.

The last level is by far the most frustrating, as you sail along a river in a boat with your trusty pup, dodging birds made of light and rocks and collecting more of those fun little orbs. The problem here is not only I keep getting to the end of the area and just dying with no explanation, but the boat handles like one oar is in the hands of Stevie Wonder and the other is held by Stephan Hawking. It’s excruciatingly long and painfully boring.

Shines Over – The Damned is advertised as a horror walking sim adventure and doesn’t really do any of the genres justice. The horror elements are there, the walking is minimal, and the adventure is nowhere to be found. It’s a weird game, but one that fails to accomplish anything else.

2 out of 10

Pros

• There is a Dog

Cons

• You Can’t Pet the Dog
• Terribly Short with a Lack of Gameplay, Let Alone Replay Value
• Frustrating Gameplay Elements
• You Can’t Pause It

Shines Over – The Damned was developed by Empty Head Games and published by Dea. It is available on PS5. The game was provided to us for review on PS5. If you’d like to see more of Shines Over – The Damned, check out the itch.io page.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

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