In 2013 I was given Screen 7’s The Cat Lady to review and I went in with low expectations, but what I got actually turned out to be a gripping title whose deep, disturbed themes, engaging puzzles and surprisingly warm human drama really impressed me. For sometime now I’ve been eager for the creator, R. Michalski, to release Downfall, a remake of his 2009 title by the same name, and now it has arrived. Downfall maintains a lot of what made The Cat Lady great, and even improves upon some of it. While not as robust a title this time around, in my opinion it’s another hit from this indie dev who dares to do something different.
Joe and Ivy Davis were once a happy couple, but their marriage has been experiencing some problems. Ivy, once Joe’s dream girl, is not well, and their relationship is suffering; things look like they might be coming to an end. In a last ditch effort to make things work, Joe takes Ivy on a weekend getaway to a country resort to reconnect. No sooner does the couple check in when Ivy goes missing and the hotel turns into a blood-soaked murder nightmare. To find his wife Joe is going to have to do some pretty gruesome, horrible things. Joining him on his journey is Agnes, a mysterious woman with no memories. As they try to track down Ivy they interact with the living ghosts of another woman’s memory whose own tragedies mirror Joe and Ivy’s own troubled relationship.
Downfall utilizes the same 2D side-scrolling puzzle-solving adventure gameplay found in The Cat Lady. The game controls entirely with keyboard arrow keys and the Enter key, which can work out to be a little cumbersome as you try to try to navigate menus and the inventory at the same time but it’s definitely an improvement over the sometimes frustrating interface in its predecessor. The game’s artwork is pretty sharp with some very creepy backgrounds and a very distinctive style which uses a lot thick, dark lines and vivid spot coloring to contrast the mostly black and white palette. Harvester has also stepped up their animations, with characters that have an abundant range actions, some of which look extremely sharp (Although oddly enough some characters will look very wooden or goofy for simple animations like walking or picking things up).
The real heart of the Downfall lies in it’s dark, disturbing story and freaky atmosphere. The story of Joe and Ivy’s failing relationship, Ivy’s illness and the sad stories which surround the hotel and its residents offer a lot of intrigue which drove me to play through the entire game in a single, six hour setting. Once again R. Michalski has created a set of characters in a gruesome world who I enjoyed interacting with, and their stories are the real reward for playing. The game also manages to be pretty scary for an adventure game, using it’s distinctive, gruesome art, a pretty good repertoire of visual effects and some really simple but effective tricks to keep things creepy. Sometimes the game creates a lot of tension by throwing a few pieces of furniture into the foreground so I can’t always see my character, or even having the hero walk to the far right or left of the screen so you never know what, or who, you’re going to run into.
Other than the somewhat clunky interface, Downfall does have some other problems. The voice acting is pretty sub par, with the main character who almost never emotes except for an occasional overly-punctuated sentence. The rest of the cast has similar problems, and for a game with so much gore and horror, nobody can raise their voice above a quiet conversation level without sounding like they’re recording in an empty gymnasium. The game also has some 3D rendered cinemas that would look at home on the PSX, not to mention some stock imagery that looks cheap. I feel pretty safe in speculating that these issues are due to a limited budget, which can be expected from an indie dev. It’s not the worst, and doesn’t ruin the overall experience, but it’s pretty noticeable.
Overall I was pretty pleased with Downfall, finding it to be a pretty good continuation of the dark, atmospheric horror I really enjoyed in The Cat Lady (Not to mention tying in the stories in a fun way). It doesn’t quite deliver the same depth and intimate human interactions that really won me over in TCL, but it has some exceptional atmosphere, a few pretty good scares and a story that didn’t let me go until it was done. The game does boast multiple endings and I feel like I could go back and play another session or two to see how my choices drive the resolution. If you were a fan of The Cat Lady, or enjoy a good, messed up adventure game, I’d really recommend this one. Here’s to hoping for many more such titles from Harvester Games.
