Strobophagia’s visuals and decent music help to create an uncomfortable atmosphere. Sadly, that atmosphere is hurt by the simplistic and somewhat stale narrative gameplay that plays against what visual expectations were assumed.
I can safely say that I’ve never reviewed a game like Strobophagia before in my life. It’s an uncomfortable oddity that mixes rave music with what can only be described as Slendermen-populated nightmares with faces. It’s a creepy adventure that is more about exploring and keeping in bounds while teetering out of bounds.
Let’s get this going.
Story is what you make of it…sorta
When you’re thrown into the game you’re essentially given no details. There is a rave going on, there are creepy characters that are neon built all around you, but there is no clear picture of what the hell you’re supposed to be doing and why…at least not immediately. Maybe that is the charm of the game, it’s exploration at its purest, where you don’t understand how you get to where you ended up, so going on an adventure to find out drives player agency. Or drives you to further confusion. Probably more of the latter.
Anyway, the game begins with you picking up a cell phone at a tent with lots of creepy beings waiting to do the same. That cell phone is the crux of your gameplay, as you connect with certain parts of the game (and people?) with it, which provides you with narrative information about what the hell is happening through other dialogue, and it also keeps you safe at the festival. You will also get tasks to do through these pieces of dialogue, where someone will text you to do task A, and when you do you get more information. It’s typical, but it’s still kinda creepy. The repetitive nature of information gathering in the game can become long in the tooth when it comes to long-term narrative solutions. You scan QR codes to connect with other beings, which leads you to try and uncover some CLUE-like mystery along the way. While one can argue that most of what you get from this game’s narrative can be gotten through NPCs, the style and flow to how that is gathered in Strobophagia are just too repetitive for my liking. Maybe that is the unique charm of the game, though, which makes it stand out. Or maybe the devs were depending on atmosphere to make up for gameplay design. It’s hard to say, but the end result is creepiness and uncomfortable gameplay with more visually-driven atmospheric execution than narrative.
Going back to cellphones, keeping within cell range also means that you understand where you are, which keeps you close to the rave area (and some other areas). You can leave the cellphone area and explore the woods and such, which offer up some creepy-ass things, like a weird labyrinth that is owned by one of the creepier looking beings in the game. In that labyrinth, if you turn the wrong corner, then the game sends you back to the beginning of the maze. It can get very confusing and frustrating at times. Getting back to exploration, there is quite a bit of exploring to be had, but the game definitely lets you know that it’s dangerous to do so. I won’t tell you how because that would ruin the surprises.
Shifting over to the controls, the game controls are simplistic and there are a few things you can interact with, such as beer and cellphone stations. For the most part, Strobophagia is mostly a simple, somewhat barren game that offers more atmosphere than it does real true gaming substance. That doesn’t mean it’s awful or not creative, it just means its main purpose is to make you uncomfortable rather than to give you a wholly shaped gaming experience. Information gathering and exploration are nice, but the world that is built from and the style of gameplay that Strobophagia brings is just a bit too simple for me. It feels like the Steam VR game The Visitor, which costs $1.99 just to get VR jumped-scared. Games of this type can hold value, but knowing what that value is going into it is the trick sometimes. Ultimately, it just depends on your expectations. For me, Strobophagia was good enough one-time around. If they make a VR version of this, I might change my mind. The music in the game is good enough to try it out again.
Visuals driving it all
The big plus of Strobophagia is the atmospheric style and how it grabs you. The visuals of the game are unsettling most of the time and the blank expressions, lack of dialogue, and environmental details of this ‘other world’, where it seems like some awful afterlife, help to create that atmosphere that drives the rave machine. The visuals will very much hook you into the game and sometimes you need that to fully buy into it.
Conclusion
Strobophagia’s visuals and decent music help to create an uncomfortable atmosphere. Sadly, that atmosphere is hurt by the simplistic and somewhat stale narrative gameplay that plays against what visual expectations were assumed.
