Fear the Spotlight is the perfect Halloween game and a stellar horror game for 2024.
The spooky season is upon us and, surprisingly, so are the year’s inevitable indie hair game releases. Chief among these is Fear of the center of attentionthe first outing for new horror publisher Blumhouse Games, which announced its six-strong titles in November.
Fear of the center of attention is a PS1/2 inspired game that follows in the footsteps of the great retro horrors of 2024 like The place of crows AND recruiter. It’s also the first major release for the hilariously named CozyGamePals, a two-person studio headed by Crista Castro – a former art director for Nickelodeon – and Bryan Singh, who worked on The last of us, UnexploredAND trip.
The duo may be one of the most unique pairings in the indie developer scene, but they definitely work together very well. Fear of the center of attention isn’t just a great Halloween option – it’s among the best and most memorable indie horror games of recent years, even in the face of stiff competition.
Fear of the center of attentionHis story may seem familiar, not least because it is very similar The place of crowsit emulates tropes from classic horror films and games from the PS1 and PS2 era. However, her true influence quickly becomes apparent: she retells The Phantom of the Opera through a new lens, introducing a legion of players who hate music or are indifferent to Broadway in one of the most famous stories ever committed to the stage.
You take on the role of Vivian Singh, a shy bookish girl with asthma, eyes hidden behind big glasses, who teams up with her friend Amy Tanaka – your classic goth girl with a hangover and forging signatures – to spend a creepy evening with a ouija board in the school library. Decades ago, in 1991, the school suffered a fire that killed 24 children. Sad, of course, but things will work out, right?
Of course not – you both open a portal to the unknown, parting ways, and you, like Vivian, find yourself in a Silent Hill-style Otherworld take on the school – one that’s falling apart, and apparently linked to the tragedy of the early 90s.
We go to break.
Setting a strong scene
Through journal entries, double-sided notes that suspend disbelief between students, and various signs and visuals, you learn how a school production of The Phantom of the Opera you soon see life imitating art – in which Chrissy and Raoul, united by love letters and roses, are soon separated by a dark figure who lives beneath the theatre.
The arrangement is excellent, telling its story through the classic, time-worn way Resident Evil message lenses spread across endless pages. The consciousness of CozyGamePals’ writing is beautifully balanced and effortlessly executed – you see important information through the lens of your character, carefully crafting a simple story around strong voice acting, keeping the exposition consistent, while the path of the largely linear conclusion through a reliable school still gives feelings of freedom and wonder.
It would be ironic if a teasing monster appeared right here, wouldn’t it
The early scenes are beautifully choreographed but not scary. Sure, you have your bright-eyed toddlers – who show up in the most unlikely places – but given the horrors of a school fire, they feel just as much a victim as you.
Dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge
Soon, all hell breaks loose because of your one enemy: The Spotlight, a more cartoonish cross between Pyramid Head and The Silence Boys from BioShock Infinitewho chases you through classrooms and hallways.
Fear of the center of attention plays more like Still awakens the depths-combat is traded for procedural avoidance and hiding from his light as he stomps around. If you get caught in its beam, it pulls you in, damaging you before it overwhelms itself, giving you a short window of time to find the shadows. In a nice health twist, your life revolves around your asthmatic lungs, which are treated with inhalers.
The Spotlight is the only major threat, but as iconic as they come.
However, these sequences prove frustrating, especially early on. From the box, Fear of the center of attention it gets very dark, which means it can be hard to know where to go – something that’s not helped by unreliable camera angles and the fact that Vivian runs like she’s pulling a truck, making it quite difficult to tell of time. Spotlight also burns the floor as he walks, and with a wide splash area, which can cause serious damage if you lose track of where he is.
However, you get used to these sections; based on room layouts, you can often predict his arrival, allowing you to enjoy the impressive variety of puzzles. They are relatively easy to solve, especially by jumping around and experimenting; a fuse box problem is probably the most confusing thing in the game, but you’ll figure it out eventually. A particular high point comes when a puzzle combines with The Spotlight, and you must balance progress with careful timing.
all the time, Fear of the center of attentionIts highly symbolic story holds strong and eventually morphs into a much darker beast, constantly drawing you in with clever twists on new and familiar ideas and plot points, culminating in a satisfying end to the proceedings after about three hours. So you are led to believe, at least.
The game’s consistent atmosphere never fails to please.
Two games for the price of one
After all is said and done—with the loosest of endings tied up through a well-executed, post-credits phone call—you’re rewarded in another way. It’s less of a new game and more of a new approach to gameplay, and it’s done extremely well, giving you a whole new perspective by offering a scarier experience and one that leans more towards the health mechanics of Amnesia: Dark Origins– perfect, considering how bleak her plot points get.
The fact was created by only two people Fear of the center of attention it’s an incredible feat, and a no-brainer for $20, just in time for Halloween; you’ll hope CozyGamePals makes the most of the potentially open ending they’re hinting at with a sequel, whether literal or spiritual.
Meanwhile, for Blumhouse Games, Fear of the center of attention it’s a fantastic sign of things to come. With five more indie horror games on its books, and if it maintains this quality of studio partnerships, it could be the Annapurna Interactive of its genre – and we could see a new dawn (or, I suppose, dusk?) for horror gamers worldwide.