In this review we will tell you about Gylt, a horror-tinged action adventure that was originally released exclusively for Google Stadia
Gylt is a title that in the now distant 2019 was published by Tequila Works exclusively for Google Stadia. Unfortunately, however, as surely many of you already know, the Google gaming on demand service was permanently closed at the beginning of this year, effectively making some titles inaccessible.
Fortunately however after the closure of the Tequila Works service decided to publish your game also on other stores and platforms, thus preventing it from vanishing definitively into oblivion. Now that Gylt is finally available again we have therefore decided to write this reviewso as to help you understand the actual quality of this almost disappeared title.
Bullying 101 – Gylt Review
In Gylt you will wear the clothes of Sallya young girl forced to deal with the drama of the disappearance of his cousin Emily. Emily is a shy and taciturn girl who had recently moved to the city and, as often happens in these cases, in spite of her ended up in the crosshairs of school bullies. The searches for the poor girl have now stopped but our protagonist however is not willing to give up, and still continues to hang posters throughout her village.
One day, due to the meanness of his schoolmates, Sally will get lost in the woods and will end up reaching the mysterious abandoned factory that towers over the city. To return to the valley he will therefore decide to take the old one cable car, but unfortunately this decision will cost her dearly. This means indeed will lead the girl in a distorted version of his city which, in addition to being completely destroyed, will also be teeming with fearsome ones monsters.
Sally will then end up wandering this world until surprisingly he will bump into Emily, intent on hiding inside the school to avoid the creatures. The protagonist will therefore put aside her fears to launch herself in pursuit of her cousin, in a desperate attempt to bring her back to the normal world.
From here on, the title will continue in a fairly linear way, with Sally who will end up with the search for Emily become aware of all the oppression that the cousin has been forced to endure. Sadly though overall the plot really turns out very trivial and failed to engage us at all. Bullying is a topic that over the years it has been covered over and over againand sadly Gylt he failed to do so with particular creative flashes. In fact, all the already trivial events of the story will be narrated in an extremely basic way and even the main twist will end up being really very phoned.
One girl army – Review Gylt
As we have already anticipated in the previous paragraph, in this title you will have to deal with a large number of monsters scary who will obviously try to get your protagonist out of the way. These creatures will hunt you all over the city and moreover they are also divided into different types. Some of them will just poke you with their claws, others will be able to use annoying ranged attacks, while still others will even be able to teleport to move faster.
In the early stages of the game you will have no way to deal with these creatures and to survive you will be forced to move stealthily and take advantage of the covers to not be seen. This situation of downside will help create a good atmosphere of tension, but sadly it won’t last long.
After less than an hour of play, in fact, you will come into possession of an upgrade for the torch that will allow you to defeat monsters by aiming the light at some of their weak points. Basically this mechanic is intended as a last resort in case you are discovered but, given the extreme simplicity with which it is possible to eliminate the creatures, it will soon become your main method of approach. Furthermore, as you progress in the game, you will also get additional tools that will be used to make battles easier and easier. Of course, by always attacking enemies head-on you could suffer damage and drain the flashlight battery but, given the extreme abundance of batteries and healing items, lack of resources will never be a real problem.
Precise Exploration – Gylt Review
While we haven’t spoken highly of Gylt so far, we have to strike a chord for his level design. In fact, during the game you will have the opportunity to explore so many different places which will always stand out thanks to a good complexity and variety.
These places are obviously teeming with enemies ready to slow you down, but monsters aren’t the only obstacles you’ll encounter in your path. In fact, all areas of the game are full of puzzle environmental which will have to be resolved in order to continue. For example, in some cases you will need to illuminate some photovoltaic panels with your torch, while in others it will be enough to move objects or interact with switches. Overall these puzzles are neither complex nor particularly original, but thanks to their variety they help to make advancement much more enjoyable.
The various levels of the game are also made even more interesting by the high number of collectibles to collect. Exploring you can in fact easily come across documents, caged birds to free and petrified citizens to save. The number of collectibles in each area is easily visible from the screen map and this will help you understand when you have explored each area perfectly. In Gylt, however, not all places will be accessible immediately and in some cases, if you intend to play as a completionist, you will be forced to do some backtracking once you find some new tools.
Not bad style – Gylt review
For what concern technical sector Gylt seems to be doing quite well. We played there PS5 version of the title and during our test we did not find any kind of performance problem. Altogether the framerate is always very stable and we haven’t run into any kind of bugs of note. Both the textures and the models are really greatbut unfortunately the animations, on the other hand, leave a bit to be desired, since they are often too rudimentary.
If on the one hand Gylt’s technical sector is average, that one artistic instead he managed to fully satisfy us. The title is characterized by one stile cartoonesco which lends itself very well to the topics covered and which contributes to making the design of the characters and, above all, of the enemies unique. Furthermore also the settings are really very neatfull of details and overall really beautiful to see and explore.
The only question we have about the team’s artistic choices is how they are treated cutscenes. The game indeed it alternates classic engine videos with animations made with various static illustrations. Alternating these two styles is a choice that didn’t convince us at all and more than an authorial choice seems to be the result of a somewhat too hasty development.
Conclusions
Now the point of our review has finally arrived in which we sum up Gylt. Definitely this title it’s not a masterpiece indeed, it suffers from serious, very glaring shortcomings in many different areas. The story is boring and already seen, the encounters with enemies are too easy and the game fails to create that tense atmosphere that should always be present at least in part even in lighter horror films.
Despite that though Gylt it’s not a completely throwaway title. The game is anyway enjoyable and it is certainly able to entertain here players who are simply looking for a dark-colored title to pass the time with without too many pretensions. Furthermore also i you have completed they will be able to enjoy playing Gylt thanks to the good care of the levels and above all to the high number of collectibles.
Gylt is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X | St. If you are interested in staying up to date on all the news on the world of video games and much more, then continue to follow us here on techgameworld.com. Furthermore, in case you want to buy some games at an advantageous price, we suggest you take a look at the many offers on Kinguin.
Plus points
- Buon level design
- Very nice art style
Points against
- Simple and uninspiring story
- Enemies pose no real threat