Alessandro Guzzo, author of The Land of Pain, returns to the rescue with The Alien Cube: we have tried the game and we are ready to give you our opinion with this one review. Below we present the launch trailer.
The Alien Cube review
We have said it several times and we keep repeating it: over the last few years the horror genre is magically depopulating and the videloudic panorama is being enriched with new titles. This time let’s talk about The Alien Cube, a small but interesting project carried out only by one person: Alessandro Guzzo.
The development of the title took a few years and it is incredible to see what Guzzo has managed to achieve, on his own. After The Land of Pain, the developer returns with a new one horror first-person video game. The protagonist of this harrowing adventure is Arthur who suddenly wakes up inside a strange cave.
It’s cold and the environment around him is strange, he doesn’t even know how it got there. A little further on he sees one severed head, located on a kind of altar. There is also a a rotten corpse dangling from the ceiling of the cave and lighted candles on the ground.
Our protagonist, with our help, proceeds forward until he finds one strange object, a green color cube, which especially glitters. Arthur approaches the object and our character wakes up: that was just one bad dream.
After freshening up in the bathroom and checking the mail, we notice the presence of a letter: this is where our adventure begins. We don’t go further with the plot because we don’t want to spoil or spoil the surprise.
What The Alien Cube wants to do, from the very first minutes, is tell us a story. We know how difficult it is to find good stories in a genre like horror.
Often, to make room for horror, anxiety, tension and all those characteristics we love about the genre, you forget about the plot. Sometimes some people do not even consider the presence of a solid plot within a similar video game necessary: for us, however, it is important and we are happy that Guzzo has offered us a similar story.
It is a story that, as you can imagine, it does not reveal itself immediately. AND fragmented, hidden, we must explore every corner of The Alien Cube e read each document available to put the pieces together and understand what’s going on. A’tense exploration which is cut with a knife but extremely satisfying.
As we move forward in our adventure, we soon realize that Arthur is plagued by visions and often, strange things happen. Inexplicable, similar to a nightmare with open eyes. An interesting aspect, which can be breathed and heard in every corner of Guzzo’s title, is the incredible influence of Lovecraft.
Guzzo was inspired by the writer, this is little but certain. However he managed, through this inspiration, to shape something intriguing, particular and extremely personal.
A long, slow and excruciating journey
The Alien Cube ci deceives, often and willingly. It passes by outdoor settings to placethe closed, claustrophobic, which make us lack the air. What deceives us are precisely the green open spaces that, at first glance, they seem so peaceful and relaxing.
From this point of view Guzzo also played very well with the sound sector. Not only did it offer us almost landscapes poetic, fresh but he embellished them with some melodies that there calm and they do savor that moment. It’s just us and nature, no danger.
“We are free, there is light”, we think. In reality, terror is around the corner.
There are various occasions when we need to explore both the exterior and the interior then houses, caves and more. At first you don’t notice much, because the landscapes deceive us but at some point, we feel observed. This annoying and almost sticky feeling no is not going.
Indeed, it pervades us to the guts and, at that point, also walking outside becomes terrifying.
Closed places really are claustrophobic: the more you walk, the more it seems that the walls are on point of crushing us alive. Guzzo also plays very well with shadow and the lights, not making us understand What stands in front of us or if there is really something ahead of us. To walk, in this game, to explore, is terribly difficult because you always feel with it water in the throat.
The sense of relief comes the moment we see the light at the end of the tunnel and we go out from any closed place. Here too, however, as we said a little while ago, we can’t stay calm. This feeling of relief is momentary because there are eyes watching us.
We do not see them, we do not even know if it is our feeling or not: we know however that they watch our every move.
The graphic sector, as well as the sound, they seemed very good to us. It is absurd to think that only one person has managed to accomplish all this. Setting aside some small environmental bug, which is sure to be fixed with future title updates, The Alien Cube is a truly enlightening title.
From a sound point of view, Guzzo goes through moments of complete silence, in which we can hear only our own steps O distant noises, to quieter situations with a mild melody. Often, however, silence becomes deafening: there are moments when you hear, in the distance, a strange laugh.
On those occasions, we would have liked to run away. That laugh, coupled with the feeling of “someone is following me and watching”, made us miss the air several times. Guzzo manages to convey tension and anxiety through the environment, through a faint sound, a object. For a good initial part of the title, nothing will actually be seen but the author still managed to make the sense of claustrophobia and fear so intense as to leave us completely speechless.
This perennial sense of anxiety, is our worst enemy since remaining tense every minute, every step, every corner we explore, we do not return I actually realize when the real danger. Guzzo worked on the details, on the lights and shadows, on the arrangement of the objects and of every other element within the game.
Everything is exactly found where it should be: ready to make us doubt reality, ready to make us anxious.
The Alien Cube review: what’s the verdict?
We hadn’t tried a in a while such a sense of anxiety e voltage while testing a video game. L’distress that you feel in exploring the environment, the fear to find something in front of them suddenly, they collide with the curiosity and wanting to know what is happening.
Alessandro Guzzo was brilliant and he really made a noteworthy title, which brings honor to the horror genre. It is a title balanced and well done, which offers the public a horror product with all the trimmings without losing sight of the element of storytelling, of the plot.
He also managed to merge exploration e solving puzzles, prompting the audience to check every corner of the game in order to solve the puzzle and move forward. You perceive and notice ameticulous attention retail, which is what keeps the tension alive.
Even in the quietest moments, the agonizing feeling of being watched will not go away and this will create a lot of problems for us. There are some environmental bugs, nothing that can’t be fixed with an update and nothing that creates problems from a gameplay point of view. A game worth trying, particularly if you are passionate about the genre and love the perennial sense of tension, anxiety and exploration.
To conclude, we remind you that The Alien Cube is currently available on PC tramite Steam.