HWM (Singapore)

The scary Daredevil simulator

Stifled

- By Salehuddin Husin (GameAxis)

Right at the start, Stied drops you o the deep end. You wake up in a bed with no idea who you are or what you’re supposed to do. Exploring the house eases you into the game’s mechanics, where sound pushes back the ever-encroachin­g fog of darkness. You won’t get an immediate explanatio­n as to why you suddenly can’t see or why you can miraculous­ly navigate using echolocati­on.

You’re married? You’re going to a party with the wife? At least you think so, with the clues you nd scattered about, but you’re rarely told outright. If you’re looking for a cinematic experience with a strong story component, then I’m afraid Stifled isn’t the game for you. It forces you to eke out whatever bits of story you can find, making this better suited to those who prefer piecing clues together and coming up with their own theories.

Once the tutorial’s over, you’re taken to the aftermath of a car crash and left to fend for yourself. It’s here that the game goes into its distinctiv­e visual style, a predominan­tly wireframe view seen in the screenshot­s and trailers. It’s very cool.

Now, you can play Stifled in a variety of ways: with just a PS4 controller, with a mic added into the mix, or with both the PlayStatio­n VR and a mic. There’s a world of di erence between them

and I can’t recommend the PSVR route enough; it’s the only way to get the complete Sti ed experience.

Everything works through sound. Standing still quickly envelopes you in darkness, whereas movements generate sound waves that outline your surroundin­gs for you. Nearby environmen­tal cues, such as dripping water, cramped and don’t really allow experiment­ation, nor are there different ways to bypass these monsters. There’s usually only one right way to avoid them, and that often involves creating a distractio­n of some kind while you scramble in the opposite direction.

That’s pretty much how every encounter plays out, severely detracting from the

 ??  ?? Full color areas come across as visually jarring as there’s nothing much to do in them.
Full color areas come across as visually jarring as there’s nothing much to do in them.

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