Apparition is a survival horror game from Fat Dog Games. You play as a paranormal investigator who’s tasked with capturing evidence of the afterlife.
To accomplish this you have to travel around the woods at night; natch. To discover this evidence while traversing the woods at night, you’re looking for artefacts like demonic symbols, a note describing a heinous act or just some damn creepy picture.
You’ll also be taking photos or gaining video footage of monsters or suspect occurrences. At the same time, you are looking after your own sanity by staying in well-lit areas. Carrying a candle with you will provide you with a little bit of extra light, but your hands will be full.
You start the game with access to a lighter to light candles, a camera to capture evidence and a journal. The journal can be opened to track notes and the progress of your run or to check how many evidence points you have.
Apparition Review
You will collect notes around the map, some of are presented as questions. These can then use on a Ouija board to ask the spirits — good job on making a creepy game creepier — questions which will lead you to more evidence and even make monsters appear.
Once you have access to traps, these monsters can be trapped for extra evidence points. Mind you they are out for blood and there is no way to get rid of them. Everything you do will count for nothing unless you can make it back to your car and leave the woods.
Upon completing runs you gain access to additional items that you can take into the woods with you; tripods for cameras, a cross, a video camera and even a crowbar. Each item has a inventory capacity so you need to manage what you take.
To gain access to all the items you will have to do multiple runs. This also means you will have multiple deaths. To keep all the runs fresh there are different monsters and areas that need items to be accessed.
Spooky
Apparition has got the atmosphere down very well. It’s not the best looking game but very far from the worst. Short flashes of monsters when you do certain things provide some really stressful jump scares.
I found these happen at some great points when you think you’re safe. I found no audio clues to give these away which made them all the more surprising. The sounds in this game are the selling point.
A low moan really sets you on edge when you’re midway through asking a question on the Ouija board. The sounds of footsteps when walking through some trees with little visibility is enough to make you scream out loud in terror.
Apparition is a clever game with some fantastic atmospheric elements and would be a great addition to any gamers library if you like being scared shitless.
Apparition was reviewed on PC using a digital code provided by the developer.
PowerUp! Reviews
Game Title: Apparition
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Atmospheric - 8/108/10
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Replayabilty - 7/107/10
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Great sound - 8/108/10
