Maid of Sker review: Book a short stay at the horror hotel

Source: Wales Interactive

I live in Wales, so I reviewing a game near a house that is about a xl-minute drive from my town was an opportunity I couldn't miss. Set in the coastal region near Bridgend, The Maid of Sker is a haunting folkloric ghost tale taking a life of its own. Horror games don't have to be all most blood and guts exploding over our screens, every bit the Maid of Sker demonstrates, sometimes it's worth sitting dorsum and enjoying the spooky story.

Sing the sorrow

Maid of Sker

Bottom line: Even though "Sker" is a user-friendly hominem for a survival-horror game, information technology doesn't quite deliver the impact you're expecting at first. Once it does go going, it fails to keep its momentum at times, just the story drives the spooky suffering.

Pros

• Engaging narrative
• Awesomely atmospheric
• Short and sugariness
• Rewarding for inquisitive players

Cons

• Inconsistent scare/explore balance
• Occasionally glaring graphic inequalities

The Maid of Sker: Atmospheric and tense

The Maid of Sker is prepare a trivial over a hundred years agone and is based on real folklore of South Wales. As the story goes, the real Elisabeth Williams fell in love with Thomas Evans, a poor musician. Her begetter locked her in her room to prevent them from running away together, and eventually, Elisabeth died of a broken eye subsequently Thomas never came to rescue her. That sets the tone for this well-written survival horror title.

Category	Spec
Programmer	Wales Interactive
Publisher	Wales Interactive
Players	Single-Player
Genre	Survival Horror
Platforms	PC, Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch
Cantankerous-play	Yes
Age-rating	Mature
Cost	$25

In this game, the player controls the musician, Thomas, who has received a alphabetic character from Elisabeth begging to exist rescued. Her male parent has locked her in the attic, and she is being forced to sing a song that makes people go crazy. He must compose a kind of counter-curse by collecting 4 musical cylinders from effectually the grounds, rescue Elisabeth, and set up things right.

There is a mashing of elements in The Maid of Sker, which arrive superbly rewarding as the story goes, but also a tad boring in after stages. One time you've passed the intro and stumbled through woods to go to Sker hotel, entering into the halls is reminiscent of the early on Resident Evil games. Players who enjoy the early survival horror genre will find much to appreciate in the Maid of Sker.

Quondam school horror with a new historic period twist

Source: Wales Interactive

Some significant aspects, such equally having infrequent saving opportunities and limited ammo and healing supplies, feel borrowed from this era, just rather than feeling ripped off, I appreciated it. For example, phonographs are tucked away in safe-rooms to save the game, like typewriters in RE. People may criticize this and say it doesn't bring anything new to the table, but it felt like stepping dorsum to a fourth dimension bygone era with a new and unfamiliar environment to explore.

There'south enough hither to keep things ominous. Some doors require players to find keys corresponding to a creepy emblem to open up them; of grade, that entails a cautious search around the hotel. You're suitably rewarded for poking your olfactory organ into every nook and cranny with secrets, puzzles, and collectibles. The atmospheric interior of the building breathes with its own life, creaking and settling loudly in ways which are jarring and hair-raising. Most of it comes from sneaking around, finding keys, and unlocking doors.

Periodic puzzles provide welcome pauses from stressful sneaking. They are non overly complicated; the answers are ordinarily hidden in patently sight. It'due south a matter of really taking in your surroundings. In that location is a constant fearfulness that something might pop out at y'all from the gloom and smack you in the face. The anxiety is justified early on, every bit you catch glimpses of sack-material hood wearing men who are blind and don't seem to like noise, and foot-steps echoing from above hint that you're certainly not lone.

Solving the mystery

Source: Wales Interactive

Overall, The story is what keeps y'all going. There's a hotel being restored to its glory days, a shipwreck simply off-shore harboring a mysterious entity that poisons the minds of those who are trying to proceed it secret, and a simple song that caused all this trouble. It's an engaging story that you will want to conclude.

Temper aside, The Maid of Sker isn't without its bursts of tension. As you start to bump into more than sack-men, the very business firm itself seems to turn against you. Grit and pollen in the environs swirl about in thick patches, which tin can cause Thomas to cough or even choke. Coughing alerts them to your presence where they will detect y'all.

To traverse these ecology hazards, you have to make him hold his breath, and there are certainly moment'due south where I was property my breath in unison. There are also very few ways to defend yourself. The simply real weapon you will wield is a steampunky doo-dad called a Phonic Modulator, which emits a supersonic pulse and momentarily stuns the nearby enemies. It's handy for buying you a couple of minutes, only with a limited cartridge supply, it is not something you'll be using haphazardly.

The Maid of Sker: Doom and gloom

Source: Wales Interactive

Unfortunately, these tense moments are diluted when the hotel becomes inundated with sack-heads in the latter part of the game. An area that was vastly empty spaces eventually becomes teemed with a new packet of friends to avoid. The "former school" feel has now worn off, and you lot're into territory that feels more similar Outlast. I've criticized Outlive in the past for "brand or break" moments where the histrion is corralled into feeling like they have to make these epic runs for cover, just to observe that they weren't in whatever danger anyway. It wears downwardly the scare cistron afterwards a while and makes it abrasive. Maid of Sker suffers from the same issue.

The stealth element plays a big part in this game; players have to creep to make less racket and concur your breath to avoid breathing in irritating particles. But the sack-men may as well have cloth in their ears. I'm not certain if this is to practise with the difficulty level, but for creatures who don't similar sounds and are supposed to be very sensitive to annihilation that isn't the Silence, they don't respond to sound frequently.

I walked through areas other players might take crept through, and I coughed and choked on pollen only a few feet from a sack-homo who couldn't have been less interested. Elisabeth tries to keep in contact with Thomas in one case he is inside, with phones which are dotted around the hotel. The shrill rings conveniently draw no attending at all from the sack-heads. Additionally, I ofttimes wished in that location was a more physical way to manipulate them out of the way. The main hall of the hotel has bells that describe them to another surface area, but information technology'south not entirely clear how this mechanic works. Instead, I opted for just sneaking by.

Maybe not night enough?

Source: Wales Interative

A lot of time and intendance went into making the Maid of Sker both visually and audibly atmospheric, and it works well to a certain extent providing your surroundings permit full immersion. The haunted creakings of the hotel requite an anxious pause to take in your surround, and the utilize of gentle tinkling audio queues alarm you to collectibles hidden nearby. Merely playing the game in the mean solar day makes for a harder experience.

The brightness and gamma options fail to encounter a happy center basis that doesn't result in washing the unabridged screen out, so playing in a darkened room is best for the virtually immersive experience. The graphics are also not especially abrupt. I'd even become so far as to say the graphics are a flake dull. With some graphical interlacing issues on top, this doesn't play equally cleanly as I feel it could. This game was reviewed on an Xbox One S, and then players on other platforms may not feel this issue, merely it certainly made a detrimental impact on my judgment.

Should y'all go Maid of Sker?

Overall, the Maid of Sker is a great survival horror game but suffers by trying to be too much similar some games. There is a solid story behind it, most Lovecraftian in nature, which is tantalizing, and it became the reason I wanted to proceed playing more than any other appealing mechanics.

It may not "do information technology better" than the other games The Maid of Sker could be compared to, only for a footstep away from Wales Interactive's usual FMV titles, it is an honest and effective endeavor at something a bit different. You can grab this title on Xbox I, PS4, Nintendo Switch, or play it on Steam right now.

Siren Vocal

Maid of Sker

A demented lullaby

The Maid of Sker is a tale of horror but winds up not quite beingness scary enough. Sker-y? Borrowing elements from other tried and truthful titles, at that place is nothing here nosotros haven't seen earlier, but exploring Sker hotel and uncovering the mystery and being taken in by the story lore was enjoyable plenty.

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