another game to make me not sleep

This does a decent job of setting the mood.

This is going to be a difficult game to review, mostly because I don't really want to start it up again to check the validity of anything I might be saying. I'm still alone in the house for a week yet and I'm scared enough to ascend through the dark living room on my way upstairs as it is. rakarr recommended me another horror adventure game, and - because I'm a clot - I downloaded and played through it, with memories of the Chzo games still not quite having left me yet.

In The White Chamber - or the white chamber, as it chooses to stylize itself - you play as a young girl from the Harry Mason school of completely unsurprised acting, who wakes up in a coffin with no memory of what she's doing there or what her name is. After getting out of the dark room you start in, your task is to point and click your way around, gradually opening up and exploring more of the environment you find yourself trapped in, and to discover the reason behind it all while acting completely nonchalantly towards the otherworldly decay of the rooms around you.

Of the games I mentioned above, it's most similar in setting to 7 Days a Skeptic just because of its futuristic stylings, but it shares a bit of the Silent Hill atmosphere of increasingly wrong things invading the stability of reality. It's not quite based on two separate light and dark dimensions where you're granted some occasional illusion of reprieve, though - instead, it's more like a continuous nightmare, with things changing around you according to no earthly laws, very much along the Trilby's Notes scare methodology of having you exit a room apparently normally only to find you're somewhere completely different from where you thought you were going. There were a couple of places where, thanks to both the visuals and sound design, I really was hesitant to venture further and see what was in the next room.

This does too, only more so.

The interface is as straightforward as you could ask for, with the option of looking at or interacting with things, or using an inventory item on them. And in a generous move that I've only otherwise seen done in the Simon the Sorceror games, there's a shortcut to highlight objects you can interact with on the screen, if you turn it on in the options. Adventure games like these often had the nagging feeling you weren't being stifled by lacking the intuition necessary to work out that the designers wanted you to attempt to eat a fridge or wear a dog, but that you were missing one item that would allow you to progress, and letting you see all the objects you can use avoids unnecessary pixel hunting - particularly as in this game, the few locations change so much as you play through them. It's also quite nice about being able to tell what you're trying to do and hint you towards a better way of achieving that, if you're trying to do something in a particularly stupid way.

Graphically it seems unusual at first, with a drawn style looking more suited to a cartoon like Yu-Gi-Oh or some other meaningless combination of syllables like that rather than a horror game, with notably high contrast between the lights and the shadows. But you get used to it before too long, and if anything, the appearance just adds to the uncomfortable nature of the entire game. As I mentioned before, the acting isn't exactly RADA, but to its credit it's not Final Fantasy X either - and it's unusual to see animated cut-scenes in an independent free adventure game, too.

If there was anything I thought was unsatisfying about the game, it was the ending - you're given a revelation that isn't really all that surprising, and about half the amount of background as to what happened prior to the events of the game compared to what you would expect. Still, after you make your escape you're rewarded with a surprisingly out-of-place ending slide, some credits and a hint that will lead you directly into doing something that will scare you if you decide to play through again and follow its advice. I'll get you, Studio Trophis.