It’s always great when a horror title makes its protagonist their own worst enemy. That’s exactly what Serafini Productions’ Brokenlore: UNFOLLOW does with Anne, a protagonist who might not be the most agile one to control, but whose emotional layers are slowly peeled back to reveal an inner child who has been traumatized, seemingly beyond repair.
This is a game that forgoes the bells and whistles of mainstream titles, with a minimalistic approach to presenting the experience. That works well with excellent visual and audio design to convey Anne’s inner darkness. Exploring its levels had my skin crawling with the anticipation of a jump scare from another manifestation of her trauma.
You’re thrust into the story with little to no context of why you’re there as you explore Anne’s home and uncover snippets about her personality, and discover more about how her bullies at school triggered an eating disorder. The effects of all that have left her confused with her self-esteem tied to her body weight and a social media presence that hasn’t really taken off the way she would have liked.
But as you explore the house, additional facets of her life and personality add to the pain she currently faces. The lighting inside her home reflects the bleakness of her mental state. It’s a design choice that’s excellent as a visual reminder of Anne’s inner turmoil, but it can get annoying when you’re looking for important items that you need to proceed with the story.
There were points where things got annoying, if I’m being honest. While I completely understand the need for dim lighting and instances where my flashlight ran out of juice from a story perspective, it did make the gameplay a tad harder than it should have been. That’s further exacerbated by convoluted level designs that can have you backtracking quite a lot before you find what you’re looking for to unlock that door in your path, or an ingredient for some bizarre cooking recipes.
” The game’s visuals and performance are definitely up there with the genre’s strongest contenders.”
It’s a horror game that nails its core elements, while the story goes from strength to strength with each new discovery about the events that led to Anne’s current predicament. The enemy designs are a personal highlight, each of them bringing something new to the table. However, most encounters with enemies in the game’s early hours devolve into chase sequences where you’re grappling with the game’s level design and clunky controls.
The turn speed is an example, making repositioning in the midst of a chase difficult, and you lose valuable seconds as you try to flee your attacker. That’s compounded by poor landmarking in many areas, the narrow corridors making it hard to find your bearings when you’re already freaking out about a monster that’s hot on your trail.
It was hard to tell if the controls were being flaky or whether my own panic was causing me to hit the wrong buttons as I tried to evade my pursuer. Anne isn’t a badass like Hinako from Silent Hill f, and she goes down in about three to four hits from her adversaries. While that was meant to encourage a stealthy, measured approach, I found it easier to just run at full speed, hoping that the path I was taking was the one that would lead me to safety.
However, those are minor complaints when the experience does so well to convey a sense of foreboding anticipation. A little more refinement and polish is definitely something the game needs, as interacting with items sometimes doesn’t register unless you’re positioned in precisely the right spot. It’s jarring in an experience that’s otherwise cohesive and is a detail I believe can, and should, be addressed in patches once the game is released.
“I must give credit to the way all of these issues are handled in the game, the creative flourishes behind them underlined by a sense of empathy”
Complaints aside, the game’s visuals and performance are definitely up there with the genre’s strongest contenders. The use of lighting to convey danger is top-shelf stuff, and the DualSense integration for my PS5 was quite well-done in the few instances that it was there. Interacting with Anne’s perpetually sleeping cat, for instance, brought vibrations that reflected the steady hum of its breath as it snoozed away, unaware of the horrors that were unfolding around it.
I was constantly on my toes, the inky blacks and oppressive silence of different environments making me crave the safety of a well-lit room, some of which are so few and far between that you feel your nerves being stretched to their breaking point.
But it’s the game’s story, characters, and thematic influences that truly make it stand out. Anne’s eating disorder, the events that prompted it, and the subsequent responses to her weight loss from both friends and foes are handled well. There’s an air of sensitivity that permeates the entire experience, although the developers were not afraid to tackle some seriously heavy stuff.
The things that Anne has had to go through are very real problems that are going to be familiar to victims of bullying. Her escapism and need for validation are simply natural consequences of her experiences, made worse by a family that doesn’t truly know how to help her. I must give credit to the way all of these issues are handled in the game, the creative flourishes behind them underlined by a sense of empathy.
“As far as its horror elements go, Brokenlore is a heavy hitter.”
The enemies themselves are a great showcase of this balance. Each of them is a manifestation of somebody in Anne’s life, made terrifying thanks to her own inability to see them as just people. They are her tormentors in the real world, and the root cause of her mental fatigue. To her tired mind, they loom large as threats that she cannot fully deal with, her own insecurities limiting her options.
It’s a great way to showcase how a victim of bullying can choose to dissociate from the real world and create fantasies in their heads. The team behind this one deserves a lot of credit for the manner in which these issues have been blended into the experience to make a psychedelic horror game that makes a lot of sense both narratively and contextually. The choices you’re presented with are a reflection of this, and could have you staring at your screen, wondering what you would do if you were in Anne’s shoes.
The audio design deserves a special shout, oppressive silences blending seamlessly with a soundtrack that’s probably one of the biggest reasons you’re going to panic when you’re trying to evade an enemy. For starters, the presence of an enemy triggers a scary tune which then ramps up the moment you’re spotted, making the tension you feel as you try to find a way to safety almost suffocating.
There are also subtle touches like the laugh of a doll when I entered a room that forced me to hit pause so I could regain my composure, or the sudden ringing of a telephone jumping at me from my DualSense’s speaker, which triggered a reflex that made me drop it on my couch! As far as its horror elements go, Brokenlore is a heavy hitter.
Would I recommend this one to you? Definitely. However, if its thematic influences are triggering to you, you might want to sit this one out, as it isn’t afraid to dive deep almost right off the bat. But if you’re confident in your own bravery, this one is going to have you engaged within an hour of playing it if you can have the patience to make it past the opening act.
All things considered, Brokenlore: UNFOLLOW handles its subject matter with tact and deftness, and is definitely something that’s going to haunt you long after you roll the credits on Anne’s adventure.
This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.
