Verdict
Fear the Spotlight is a love letter to iconic 90's horror games, and although it delivers a juicy dose of nostalgia with blocky graphics and a tried-and-true narrative, it transports everything we love about the oldies into the modern age.
From the moment you boot up Fear the Spotlight, it transports you back in time. Everyone has those influential favorites, the games that first forged your love for the medium. If you’re a fan of the horror genre, then you’ve no doubt cursed yourself for depleting your stash of bullets on those damn dogs in Resident Evil 2 or for getting yourself lost in the fog of Silent Hill.
That bittersweet frustration at having to double back on yourself for the one thing you missed, or the aggressive triumph when you finally solve the puzzle you’ve been stuck on for an hour, to even holding your own breath as you duck and skitter behind cover to avoid being seen by some eldritch enemy, all serve as a reminder to why we love horror games in the first place.
Fear the Spotlight hits the nail on the head with its nostalgia trip. Blumhouse – a studio that has, up until this point, dealt solely with iconic horror movies like Sinister, Halloween, and The Purge – has finally crossed the line into game publishing, and honestly? We couldn’t be happier. Developer Cozy Game Pals originally pulled the title from Steam when it decided to create a console port, and it caught the eye of Blumhouse Games.
Blumhouse’s horror chops shine in this old-school survival game, yet it still feels completely accessible to newcomers. It’s a fine line because horror in any medium can be pretty divisive. But Fear the Spotlight manages to remind us horror fans of everything we fell in love with when we played the OGs, while it holds the hands of newbies who are just dipping their toes.
It can be pretty scary, but it’s not too terrifying. The puzzles are frustrating at times, but not so hard that you end up flinging your console away in disgust at your own idiocy (we’re looking at you, medallions puzzle in Resident Evil 4). The narrative is engaging but not too stuffed full of convoluted introspection. It’s perfectly balanced right from the jump, and so from the moment your goth chick best friend Amy persuades you to break into your school late one night, you’re immediately immersed.
Isn’t that what horror is all about? A level of immersion that makes you forget you’re sitting in your favorite armchair with a Switch clutched between your hands, a game that draws you in so easily that you end up half jumping out of your skin when the candles are blown out, and you’re met with a black screen, reflecting your own face back to you. At least, that’s what happens when Amy and protagonist Viv hold a seance in the school’s library.
It’s a tried and true beginning. Goody-two-shoes main character befriends the misfit, and chaos ensues. The story is clever because it ushers you into something you already know and plays up to the tropes that put the genre on the map in the first place. Except, Fear the Spotlight brings it all into the modern age. Viv has a crush on Amy, and it’s a quiet, respectful nod to all the LGBTQ ships from the 90s that never got to see the light of day. The graphics are blocky and pixelated, but the controls are intuitive, with dynamic camera angles and easy interactions. It’s a perfect blend of old and new, and damn, does it make it a lot of fun.
Your bestie Amy wants to see if you can communicate with spirits haunting the school after a devastating fire a few years ago claimed the lives of a few unlucky students. When the candles surrounding your Ouija board get blown out, and the bookshelves tumble in the darkness around you, and you see, for the briefest of moments, some sort of being standing ominously behind Amy before everything fades to black, you know you’re in for a ride.
With Amy gone, you spend the rest of the game searching for your best friend. But as Viv explores the school, it becomes apparent that you’re not the only one being taken back in time. From the notes you pick up along the way to the clues you need for the various puzzles, it’s obvious that Viv herself has been transported somewhere different. It adds another layer to your goal, as not only do you want to find Amy, you also want to get yourself out of the supernatural predicament you’ve found yourself in.
But more than anything, you want to avoid the superintendent. You never know when he’s going to pop up, so whenever you open a door or slip through a passageway to get to the next location, there’s a chance you’ll be met with a glowing face and flames at your feet. He embodies the very spotlight you’re told to fear, with a humanoid form topped with a fiery stagelight that constantly searches for you. Like Pyramid Head before him, you want to avoid the spotlight at all costs; if he manages to shine a light on you it quite literally takes your breath away.
The healing system in Fear the Spotlight is another prime example of softening the blow when it comes to playing modern horror games. We prefer not to think about how many corners, drawers, and secluded little spots you have to check for green herbs in Resident Evil games, but with Fear the Spotlight, all you need is your trusty inhaler to calm your nerves. It’s easily accessible from the menu, which completely pauses the game as soon as you enter, so healing isn’t an issue. This is kind of nice because it takes the pressure away and lets you work things out at your own pace without having to worry about managing resources.
The whole thing is relatively easy to play, but that isn’t a detriment. If anything, it’s a shining positive. It lets us hardcore horror nerds relive the glory days and opens the door to people who want to give the genre a try. There are no horrifying jumpscares, just perfectly paced atmospheric spookiness, all tied together with a genuinely interesting narrative that makes you want to explore every nook and cranny, as opposed to being forced to carry a fine-tooth comb mentality.
As expected, the game plays wonderfully on the Nintendo Switch. It’s almost surprising that it started life as a PC game because Fear the Spotlight was made to be played on consoles. If you squint and tilt your head a little, and try to remember how it felt sitting cross-legged in front of a behemoth of a television with your PS1 controller clutched in slightly sweaty hands, it’s almost exactly the same as playing Silent Hill or any other iconic old-school horror game for the first time.
The graphics are… Fine. Which is great, actually, because that’s all they’re meant to be. No 4K blood splatters or hyper-realistic apparitions here, just good ol’ clunky pixels and satisfyingly loud door handles that signal your entrance into a new area. Except Cozy Game Pals also treats you to smooth-as-butter controls and intuitive light and shadows.
Fear the Spotlight is due to be released on all consoles, including the Nintendo Switch, on October 22, 2024. If you’re firmly in your spooky season celebrations, this one is definitely worth adding to your library just in time for Halloween. If you’re looking for more, you can check out our FNAF: Into the Pit review, as well as our Dark and Darker Mobile preview if you’re after something with more of a fantasy twist. Or, if you’re just looking for some freebies, we have plenty of spooky Roblox codes, including Consume codes and Roblox Doors codes.