Review: Decay Part 1 and 2

Decay - Part 1 is a first-person point and click horror-adventure game. Those who have played Myst will be right at home while traversing the dark and dank apartments and corridors making up the game’s first chapter.

The setting is dark from the outset; the first thing player’s find out is their character just committed suicide via self hanging in the bathroom, but is somehow alive.

During the adventure our confused hero finds out about a serial killer that isn’t elaborated upon too much.

To keep the mysterious and eerie feeling, the game has sharp graphics covered in film grain. This is the first game -- and any piece of visual entertainment, really -- where I actually enjoyed having a film grain effect.

Gameplay consists of pointing an arrow over objects to pick up and use later on, puzzles to solve and occasionally combining collected items to conquer the many puzzles found within.

The puzzles are quite challenging. To find a code to unlock a door, gamers will find themselves having to piece together information on a back of a letter, and then somehow realize that the T.V. channel revealed actually holds the numerical answer for them.

Those weaned on Halo and Call of Duty probably won’t make it past the first five minutes of this brain buster.

It’s a haunting and tense game; however, it’s a very brief one. I’m not very good when it comes to puzzles, and I found myself stuck a few times, but I was still able to complete Part 1 in 40 minutes.

Aside from a short play time, Decay also runs into some basic spelling issues. I found a handful of them, and while it doesn’t ruin the experience, it does kind of take you out of the game for a moment -- something an atmosphere focused horror game wants to avoid.

The first part is more of an introduction of sorts; the second part is where the story and puzzles really take off.

Immediately after completing Decay Part - 2 I was googling a release date for the third part.

The music rivals the soundtracks featured in the big fall blockbusters gracing the Xbox 360, and Shining Gate really upped the scare factor.

I haven’t jumped while playing a game since the first Resident Evil zombie dog burst through a window and had me shutting off my PlayStation 1 years ago. There are only four spoken words in the game, and they legitimately freaked me out.

Although you are never in any real danger, the game draws you into the creepy atmosphere with fleeting shadows, randomly appearing footsteps and the return of a creepy little girl doll that seems to be helping you.

There are more puzzles to solve this time, and they are more difficult than the first part’s.

The piano and safe puzzle had me using hints online, and I did find that to break up what is otherwise a perfectly paced one-hour game.

Most important is the fact that the story moves along, and our hero is told what is going on and why he finds himself traversing the office building. The serial killer from before? Seems like he’s behind everything, and you’ve been recruited to help the family he’s murdered.

I can’t wait for Part 3 to flesh out more of the story and challenge my noggin with more puzzles. Although point and click games aren’t as prevalent as they used to be , Decay shows that the genre can still provide a good, creepy time.