You’ve been invited to the Headless festival, you’ve no idea how you got invited to this shindig which offers face-melting EDM beats and free beer but here you are nonetheless and something is very, very wrong.
Within minutes of starting Strobophagia, after taking in its cool neon on black colour scheme and all of the painted dancers, you are given hints that there is something very sinister going on at the Headless festival. You are given information via your mobile phone via various rave chatgroups and they are all talking about seeing weird creatures and something called the Rite.
Stobophagia is primarily an exploration and puzzle-solving adventure. There is no combat to speak of and you must use your brain to get to the end of the game. There are two possible endings, one where you manage to escape from the rave alive and one where you successfully complete the Rite. As you progress you are given more information via your mobile as you discover new areas.
Check out some gameplay in our video below:
The setting is a dark forest which is a fantastic contrast to all of the neon scattered about. The neon works especially well as you complete some of the maze elements of the game with only the faint glow of neon graffiti in the distance to let you know you’re on the right track.
The forest is a great setting for a horror game and exploring it made me feel very tense. There are parts where you are being shadowed by mysterious bird mask wearing antagonists, I presume they’ve organised this party, who will kill you should you stray too far. Needless to say, there are plenty of jump scares to be had in Strobophagia and these are dealt with in a very satisfying way. Prepare to be screaming like a little girl in some parts of the game.
Strobophagia is quite a short game, it took around three hours for my first playthrough and less for my second but it’s still quite satisfying, especially given that it’s priced reasonably on Steam.
So far, so good but there are also some downsides to the game. The EDM aspect has definitely not reached its full potential. The songs, bar one, are instantly forgettable and are spaced apart with long gaps of silence. I feel things could have been made even more overwhelming with a constant brain breaking barrage of music but I suspect developers Green Tile wanted to use the music as a sharp contrast to the moments of silence.
I also encountered a few bugs whilst playing, nothing game-breaking but getting stuck in shrubbery while being hinted down is very frustrating.
The story itself is pretty interesting and the rate at which you are fed information is generally spot-on, right up until the final act. This felt very rushed and I actually enjoyed the game prior to this point much more than completing the game itself.
To sum up, Strobophagia was fun to play. I really liked the setting and although I wanted more, the musical aspect of the game was satisfactory. It has a cool story and I like the fact that you can blast through this title in an afternoon.
Strobophagia: Rave Horror was reviewed using a digital code provided by the developer
Publisher: Green Tile Digital Developer: Green Tile Digital Release Date: 28th October 2020 Reviewed On: PCÂ
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