Devotion Review - House Of Horrors
After Detention, which had won over critics, Red Candle Games returns with Devotion, a horrifying narrative title in the first person located in Taiwan. Plunging into the heart of memories of a family made up of an actress, a screenwriter, and a little girl wanting to become a singer, the studio approaches horror through the prism of Taiwanese culture and home. Does Devotion manage to make its proposal a solid title? Yes, in certain aspects at least.
HELL IS AT HOME
Taiwan in the early 1980s offers itself to the player - making up a beautiful backdrop - when a young couple moves into their apartment. Li Fang is an international star, and Feng Yu a screenwriter in search of success. Quickly, the couple gave birth to Mei Shin, a little girl with fragile health, more than anything wanting to be as famous as her mother by becoming a singer. If the story could have been beautiful, we quickly understand that life will not have spared our family, leaving the player free to explore the life of the latter, and to put the elements of the puzzle back in place.Conceived as a horrifying walking simulator, the title of Red Candle Games gleefully emphasizes the concepts of home and beliefs, omnipresent. Thus, we witness many scenes of daily life through dialogues and documents, in Chinese with English subtitles however, but also nightmares much more disturbing, appealing to religion and the gods. In this sense, the first moments of Devotion work extremely well, since one is immediately immersed in the traditions, evidenced by a document explaining that one shakes various objects linked to themes in front of a newborn to determine towards which he will tend later.
The concepts of home and personal space are also very present, through Mei Shin's bedroom or Feng Yu's work office. This common space in which the characters evolve both physically and psychologically, mixed with the fragile health of Mei Shin, is central in Devotion, which manages to make it its common thread. We will not reveal more, the interest of the game based on what it has to say.
TIME TO REMEMBER
Devotion is also centered on the idea of memory. As such, we roam the apartment in search of objects and documents that need to be replaced and / or read, in order to trigger the memories of the character we control. On this point, Red Candle does remarkable work. Indeed, even being completely foreign to local traditions and despite voluntary holes in the development of the plot, the player is never lost. The staging, or an element allowing to understand what we see, contributes strongly to it.The title thus pulls out of the game, thanks to an effective, intelligent and inspired artistic direction, at the service of storytelling. Same observation on the technical side since where many games of the genre abuse the effects of light and particle, Devotion uses it skillfully, pushing the cursor only for moments close to the contemplative. Unlike most of his peers, who adopt a linear structure, Devotion chooses the fragmentary narrative, distributed between different years between which one navigates, which are not placed in chronological order. To reconstruct the history of the family, more and more gloomy, going so far as to fall into mysticism, it is necessary to be satisfied with pieces, sufficiently evocative, to know what to look for. To prevent the player from understanding the purpose of the story too quickly, puzzles, which only consist of retrieving an object and then replacing it elsewhere, are resolved by passing from one year to another, and by understanding their meaning thanks to the information in the documents. If the implementation is certainly basic, we can not take away its effectiveness, which gives the player the feeling of nesting the elements over the water, and to progress constantly in the game.
BETWEEN THE DARK ATMOSPHERE AND THE DEFECTIVE STRUCTURE
One of its main qualities is the atmosphere of the game. Through its shades of color, its confusing staging and its horrifying elements - in particular the disembodied characters resembling mannequins - it installs an atmosphere that disturbs, distresses and disturbs. Its staging, associated with its religious and intimate theme, gives the player a real impression of nightmarish camera, at least during the first half of the title. It may be regrettable that the rare jumpscares are finally quite agreed, and only prove effective on sensitive souls.Because unfortunately Devotion suffers from rhythm-related problems. If the first half of the three hours that the title lasts takes place in a very successful atmosphere, the second part breaks the immersion by the introduction of a small hub, betraying the structure of the title. The fluidity of the narration takes a big hit, and we find ourselves acting in a logic of completion instead of naturally continuing to unfold the thread of the story. In a game with a three hour lifespan, it weighs quite heavily. As we said, the overall atmosphere is worked, successfully mixing history, artistic direction and gameplay, but Devotion also has a hard time digesting its influences.
There is of course no problem to be inspired by PT, What Remains of Edith Finch, even Gone Home, but the production of Red Candle gives an almost literal interpretation, leaving to lovers of the genre a sweet taste- bitter of deja vu. The line, thus too coarse, prevents the game from really standing out, despite beautiful ideas and a certain sense of staging.
The notes
+ Positive points
The use of Taiwanese culture
The navigation between the years well thought out
An engaging atmosphere
The link between staging, objects and narration
A sober and very efficient artistic direction
-Negative points
A second part that breaks the immersion
Inspirations too visible
Jumpscares and puzzles agreed
No translation
Devotion is an interesting game because of the situation chosen and the way it approaches its subject. Supported by an effective artistic direction and a neat atmosphere very well connected to his story, he manages to captivate for at least an hour and a half. The second part, if it also has good ideas and assumed artistic bias, is much less controlled, revealing its structure as well as a more hazardous management of rhythm. Finally, failing to get rid of his inspirations, Devotion missed the boat and could not stand out sufficiently from other productions of the genre. Despite everything, he deserves an interest in what he has to offer.
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