Fear the Spotlight is a horror game that I’ll hold in really high regard in the indie space. The presentation is fantastic and devs do a great job of pulling their punches to make the scares super effective.

The aesthetic here is really top notch. It’s got the PS1 feel with the smooth movement of a modern game, and it makes for a really cool and unique style. Interacting with items in this game feels so good. The weight of dragging things around is just right and I would highly recommend playing this with a mouse and keyboard to really take advantage of the full effect.

The stealth sections were simple, but I really liked how they utilized them. Each sequence felt hand crafted to enhance the narrative and they added a good amount of tension of each scene. I think they really benefitted from not having traditional combat here. Sure it made some sections not as weighty because you knew you weren’t going to get attacked from the shadows out of nowhere, but I was still on the edge of my seat for most of my playthrough,

The puzzles here are pretty basic, but they’re engaging enough that they still felt fun to figure out. The breadcrumbing here is super straightforward so you’ll always know what you’re supposed to be working towards. While this takes away from the overall drive to explore, I was always making progress and I felt like the game was never wasting my time.

I thought the narrative overall was portrayed very well. The 1991 incident and Amy’s personal trauma were great to work through and the unexpected love story felt really endearing, especially when you finish playing through both character’s perspectives.

I’d say ultimately the biggest point against this game is that it wasn’t able to bridge the narratives in a super meaningful way. I felt like this was a major issue before I knew there was a second chapter, but even with that extended playtime it wasn’t really able to tie together the 1991 incident with Amy’s personal trauma. The world itself kind of felt rule-less, where a super effective horror game would be able to complete the circle rather than have it dart out in different directions.