Creepshow review – Brief yet suitably creepy

Starting out life as a film series before being turned into a TV show, Creepshow has now made its debut in the world of video games. Keeping with the anthology format, this somewhat brief point and click certainly has its creepy moments, but ultimately might leave you wanting more.

The main narrative thread of this video game entry in the Creepshow series finds a teenager called Danny and his friends visiting an abandoned mall. Though there’s a reason why Danny is there: it’s where his father went missing years ago. An unfortunate mishap later, and Danny comes face-to-face with The Reader, a mysterious fellow who feels like he needs to be inspired by some stories before he helps Danny escape the mall.

It’s just a shame that the main narrative is perhaps the weakest part of Creepshow. Compared to the two self-contained stories that you’ll unravel along the way, it feels overly brief and woefully basic, with hardly any puzzles of note. And when it’s done it feels somewhat unresolved, as if this the first part of a series. Maybe it is.

The two stories sandwiched between the main story chapters are the highlight here, then. One tells the story of a man who loves bugs, whose life unravels as he struggles with looking after his ill wife and maintaining his job in a fast food restaurant. The other puts you in control of a man of the cloth, who’s been tasked with restoring a church that’s seen better times. Things start to go awry when he discovers a secret related to the church’s bell.

Neither of these stories are particularly scary, but typical of the Creepshow series they are bit unsettling and aim to get under your skin. They pack in a number of more engaging puzzles and gameplay elements, too, like having to assemble burgers as orders come in or find the correct code to open a safe. There are even some optional and more challenging puzzles to solve, with those who make the effort being rewarded with new visual filters to make use of.

You might not feel entirely fulfilled by Creepshow as its credits roll, then, but you likely won’t feel like your time has been totally wasted. This two or three-hour adventure is at least well presented, with attractive comic-book styled visuals and solid voice acting. It’s definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of the films or the more recent TV show; just don’t expect it to make a lasting impression on you.