Waking the Glares: Chapters I and II (PC) Review

The adventure begins, and two things are made perfectly clear: first, the audio-visuals are severely lacking, to the point that this feels like something that's still in the alpha state of development, and second, the atmosphere is great. The protagonist awakes into a snow-filled, almost post-apocalyptic kind of Suburbia, with a road that leads straight to an ominous mansion… And then he enters, and the whole atmosphere thingy disappears.

That's because, once inside, instead of an "otherworldly" locale, all there is to see is a simple interior, with the only thing that helps a bit in terms of mood being the Silent Hill-like absence of life. This is where the "true" game begins, and it won't be long that one realises that this offers the bare minimum of what an adventure game is supposed to be, since, instead of finding a variety of items, and figuring out how to use them to solve puzzles and such, you just pick an item, and a mouse input is shown when approaching the spot where it can be used.

No thought is required here. Instead, the only challenge is finding the aforementioned items and spots. In other words, this is basically a scavenger hunt, not an adventure. Even worse? It's a boring scavenger hunt, not only because there isn't much to explore, but mainly because this lacks the necessary elements that could make it more immersive, with audio-visuals that are quite unpolished, with awkward hand animations, and out-of-place, overly loud sound effects.

Furthermore, this is a slow game. It's literally a walking simulator at its worst as the protagonist movement is almost sleep-inducing. Generally, Waking the Glares is full of signs that not much talent was involved, with one particular example being the fact that it's ridden with graphical twitches and clipping, heavy frame-rate drops, unresponsive menus, and so on.

The only saving grace in such a title could only be the plot and the narrative, which, unfortunately, is also disappointing, with the main reason being the fact that it's nonsensical! Ever played one of those games where, even after completing them multiple times, nothing makes sense? No, not Dark Souls and things like that, as they can actually be enjoyable despite their cryptic nature. Waking the Glares will simply make you feel… stupid.

The free e-book that comes along with this is supposed to clear things up a bit and provide some backstory for the protagonist, but while this is marginally better, don't expect a literature masterpiece. Secondly, like the rest of the experience, it doesn't really help with anything. To give a more concrete example, the very first level has the player walking around a house, helping some flowers to sprout by lighting things up. Does it mean anything? Is there a secret meaning behind it? Well, if there's some sort of symbolism here, it was lost.

Note that while this is titled Chapters I and II, it's a surprisingly small trek. As explained before, the first "chapter" is all about "waking" a couple of flowers. The second one tales place in a larger area, but don't let this fool you, since it's just a boring fetch quest/scavenger hunt, with little to no challenge involved… but lots of trial-and-error annoyance.

The "funny" thing about this piece of software is that the release of the subsequent chapters depends on the success of the two at hand. In conclusion, then: a boring adventure game that's not a game, and definitely not an adventure, has to perform quite well in order for the gaming community to keep on "playing" it? This humble reviewer will pass…