Strobophagia (PC) Review

Strobophagia is certainly very striking; while an indie horror game set in a forest full of secrets is not new by any stretch, the theme, and striking aesthetic certainly set it apart from the crowd. The glowing neon oasis dotted through a misty forest full of hooded ravers, each covered in interesting patterns and masks with sewn up eyes and mouths, really does create a creepy atmosphere, making a change from the usual dingy brown shacks and haunted houses.

The story winds through a welcome party at the beach spotted with free beer tents and info booths, deeper into the forest peppered with clues about the group who throws the raves, leading down into a Romanesque labyrinth. Each of these locations are interspersed with puzzles involving picture gathering, fetch quests and some strange mannequin posing, which make up the bulk of the gameplay.

Most of the story elements and puzzling are done through a mobile phone given at the start of the game, with only a few other items in the world being interactable with; beer bottles, glowsticks, and the far too amusing ability to slap other ravers around until they retaliate. The main gameplay is using the phone to connect to networks around the forest, talking to other ravers through a chat app and taking and sharing photos to figure out the meaning of graffiti or get hints for puzzles. This gives a nice feeling of a 'living' world as all sorts of nameless characters chime in on a photo of some graffiti on the side of a portable toilet. The ability to look back over chat logs is a useful thing to have, enabling the player to check any hints or recap full conversations at any time. This takes some of the frustrating aspects out of the puzzling.

Pathfinding in each of the game's areas is where the phone mechanic becomes a little clunky. A small Wi-Fi icon pops up on the phone and shows signal strength when moving to or from a network. While good thematically, the directions are so vague that finding a way to a new signal is mostly luck-based, and backtracking was an exercise in hugging walls until seeing the familiar neon lights again.

Sadly for a game with the word 'rave' in the tagline, and prominent through their press info, the soundtrack is underwhelming. Generic and forgettable tunes accompany players through areas that are supposed to be booming and lively, often leaving these party areas feeling empty or flat. This is especially apparent in the 'follow the beat' sections. Having no definitive booming beat to follow makes these sections frustrating and laborious to get through when taking a wrong turn and having to pick out a weak beat two corridors away.

After the initial stages of the game, which are quite dense in story and characters, it starts to feel more disconnected and sparser, with little story or explanation to link each puzzle or new location. Despite it being a full release title, the second half makes it feel like an early access title.

Even though Strobophagia has multiple endings a few of them feel unfinished, simply ending the story with no explanation for the diverging storylines, leaving more questions than answers even after multiple playthroughs.