From the offset, Out of Sight may look similar to other titles such as Little Nightmares or Inside. A girl trying to escape a spooky house with Tim Burtonesque adults chasing her down, however, the game provides a unique perspective to the formula – literally. Developers The Gang has coined Out of Sight as being the first second person game. A bold claim to be sure, but after spending an hour in the game’s world and learning the mechanics this is definitely a game that shouldn’t be skipped.
Gameplay
Out of Sight’s main draw will be the unique gameplay. Players will control two characters: Sophie a blind child and Teddy with which she uses to see through. You’ll be looking through Teddy’s eyes throughout the entire game, however, in order to solve the game’s numerous puzzles Sophie will have to put Teddy down. There are pink blankets throughout the levels which you can place Teddy down, once done you will be able to control Sophie with the left stick and Teddy’s eyes with the right. It’s reminiscent of old school survival horror games and their fixed camera perspective, however, unlike those game you have full control of where you can look and are not tied down to a static camera placement. Some players may struggle with getting used to the camera and how it works, however, the game doesn’t over complicate itself and keeps the basic controls relatively simple.
The puzzles themselves are also very well throughout and aren’t as straightforward as one may seem. Those who like puzzles in horror games may always find that they have a simple solution and don’t require a lot of brain power. Whilst a few of Out of Sight’s puzzles were simple enough, there were a few that genuinely stumped me and provided quite a challenge. There was one in particular that took me a good while to figure out how exactly I could solve it. It’s much appreciated to have a game that doesn’t hold your hand, that being said, haters of the yellow paint found in a number of modern horror games will be disappointed to hear that it is also featured here too. It doesn’t feel as egregious as other games such as Resident Evil 4’s remake, but the inclusion of it in Out of Sight may make a few people roll their eyes and wish they could turn it off somehow.
Story
So far during my playthrough, Out of Sight’s story hasn’t really provided much in the way of answers. Things have been eluded to from dialogue exchanged between the two main villains Mother Janna and Clayton, but nothing has been outwardly explained. This kind of storytelling is perfect for a game like this. As you explore more of the mansion you discover more things about Sophie, the villains, and the numerous amounts of ghost children. There’s a mystery surrounding the mansion and what evil lies behind closed doors, and both the player and Sophie will no doubt slowly see the truth unravelled before them. It’s definitely enough to keep the mystery alive and I’ve found myself concocting theories about what may happen later in the story; only time will tell if those theories have any weight to them.
Technical
Out of Sight is a graphically pleasing game to look at and in addition to being technically sound. Throughout the hour I spent with the game there was no drop in quality nor any sound issues. There were occasionally textures clipping through each other and it appeared that the frame rate was low in a few areas, but these were only minor nuisances. However, there was one extremely frustrating technical problem I encountered that left me feeling bamboozled. When I went back to play continue my playthrough my save file disappeared; I didn’t remove the file manually and simply closed the game down after my first hour. It was made even stranger when I managed to locate the save file in the installed Steam files and tried a couple of workarounds, however, this didn’t yield any results and I had to start from scratch – my second file has stayed put ever since. If this is a glitch with the game then it is a pretty big one at that. Hopefully I was just the unlucky one and it was a one time thing, but I think I speak for all gamers out there when I say that nothing is more frightening than your save file disappearing.
Conclusion
After spending an hour with Out of Sight I can confidently say that it is a must play for those looking for a brand new gaming experience. A few minor things here and there have slightly affected my experience with the game, but they have not wavered my intrigue in the rest of the game and I hope it hasn’t for you too.
Out of Sight releases on May 22 and is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Steam and Epic Games Store.
