More retro survival horror comes our way in The Glass Staircase, from Puppet Combo, specialists in exactly this type of grindhouse, 80’s aesthetic. With plenty of faux-VHS visuals, a threadbare tale and some clunky controls, it’s the exact sort of game to take me back to my youth. It certainly won’t be suited to those with more modern expectations, but there’s an enjoyably camp time to be had here if you can put up with some of its idiosyncrasies.
We play as a quartet of young girls, seemingly trapped inside an old, creepy mansion. Each one gets summoned after the other with a specific task. As we take control of the first girl – Helen – we get to grips with the floaty tank controls, her nightdress billowing out and she runs around. It’s not long before the mystery kicks in though, and we take over another girl after Helen meets an untimely end. As the story unfolds we’ll be reading a lot of diary entries, with each one several pages long that flesh out the backstory and why these girls are trapped in the house. It’s creepily written, and interesting enough even if it could have been edited down ever so slightly.
Much as survival horror should be, the game is played from fixed perspective camera angles that switch up as we move around. The environments seem to be a mix of fully 3D and pre-rendered elements, and the aesthetic is convincing certainly. I’ve always been a fan of this perspective, though I will say that because our characters move faster than your average Jill or James it can be quite disorientating at times when the camera switches are crammed together in a small space.
For the most part though it plays and feels very 90’s style survival horror. There are locked doors (one of which makes the most annoying sound I’ve ever heard in a game when we get it open), items to find, and a looming threat that is sparsely but effectively used. A late game trip to this games version of Resident Evil’s underground lab yields more obvious danger – and our only opportunity to fight back – but seeing as the entire game is only about 2 hours long this doesn’t overstay its welcome (which is fine as the combat is pretty bare bones).
The Glass Staircase remains true to the feel in more than just looks and gameplay. While we are granted auto saves at key puzzle points, these are spread out just enough to mean dying results in us playing a bit more again than we’ve become accustomed to. It’s also handled a bit weirdly in that when we die we’re kicked to the credits and then the title screen, rather than just reloading a save. It’s a bit slow in this regard, especially when an auto save outs us further back than we’d expected. I died to the final boss almost instantly on my first go, only to find that the save point was before the lengthy puzzle segment leading up to the boss fight. While it was quicker on a second playthrough it still wasn’t ideal to have to go through what was a pretty laborious section again.
Conclusion
Outside of these areas, The Glass Staircase was still enjoyable enough to recommend, especially if you’ve a penchant for retro, budget and more idiosyncratic gaming. It’s a decent take on old school survival horror, even if there are better examples out there.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
