Not all autumn fright adventure must terrify you. Starting with well-known tales such as animated detectives to delightful stories like Over the Garden Wall, many autumn-inspired favorites offer entertainment without requiring raising your heart rate. Moreover, a growing library of spooky-cute titles with spooky themes, though lacking the sleep-with-the-lights-on degree of horror. Gloomy Eyes was released in September, and serves as an excellent relaxing choice to the intensely frightening games of 2025.
A Unique Collaborative Solo Journey
Known as a “self-coop” puzzle game, Gloomy Eyes unites a undead youth called Gloomy and a living girl known as Nena as they start an adventure to bring the sun back to their shadowy world. Their design evokes Funko Pops blended with the figures from a stop-motion animation. The light-complected and heavy-lidded aesthetic borrows heavily from the appearance of Burtonesque cinema, and the story is a classic all-ages adventure. These two forms an enduring bond over the span of the game’s numerous levels as Nena strives to demonstrate to her religious guardian that, look, perhaps the undead are actually good.
Creative Puzzle Mechanics
The innovative label comes about from the game’s environmental puzzles. Once Gloomy and Nena cross paths, players alternate between the recent allies to overcome obstacles and move forward through the areas. Being a zombie, Gloomy can’t walk through the light of a lamppost, while Nena can be captured by loitering creatures except if a light is directed on them.
They must collaborate effectively — in practice, you’ll use them in tandem — to advance through areas. Nena might relocate or briefly disable illumination to clear paths for Gloomy, while the open-brained youth will employ his undead power to shift around items in the world, revealing routes for Nena.
Engaging Environment Creation
The puzzles bring to mind a little of The Gardens Between, in the manner the levels are suspended, model-like structures that the view pans around in sync with your heroes. Gloomy Eyes’ worlds are very enjoyable, leading the friends around a fair and through a ghostly building, including other locations. The game includes a “diorama view” button that allows you to pull back and turn the areas, both to admire the designs and look for routes that may not have been apparent.
Minor Issues and Overall Adventure
And that’s one of the few hiccups with Gloomy Eyes. Similar to other games with a static view, it’s not always clear where the protagonists are able to move. Players might have to randomly encounter a few random objects to figure out which ones are usable, as it’s not always intuitive.
However, those small obstacles don't obstruct of a ghostly-charming enjoyable experience. Gloomy Eyes is relatively brief, with about a few sessions worth of brain-teasers. Advanced areas integrate subtle sneaking and action elements with the puzzle solving, as Gloomy Eyes advances to a satisfying — and slightly surprising — conclusion.
Accessibility and Final Thoughts
Gamers shying away from the terror of fear-inducing releases should definitely try Gloomy Eyes. The game is out on Switch console, PlayStation 5, computer, and Xbox, and is currently on sale for a discount on online stores.
This charming title has been released on various systems and delivers a pleasurable option for players looking for spooky entertainment minus the intense scares.
