Not all spooky season journey must terrify players. Including well-known tales such as animated detectives to endearing shows such as Over the Garden Wall, plenty of spooky-season staples provide fun without requiring raising your heart rate. There’s also, a growing library of ghostly-adorable titles with autumn atmosphere, though lacking the keep-you-awake intensity of terror. Gloomy Eyes was released in the fall, and stands as an superb relaxing option to the intensely frightening releases of 2025.
A Distinctive Single-Player Cooperative Quest
Known as a solo collaboration brain-teaser, Gloomy Eyes teams up a living-impaired child called Gloomy and a mortal child known as Nena as they embark on an mission to return daylight to their shadowy realm. Their appearance resembles stylized dolls combined with the puppets from a stop-motion animation. The fair-toned and tired-looking aesthetic is influenced by the look of Burtonesque cinema, and the narrative is a quintessential family-friendly tale. These two develops an strong connection over the duration of the game’s multiple stages as Nena attempts to demonstrate to her religious guardian that, look, possibly the undead are actually good.
Innovative Problem-Solving Features
The innovative label originates from the game’s world-based challenges. When Gloomy and Nena cross paths, you’ll swap between the newfound friends to complete challenges and move forward through the levels. Since he's not alive, Gloomy is unable to traverse through the brightness of a streetlight, while Nena will get snatched up by idle zombies without a lamp is shone on them.
They have to collaborate effectively — well, you’ll use them together — to complete stages. Nena might relocate or briefly disable lights to create passages for Gloomy, while the thoughtful boy will employ his undead power to move obstacles in the environment, revealing paths for Nena.
Engaging Environment Creation
These challenges bring to mind a little of The Gardens Between, in the fashion the areas are hovering, miniature designs that the camera pans around in conjunction with your characters. Gloomy Eyes’ worlds are very enjoyable, leading the companions around a amusement park and through a ghostly building, including other places. The game includes a “diorama view” option that allows you to view from afar and rotate the stages, both to enjoy the designs and search for routes that may not have been apparent.
Small Issues and General Gameplay
This represents one of the few problems with Gloomy Eyes. Similar to other titles with a fixed perspective, sometimes it's unclear where the heroes are able to move. You may need to simply collide with a several various elements to discover which ones are interactive, as clues aren't consistently provided.
However, those minor speedbumps don't hinder of a eerie-adorable enjoyable experience. Gloomy Eyes is relatively brief, with roughly several hours worth of challenges. Subsequent stages combine subtle hidden movement and dynamic sequences with the puzzle solving, as Gloomy Eyes advances to a satisfying — and slightly surprising — conclusion.
Release and Conclusion
Those shying away from the terror of terrifying releases should definitely try Gloomy Eyes. The game is out on Nintendo Switch, PS5, Windows PC, and Xbox, and is currently on sale for a quarter off on game marketplaces.
Gloomy Eyes has been released on multiple platforms and provides a enjoyable alternative for players looking for Halloween fun without terrifying moments.
