In Reveil, you control a protagonist whom appears to have issues with pain medication and alcohol. It’s never mentioned specifically that it’s a problem, but pills are everywhere when the character wakes up. You have a wife and daughter but they are no where to be found. You eventually explore the house, leading later to a circus where you used to work as a stage builder. You see glimpses of your daughter as she heads towards the circus, and into the funhouse. From there, things start to get strange, with the character having problems with his memory and seeing things that surely couldn’t be real. The game consists mostly of walking and interacting with objects, but has a few good puzzles and some sequences of sneaking around to avoid detection from supernatural beings. The game is very atmospheric and often times creepy.

Here’s what I liked:

Bright but Eerie Tone — While many horror games rely heavily on having dark environments that are somewhat difficult to see in, Reveil does something different. There are indeed dark areas, however the visuals are vibrant overall. A neon glow will remind you of various popular signs that use that effect, such as an exit sign, vacancy for motels, a sign on a shop that says closed or open, among many others. It gives you a sense of direction, which I personally believe plays a heavy roll in the storyline. Besides the funhouse, there are various levels that are more sinister and less welcoming. One area in particular has an unknown entity walking around and if you are detected, it will chase you and end your life. This area is very dark and you rely heavily on a flashlight while you run through the woods. Many horror movies are based on the circus, typically dealing with either clowns or the gallery of people with strange traits, like a mermaid, wolf-man, strong man, or bearded lady. While the game does focus on the scary parts of your adventure, it all boils down to the mystery of what’s going on. And the unknown can be scary indeed.

Psychological Horror — When you wake up in the game for the first time, you’re surrounded by what appears to be pills. A lot of pills. You often talk to yourself as you try to figure out what’s going on. Supernatural things occur, but a lot of times the character doesn’t seem to be phased by them. This leads you to believe he must under the influence of the drugs, or he’s just crazy in general. When you see certain things happening, you wonder if it’s in his head, a dream, or that the events unfolding are actually happening to him. There are plenty of jump scares and two specific areas where you are trying to sneak around to avoid detection. If detected, you must run or face the checkpoint reload. There is no way to defend yourself against what’s after you. The storyline is a bit unpredictable. As you come to the conclusion, secrets are revealed and things start sinking in as your memory recalls events that didn’t make sense, and makes sense of them with this new information. Also, there are a few different endings!

Short but Sweet — The runtime for this game is around the five hour mark, however if you aim to get all the achievements you can play chapter select and pick up missing collectibles, remaining endings, and anything else you might have missed. This can add a couple of hours on top of completing the story one time. While I did enjoy my time at the circus, I also didn’t want to stay there for very long. There’s a lot of cool things to see, and you don’t have to spend all day seeing it.

Here’s what I didn’t like:

The Forest — All of the areas in the game made sense and were fun to explore, except one. The forest was by far the worst level. It’s dark and you have a flashlight, gone are the cool neon lights, and there’s a monster walking around that seems nearly impossible to get away from, constantly spotting you no matter how much you think you’re sneaking. There’s a bunch of secrets too, making you get lost over and over as you try to get them while avoiding the monster chasing you. I was so very glad to be done with the level, and hated having to go back in chapter replay in order to grab missing collectibles. It really changed the tone of the game and spiked the difficulty up a few notches.

Voice Acting — While the voice acting wasn’t terrible itself, I feel like the writing was a little off. Comments that are made are sometimes half jokes, which does relieve some tension, but this character is a bit fearless for the situation he is in. There’s a lot of crazy things happening, like a huge hole in his daughters room that he walks through and tries to find her as she runs away. He gives more of a “that’s strange” comment and walks ahead without any hesitation or thought. He walks into almost every situation as if he thinks he’s in a dream and cannot die. There are times he shows confusion and fear, but not enough to be believable. The confidence rubs off on the player, who should be scared for this guy!

Wrap-up

There’s plenty of horror games out there consisting of a lot of walking with heavy focus on atmosphere and the story. While this isn’t much different in those regards, it does shine above a lot of the others because of it’s use of lights and great graphics. The plot twist at the end will be worth the playthrough, and the multiple endings and collectibles give you something else to go for after finishing. Though this isn’t anything groundbreaking, it is quite impressive for what it is. While I have played many horror games similar, I quickly forget about them. But I believe this one will stick with me for a very long time.

Score: Highly Recommended

Reveil was published by Daedalic Entertainment and developed by Pixelsplit on Xbox One. It was released on March 6 2024, for $19.99. A copy was provided for review