As the lights go out, the embers of darkness are stoked in the sleepy town of Dormont. Whispers of disappearances carry through the town as a burgeoning, uneasy and irrational fear begins to spread and darkness comes to be an unwelcome reflection to Those Who Remain. Some mistakes should never happen, not when your life is complete – and yet they do. Edward had the good life, a beautiful wife and the perfect little girl, yet finds himself several whiskeys down and driving through the night of Dormont to end his secret affair - in a bid to fix his mistakes. As Edward pulls into the Golden Oak Motel, he is unaware just how much this night will change his life…

Those Who Remain is a mild horror sci-fi suspense puzzle game that sees you investigating the streets and buildings of Dormont in a bid to work out who is behind a recent spate of mysterious disappearances. As the game unfolds you quickly discover that you are safe in your investigations... as long as you stay in the light. Stray too far into the darkness and the mysterious silhouettes that are lurking on the fringes of the darkness will quickly put an end to your life.

I say "mild" horror, because as eerie and creepy as this is, for diehard horror fans this will be a little on the tame side. I fired this up for the first time after midnight and I was a little creeped out to begin with (but then I'm not that much of a horror game fan) but I soon started to get a little bored by the monotony of working out how to proceed to the next area without having the monsters attack me.

For the most part the "killers" aren't particularly scary... nor is their means of dispatching you inventive or as gruesome as you've probably seen in other games. But it does have its moments.

Entering darkened buildings quickly has you searching for the light switch, at which point any ghostly apparitions, lurking just outside the light, will vanish. While at first this was interesting, after a very short space of time it was getting old real quick. As you get deeper into the story, and unearth what is going on, you are given moral dilemmas to choose from. The game has different endings, depending on how you play which, I suppose, give the game a little more replayability.

I wasn't completely blown away by Those Who Remain, but as an introduction to creepy, horror games this is a good one to test the waters with.

6

Nick Smithson