Psychological horror anthology The Creepy Syndrome from Jandusoft and Boomfire Games with a variety of looks and gameplay styles. Find out more in our The Creepy Syndrome review!

 

Psychological horror anthology The Creepy Syndrome from Jandusoft and Boomfire Games with a variety of looks and gameplay styles. You’ll be playing a game with a 1-bit presentation or one that emulates the feel of a Game Boy game from back in the day. Each of the four games to play offers a short experience in a different setting. Play through a point and click adventure. Take on what seems to be a dungeon crawler of sorts. How will each story end?

Your journey will start with a psychiatrist sitting across from you. The four stories you’ll experience will be presented as games discussed during different sessions. No matter how crazy of a tale is spun, no matter the end you reach, you’ll be able to carry on to the next one to see what you’ll The Creepy Syndrome will throw at you. Discuss past traumas. Talk about the occult. There will be multiple potential endings, so you won’t even know how your story will end.

 

The four games that you’ll be able to play through are A Watchful Gaze, Lord of the Road, The Red Button, and Nocturnal. A Watchful Gaze has you playing through a game that will remind you of releases in the classic Game Boy portable console, given its pixel art and pea soup green look. There has been a terrible car accident in which a whole family was killed due to a drunk driver that crashed into them. You’ll play as said drunk driver after the crash.

In Lord of the Road, you’re told that in 1990, a cult known as The Children of the Road committed a series of homicides in Cordoba. By October 31, 2000, all members of the cult were found dead after a bizarre mass suicide. You’ll be taking on the role of Inspector Rodriguez, who has been informed of some strange activity at night near the incident. This one is a minimalist 1-bit game in which you must investigate the area to try and find out what is really going on. There will certainly be some things that go bump in the night in this one!

For The Red Button, you’ll go through a short old-school point and click adventure game in which you’ll be able to select from the buttons at the button for different actions: observe, interact, use. Your goal? Gain access to the titular red button so that you can… activate something. This one relies on some jump scares that fill up the screen with weird faces, but it’s really nothing that will keep you from getting a good night of sleep.

The last game in this psychological horror anthology is Nocturnal. You play as Sara, a girl who is left alone at home since her sister is at college and her mom has been working late… as usual. The good news is that Sara has a plan to get her mom to work less, which sounds good, right? Unfortunately, Sara’s plan involves a magical ritual. She found it online and figured it would be a good option. Nocturne is a 2D adventure game in which you’ll take control of Sara as she explores the house. Part of the ritual requires her to turn on all the lights in the house, which, as you can imagine, is not going to be as easy as it sounds.

Trophy-wise, The Creepy Syndrome has a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy, and since it’s a Cross-Buy release, if you own a PlayStation 5, you can play both the PS4 and PS5 versions of the game. Each version has its own trophy list, which includes one Silver trophy and 11 Gold trophies. All trophies are tied to getting the different endings that each of the games in this anthology has to offer. If you need some extra help, you can check out this The Creepy Syndrome Trophy Guide.

The Creepy Syndrome is a psychological horror anthology that falls short of its potential. It offers four different bite-sized experiences, but none of them really stand out. Each of them has an interesting premise that could have been exploited in a better way. The Creepy Syndrome is available at a budget price of only $4.99. It’s also a Cross-Buy release, so your budget purchase will give you access to both the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5 versions of the game at no extra cost, and each one has its own trophy list.

Disclaimer
This The Creepy Syndrome review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by Jandusoft.