Sorry We’re Closed from Akupara Games and à la mode games is an old-school inspired, eccentric story-driven survival horror game now on PS5. Learn more about it in our Sorry We’re Closed review!

 

Sorry We’re Closed from Akupara Games and à la mode games is an old-school inspired, eccentric story-driven survival horror game now on PlayStation 5. Your journey will have you taking on the role of Michelle, who is doing whatever she can to break the curse that has been placed on her by a powerful archdemon looking for love. As you interact with the many residents in Michelle’s London borough, you’ll also be working on aiding them or breaking their lives. You’ll have to split your time between the real world and the demon world as you rush to try and save your soul in the process. It’s a game that has clearly been inspired by classic releases such as Resident Evil and its fixed camera angles, as well as Silent Hill and its occultist and esoteric horror.

You can play the game in one of three difficulty settings: Easy, Normal, and Hard. If you go with the Easy difficulty setting, then Michelle will be stronger, and enemies will be weaker. Choosing the Normal difficulty setting will have you take on the standard experience, balanced to challenge you along the way without feeling overwhelmed. If you choose the Hard difficulty setting, then Michelle will be weaker, while the enemies will be a bit stronger. Which one will you choose for your mission?

 

Since the game pays homage to classics from the era of the original PlayStation console, that means that we have affectionately gotten to know as Tank controls are one of the options for Sorry We’re Closed. You can go into the settings menu to choose if you’re going to go with a more modern vibe for the controls or if you want to go all-in and use Tank controls to try and complete this one. For either one, you’ll be using the left analog stick to control your character. You can run by holding down the Circle button and can interact with other characters or objects as needed by pressing the X button. Perform a quick turn by pressing the L1 button.

As expected, you can aim your weapon by pressing the L2 button and will then be able to fire away by pressing the R2 button. Keep an eye on your ammo, and be sure to reload your weapon by pressing the Square button. When you aim your weapon, things will change to a first-person perspective so that you can more easily target any point. You also have the option of making good use of the gyroscope of the Nintendo Switch Joy-con for aiming. You press left, up, or down on the D-Pad to quickly change between the axe for melee attacks, the pistol for long-range attacks, or the shotgun for close-range attacks that will pack a punch. Press the down direction on the D-Pad to lower your weapon.

Your Third Eye is set to the Triangle button. This is a very important part of the gameplay loop since it will allow you to jump in and out of the demon world at the press of a button. You can also use it to see the weak spots of enemies within its area of effect so that you can deal more damage with each attack while also saving some ammo. Heartbreaker will be mapped to the L1 button. You’ll build up energy as you attack demons, which you can then unleash to deal a critical hit by hitting an enemy’s weak point. Double the charge by hitting a demon’s weak point while building up energy! Any useful items that you find will be added to your inventory, which you can check at any time by pressing the Touchpad on the DualSense. You’ll be able to use items to solve puzzles or use recovery items to heal some of your wounds. You can also press the L1 and R1 buttons to change tabs so that you can check your equipment and upgrades – more on these below – your collection of artifacts and key items or the logbook entries you’ve managed to jolt down.

Sorry We’re Closed features a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy for you to add to your collection. And since this is a Cross-Buy release, you’ll be able to download the PS4 and PS5 versions of the game to your PlayStation 5 console at no extra cost, and each version will have its own trophy list for you to take on. Each list will be split into 62 Bronze trophies, a single Silver trophy, and the one Gold trophy for you to work on. Along with the story-related trophies that will pop as you progress through the game’s story and complete it, there are also some miscellaneous trophies for you to keep in mind. Some of the objectives that you’ll need to complete for that shiny Platinum include finding your first artifact, purchasing your first upgrade, drinking 5 bottles of water, dying 15 times, crushing a critter, getting 20 perfect combos, defeating 30 enemies with the axe, defeating a boss without using the pistol or shotgun, getting a 6-star rank on every level, as well as several specific interactions that I won’t be spoiling here.

Sorry We’re Closed is an old-school inspired, eccentric, story-driven survival horror game. Your journey will have you taking on the role of Michelle, who is doing whatever she can to break the curse that has been placed on her by a powerful archdemon looking for love. As you interact with the many residents in Michelle’s London borough, you’ll also be working on aiding them or breaking their lives. You’ll have to split your time between the real world and the demon world as you rush to try and save your soul in the process. It’s a game that has clearly been inspired by classic releases such as Resident Evil and its fixed camera angles, as well as Silent Hill and its occultist and esoteric horror.

As you play through the game and complete some requests, you’ll get to obtain Yowzas, which is the in-game currency. You can get some extra Yowzas by locating and selling the many artifacts you can find as you go through each section. The dialogue choices made along the way as you progress through each of the different days will have an effect on which of the different endings you get, which will add some replay value to the whole experience. Sorry We’re Closed is available as as Cross-Buy title, so your $24.99 purchase will allow you to download the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions of the game at no extra cost.

Disclaimer
This Sorry We’re Closed review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by Akupara Games.