#Gylt rating professional#

Likewise, the music is eerie and the voice acting is all on point.īut my experience of actually playing Gylt was, without mincing words, miserable. The graphics would have been more memorable if they'd leaned into the cartoonish aesthetic more, but they're on the right track, at least. The art style goes for sort of a Coraline-ish 'slightly askew schoolgirl in a very askew mirror world' aesthetic, and it works. Normally, I'd take a moment here to address the graphics, music and voice acting, but frankly, they're all fine.

I hunted down almost every optional journal, and I was still left scratching my head as to what Sally did that was so unforgivable - and what makes Emily such a perfect, blameless martyr. Gylt puts normal childhood behavior under extremely harsh scrutiny, but doesn't provide enough details to flesh out the characters and their motivations. But the text doesn't back up the subtext.

The trouble with Gylt is that it thinks it's making a very important point: that we often rail against bullies, even as we bully others ourselves. Google Stadia: Which Gaming Service Will Win? Sally's punishment is disproportionate to her crime, particularly if you don't hunt down every collectable doodad and have to suffer through the 'bad' ending. And in an 11-year-old, that's eminently forgivable - even if the story doesn't seem to think so. Without spoiling too much of the story, we do eventually learn why Sally didn't stand up for her cousin, but it's not some deep-seated darkness within the protagonist. Why was Emily bullied? Why was Sally her only lifeline? What about Sally's own bullies? (After the intro, they're never mentioned again.) Why was protecting Emily against bullies Sally's - and only Sally's - responsibility? The problem with Gylt is that its story has grand pretensions and a solid metaphor - our indifference makes us monsters - but the execution is incredibly vague.īut if you take a closer look at the plot threads, things start to fall apart. That keeps the story moving forward, as Sally tries to persuade a reluctant Emily to come home, and Emily starts to understand the threat she faces by staying in the otherworld. Bullies made fun of Emily relentlessly, and Sally never stood up for her. It sets the mood for a dark, traumatic, deeply psychological story about children who seem so cruel, they manifest as literal monsters.Īs the game progresses, we learn more about Emily's self-imposed exile through journals scattered around the school.

#Gylt rating professional#

When you first boot up Gylt (and thanks to Stadia, you can boot it up as soon as you buy it - there's no installation), you'll see a disclaimer that the game deals with the sensitive topic of childhood bullying, and that you should seek help from a professional if it's happened to you. Gylt's gameplay isn't deep, but it's good enough to keep you moving through the story - which is also a mixed bag. This heightens the tension, but severely limits your gameplay options, which feels like an anticlimactic way to end. In fact, late in the game, you won't have access to a few of your tools at all. Since Sally's skills don't change over the course of the game, the puzzles you'll solve toward the beginning of the game aren't that different from those you'll solve at the end. Google Stadia: Which Gaming Service Will Win Then, you're going to solve a very elaborate puzzle or fight a boss to find a way out of the building, and repeat the whole process again. Then, you're going to traverse a long corridor that's filled with enemies, which you'll need to evade since they're too numerous to fight. You know that you're going to explore every room in a building, fighting or evading a few foes along the way. Once you understand all the tools in your arsenal, the game can get pretty repetitive. While Gylt's gameplay variety works in its favor early on, it can't help but feel a little constricting as the game progresses.