Dad's Gaming Addiction

Hey folks, we’re back with another game that features a video camera as the main point of view for your character.  Having recently reviewed “Paranormal”, I was interested to see what “[REC] Shutter” had to offer.  It’s important to mention right off the bat that this game is free.  I tend to look at free games less critically, mainly because well, I didn’t actually pay money for them.  Either I’m going to like it or I’m not, and any suggestions I have for making it better should be taken with a grain of salt.  If the developer is accepting ideas, great…but being that the game is free, I generally don’t push the issue.

The main menu allows you to start a new game, continue an existing one, and quit.  There is no options menu and no way to view the controls.  I personally would have liked a way to view the controls as I had no idea how to navigate the environment.  I eventually just hit random keys to see what they did.  Comma and Period keys adjust the gamma (I found this to be necessary as it was too dark by default), C crouches, WASD moves, V makes the screen change color and causes some heartbeat sound to appear (I have yet to figure out what it does), Q and E leans left and right, left shift lets you sprint, and the left mouse click lets you interact with certain objects.  There may be more controls I haven’t listed, but again, I’m working based off of trial and error.

The first room confused me a little as I was surrounded by white static on all four sides.  I eventually figured out that I needed to walk into one of the walls and a room appeared.  From there, I went about my business, picking up objects, and trying to ignore the strange things going on around me.  In terms of scares, I was surprised a few times and even let loose an expletive when opening a particular door…I won’t ruin the experience by saying what happened.  You eventually come across a controls tutorial via words plastered on various walls throughout your house, but this tutorial comes a bit too late, in my opinion.

All in all, it’s worth checking out.  Despite the hiccups, I felt compelled to push onward to see what the game was going to throw at me next.  As I mentioned above, the game is free, so the only thing you could potentially waste should you not like the game is your time.  Admittedly, it could use some polish: spelling errors, lack of an options menu, no instruction as to what the camera indicators mean, no way to view the controls from the get go, and etc.  In the grand scheme of things however, I’m glad to have taken the time to download it.

—

You can download this game from Desura, here:

http://www.desura.com/games/rec-shutter-horror-game

You can check out video play sessions, here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmYqX2hsdBM