Blackbay Asylum is a game about a (fictional) mental institution located a few miles off the coast of Innsmouth, a popular locale for media that pays homage to the now-legendary H.P. Lovecraft. While we have seen many titles about “Lovecraftian horror” in the past few years, Blackbay Asylum is more of a comedic parody that, at the same time, has the gameplay and atmosphere to stand as more than just a joke.
Players are placed in the role of Doug Dunaheiw, a convicted serial murder with some serious mental issues, who is writing a farewell letter to his trusted teddy bear before facing a surgery that will almost certainly kill him. Upon gaining control of Doug, players will quickly notice that the door to his cell is unlocked and that everybody in the complex seems to have either disappeared or died a mysterious, yet bloody death. As in all matters related to Innsmouth, Doug must delve into a world of cults, forgotten gods, and ancient relics to find a way to stop the entity that caused it at all.
Doug is reliably entertaining as an unlikely hero who has a severe lack of sympathy for the people he meets, whether they are dead, alive, or soon-to-be-dead. He’s not very deep or developed, but as the player you can get a fun insight into his personality by interacting with objects in the environment. Almost everything you can find in the game can be used to initiate a response from, which I sincerely recommend doing whenever you see a painting. A lot of effort was put into this, since even the most mundane items like wooden crates will get a different line of dialog each time you find one. A few spelling and grammar errors get in the way of the fun, but for a game with so much text it is to be expected that a few mistakes are made.
The game currently contains ten chapters that each cover a different section of the asylum. Most of the obstacles you run into will have to be solved via puzzles, and it’s here the game gets to shine. Even though comedy is a huge factor, the designers didn’t skimp out on designing some remarkably-clever puzzles, and I had a lot of fun working my way through them. A recurring theme here is that you will be spending a lot of time interpreting poems and other literature, as these were the most common kind of puzzles I ran into. There were also quite a few in which I had to adjust a device until it was in the correct stance – like messing with the sliders on a generator until it had the correct power output, or by moving slabs on some ancient tablet to form an image.
I was left stumped more often than I would like to admit, but I could usually still work out an answer with enough perseverance. One change that would really benefit the game, however, would be some kind of highlight or other indication for items you can pick up or containers that hold such items. I ran into a handful of scenarios where I was missing a piece of a puzzle and had to waste time backtracking through the level, only to notice it blended in with some other stuff. In one particularly embarrassing situation I did find the item I needed, but wasn’t in the proper position for the game to notice I was interacting with it, so I assumed it was just set-dressing and left it alone.
The perspective of the game switches between top-down and first-person every few chapters, but in both the controls are similar. Doug is controlled with the WASD keys and Shift can be used to run. There is button on the right-side of the screen that opens up the inventory and you can use any item within by double-clicking on it. While in first-person, you have to first press right-mouse button to lock the camera in place before you can get to the inventory, which takes some getting used to, but is otherwise no problem. Lastly, the spacebar can be used to interact with the environment and other characters. The only issue I have with the controls is that Doug can sometimes get stuck on the environment, which was especially obvious in the narrow corridors of a first-person mineshaft section. I also had a few rare occasions where the dialog from interacting with an object refused to disappear until I hammered the spacebar enough. Those two fixable issues aside, the controls work well and are easy to learn.
There is, however, no combat, which might seem a bit strange when you consider we are playing as a giant, blood-soaked criminal. I assumed that there would be some Manhunt-like levels where Doug must brutalize fellow survivors, but no such thing ever occurs; the few times you do murder others, it’s part of a puzzle. I actually enjoy the game a lot more this way and what it lacks in action, it makes up for with some surprisingly strong horror. The design of some of the monsters that roam the asylum’s hallways are pretty original and revolting, but it’s the scenarios you are put in that leads to the most frights. Even in scenes where I knew I was technically safe from harm, I couldn’t help but feel shaken.
Adding to this is the visual design of Blackbay Asylum, as it is some of the goriest I have seen in quite some time. The first-person view is the best at showing this off, as you can get a good peek at the hellish paintings, human bodies rearranged into art-pieces and all the moving pieces getting right up in your face, but even when it’s zoomed out the game can still impress. A disclaimer upon booting the game also warns for this, as well as the nudity and plenty of other taboos that some might consider insulting; TAD Productions didn’t hold back on anything in order to create this masterpiece of gore.
The rest of the visuals (textures, human models, cut-scenes and etc.) aren’t quite on par, but it didn’t bother me too much while playing. The voice-acting, which I assume is deliberately terrible, does grate a bit, but luckily conversations are brief and quite rare.
On a technical level, the game doesn’t offer a lot of options to customize it; there is a resolution slider that goes from 1024 x 768 to 1920 x 1200 and you can pick between fullscreen or windowed mode. Some more options would be nice, but at least the game ran well with no noticeable issues.
The more I look back on my time with Blackbay Asylum, the less I see it as the parody it seemed like. There is comedy, but standing beside that are well-designed puzzles and some of the best gore this year, as well as some legitimately great horror moments. It’s not for the faint of heart or those who might take offense to its contents, but if you have the stomach for it then I recommend giving it a shot.
(8.5 / 10)
Great
(8.5 / 10)
