Eomnium Project

Eomnium Project is a suspenseful, borderline horror game that, according to the game's summary page, was developed for this website's 2011 Summer Games event. It does not aim to frighten through jump scares or darkened lighting situations, but through the uncertainty concerning the character's whereabouts--mentally as much as physically, as she tries to figure out why she is where she is.

As for how well the game pulls that premise off: nothing significantly moved me one way or another, and then I got stuck with an impenetrable error.

Plot/Storyline: Our lady protagonist feels a pain, witnesses a flash of light, and is subsequently teleported to a strange house full of mostly locked doors. A mysterious old guy occasionally shows up, providing subtle hints moreso than any real answers.

Gameplay: Our unidentified heroine must search the estate for an unlocked room, relive a past memory that ranges from mostly innocuous but something not being quite right (e.g. her dad being upset that kids are picking on her) to something brutal, discover a key within this past memory, and search the house's two floors for the locked door that said key works on.

Every now and then, demonic creatures known as 'tortured souls' (they resemble a cross between mummies and possessed sandbag dolls) pop up and move in predetermined patterns--if they so much as touch you, it's an instant game over, and there is usually a timer that limits how long the player can attempt to escape a room infested with these disturbing fiends. This is the game's only real challenge, and given that the only place one can save is rooms away from these creatures (in other words, the player can't dodge a few souls and save as insurance in case the next one catches them), patience is necessary.

Sound/Music: What we have here works: a suspenseful tune that suggests mystery and discomfort plays as you walk the mansion's hallways, and in the basement-looking areas in which we are surrounded by tortured souls, a noise track that sounds like harsh winds assures that we do not feel at ease.

Visuals/Mapping: Other than some unexpected contrast provided by the use of photos of real people as faces in dialog boxes, everything is bare bones. This is a mixed bag because there are no particularly eye-catching objects adorning the walls (we do get one of those RTP wall-paintings here or there, I will say), but the lack of decoration does add to the sense of gloom.

Traversing the same halls again and again in search of an unlocked door can be a bit of a drag, and I would expect that the lack of a dash feature has deterred some players.

Final Words: How good is Eomnium Project? It is difficult to say, because a game-breaking bug several of the locked rooms into the experience (there is no way to exit the room) not only obstructs any potential for progress, but does so at a moment in which something significant happens plot-wise.

Might that moment have been the first step toward a memorable story full of intricate moments and a shocking conclusion as to how our lady character ended up in such an unlikely place?

It seems that we shall never know!