Uhm ok, I was started playing The Visitor blindly and I expected a sci fi game about aliens, you know, "Visitors" is a tv series about aliens, anyway it's also true that there are many other movies called "The Visitors", and even an album by ABBA with the same name so my expectations were absolutely unjustified.
So? Uhm ok, yeah, The Visitor is an horror game! But wait, not of the survival horror kind, it's more a sort of adventure/visual novel with tasks and puzzles.
So you are warned, no killing sombies with a shotgun or something like that at all. The game was made in a week for the GIAW XI event, and it finished in 3rd place, and later also translated to spanish. But what's it about? Well let's start with the story!

And I say "story" before the first person we meet is the storyteller, an old (and rather mean-looking) old woman that will be present during the game as the narrator since she is telling a story to some kids: us! The story is set in 1913, when a family of three inherited a mansion in the woods from a deceased uncle (mom's brother, to be specific). George is the father, Lillian the mother and Robert is their son, and for the first ten minutes (well at least this was the time for me, of course!) we will play as the boy, then as the father (we never play as Lillian as she spend all the time preparing dinner. Really!). To tell the truth there is not much difference, since all we have to do is exploring the mansion collecting keys and other items and using them on their proper place. Oh yes, and there is also some puzzle to solve in the meantime!
Guess what? The place isn't safe at all, but I guess you expected that when I said that a family was going to move and live in a mansion in the woods... so many horror movies starts like this, anyway I am pretty sure that what happens during and in the end of the game and of the narration of the creepy old woman will surprise you!


Well but of course, that's *exactly* what anyone would expect!

So The Visitor is a horror/mystery adventure game that will last just 40-45 minutes but stands out due to its rather unique graphics, thanks to some really nice resources and excellent use of effects like fog an lightning.
I liked the custom graphics, the image of the paintings, the animals and other pictures/sprites that I cannot desccribe or I'll spoil the game. The charsets and tilesets are the same already seen in Skinwalker, another game made by SnowOwl that I reviewed some time ago, that shares a similar gameplay and atmosphere (it's another horror adventure, but in a more modern setting) besides using the same resources (I mean one of the characters even used George's charset) even if that was half the length of this one but had two endings, here instead we have a linear experience with a single ending, but a nice one.
The music also enforces the sense of mystery and isolation of the family alone in a big house in the woods.

Unfortunately not everything is perfect, mapping is just... ok I guess! There are some passability errors and some weird placement of the forniture, like a wardrobe almost in the middle of the room, or rooms that are too big. There are also some errors in cutscenes where for example Lillian, the mother looks towards a wall when speaking instead that towards the opposite direction where's the door and the character's she's speaking to. I know, small flaws, of better lack of polish probably due to the necessity to release the game on time, still it's a pity since I liked a lot many other aspects like for example the puzzle.


HELP meee! Ok... no wait these are just stuffed animals. Oh... but WHAT IF they will come to life (or unlife)?


The Final Verdict
The Visitor is an ok game made for an event, so I did not expect a perfectly fine tuned experience, still it's a pity that this classy atmospheric tale is marred by so many little imprecisions that prevent me to give a better rating.
Yes, because there are some really good ideas (for example this is a horror game with absoulutely no ump scares or/and gore) and lots of style, anyway I guess that most of my complaints were more or less the same I did when reviewing Skinwalker. It's another nice story, so while not perfect do you want to know what I liked most? The ending! But nah, not because the game was finished, but because it's really the best part and yeah... play that and see! Come on, it's under an hour, you can do that! Pay a visit to the old mansion in the woods!