Happy horror month, all my spooky friends! It’s that special time of year when I stay out of my cave for a little while! I’ve got a bunch of things on my radar, including game types I’ve never tried before. First up on the chopping block this spooky season is The Call Button! The Call Game is the first game being released by indie developer and publisher Somnatide Studio.
What is The Call Button?
The Call Button is a short thriller, set in a constantly changing hospital room. After stealing classified intel from your job, you have a car accident, landing you in the hospital. You have two options: take your medication or call for the nurse. If you notice any anomalies, you take your medication. If everything is normal, you call the nurse to check in. The duration of days is 25, and the only way to progress is by taking the correct course of action. Every few days, you’ll have nightmares relating back to work. You must relive any mistakes you made in your career, and figure out what the files you stole were.
The call is coming from inside the house
The concept behind The Call Button is a simple one. Check if anything has changed in your room. Something I found to be really interesting is the choice of art style. The Call Button uses a low-poly art style. Honestly, I’m a fan of that vibe. However, I don’t really think it works for this style of game unless the anomaly is really obvious. Admittedly, that could be a me problem. But I did research to see are any other games that use the anomaly-hunting concept using low-poly art. I personally have not found one. That doesn’t mean there aren’t others, just that I didn’t find them.
Truth be told, the art style made the game very frustrating for me. I do feel like this was a me problem, but I really struggled with finding the anomalies unless they were really obvious – like a window moving position. Things just didn’t stick out to me, and I found myself relying on guesswork to get through the days. But that then lowered my enjoyment of the game.
The Call Button is not a bad game. There’s an interesting concept behind it. I think maybe anomaly games just are not for me.
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