With the current high level of indie horror titles, it can be difficult to stand out from the pack. Some titles attempt to distinguish themselves by trying to imitate genre standouts as closely as possible, whilst others mix and match from the most famous games. Sorry, We’re Closed, however, opts for a look and style that is entirely original. Add this fabulous aesthetic to the unashamedly LGBTQIA+ friendly characters and storyline and you have a game that promises to become an absolute cult favourite.
Don’t just judge the title by its looks, though, as the game itself is good enough to be worth playing even if the graphics don’t grab you.
It is the look of Sorry, We’re Closed that immediately arrests your attention. The lurid colours, neon-drenched lighting, and angular yet beautiful character models don’t quite fit with any specific console generation, feeling like a hybrid of PS1 and PS2 graphics at times but with an end result that is so stylish and distinctive that it just works. The various environments are all distinctive with the London hub looking suitably grimy and run down. The characters seem designed with cosplaying in mind and I look forward to seeing what content creators will do with them. Combine these aesthetics with a suitably cool and chilled out hip hop influenced soundtrack and you have a game that oozes style from every pore.
The game opens up with a TV soap opera cutscene that is revealed to feature the ex-girlfriend of protagonist, Michelle. The story that follows centres around ideas of relationship breakdown, attempts to move on, and the ways in which desire can change your sense of self. This is a fantastically original thematic background for a game, let alone a survival horror one. Gone are the khaki-jacketed sad husbands that dominate the genre; instead we have a main character with blue hair and a fabulous pink fluffy jacket. Michelle is dragged into a nightmarish alternate version of London when a powerful demon decides that she is the perfect target for their love – a love that has fatal consequences.
Exploring the world of Sorry, We’re Closed involves navigating the main hub area loosely based on London and then venturing into various self-contained levels in search of the mysterious items Michelle needs to break the curse, or even embrace it. There are multiple endings that depend on the choices you make in the character interactions throughout the game, adding welcome replayability and also a necessary sense of consequence to these turning points. These mostly rely on dialogue options and who you give or don’t give certain items to. My playthrough gave me a satisfying ending, even if I messed up a couple of subquests by not following the correct path. The progression here is very influenced by the Persona games, as the dungeon-like levels end a section of interaction with no opportunity to return.
During my playthrough I was particularly engaged by a long subquest involving an angel trying to come to terms with their relationship with another powerful demon. This storyline was wonderfully integrated into the central story and added a real sense of depth to a boss fight that was already mechanically challenging. The various boss fights here all tie into the curse with which Michelle is inflicted – a curse that manifests through a huge third eye in her forehead that lets her reveal hidden aspects in the environment, as well as see and therefore interact with the supernatural creatures that inhabit her home area.
Once in a dungeon level, the game plays out in standard survival horror fashion with limited resources, fixed camera angles, and a combination of combat encounters and environmental puzzles. The third eye mechanic is key here too, both in terms of revealing interactive objects for puzzle solving and in the distinctive combat system.
When entering combat the camera switches to a first-person mode. Activating your Third Eye mode reveals an enemy’s weakpoint, but you can only damage it by accurately hitting that point in this mode. The risk and reward system here also kicks in as it is only effective for a small radius so you have to let enemies close in on you. Safely picking them off from afar, however, will quickly result in you running out of ammo and being forced to rely on melee or running away.
The weakpoints take the form of colourful hearts with more powerful foes having several targets to quickly switch between. Hitting enough weakpoints charges up your weapon and enables a super shot that has to be carefully aimed or it’s lost. This is needed to finish off boss fights so a pattern of building up your charge and then taking out hearts plays out.
I played on Steam Deck and found aiming a little awkward, but the devs have fixed this in the release build, an update that fortunately kicked in alongside my entering the more challenging later levels. Performance on Deck was solid and it was a fantastic way to play the game aside from perhaps needing an option to increase the font size as it was a little difficult to read at times.
My only real caveat when recommending this to survival horror fans is that there are some huge difficulty spikes that could prove frustrating. Fortunately there is an accessibility option that toggles an infinite health bottle which I freely admit to using at times to ensure that I could get through the game in time to file this review. I do intend to start a replay without it though to enjoy the challenge now that I am familiar with the controls and mechanics.
