The effect is that sometimes in Visage, there’s something tangible out to get you, and sometimes, it’s all in your imagination. Visage uses sound to create tension better than almost any other game I’ve played, with moans, rattling, scrapes and footsteps all seeming to move closer and closer to heighten player panic – only to then disappear completely. There are many occasions in Visage where you’ll be creeping around a room or some part of the house, frantically searching for something whilst being stalked. On another occasion, you might seek an apparition sitting - perhaps even playing.Īny encounter like this, which is effectively benign (albeit often frightening, or at least creepy) will tend to signpost a more threatening encounter, in which the creature(s) can most certainly kill you. Sometimes, you might just catch a glimpse of something before it rapidly flies off screen with a shriek.
This is a game in which you might be expected to search a pitch black room inhabited by a malevolent spirit with nothing more than a zippo lighter and an ever narrower grip on reality for company.Įnemies in Visage are pretty much certain to kill you unless you can run and hide from them, but the game keeps us guessing by presenting them in different ways, without ever really announcing it. Why you ask, would I need to remember where I’m going, given that most walking simulators involve bimbling along a set path? Well, Visage is no ordinary ‘walking simulator’. We’re then set loose in a sprawling and cavernous house that seems to defy normal architectural convention with its attics, cellars, secret walls and jack-and-jill bathrooms, whilst at the same being just about memorable to give you a slight advantage. We just know what we’ve seen - and seemingly what we’ve done. When Visage begins, we don’t know who we are or what we’re doing.
To get the full experience however, you’ll have to persevere with some of the worst controls I’ve encountered in a walking sim. This is a game designed to shock and scare you to your very core - especially if you have the stomach to play it for long periods in a darkened room. With one of the most horrific opening sequences in any game that I’ve played, Visage sets out its stall early on.