Hi! Hello! I have already talked about IMSCARED in my best horror games list:
But the brief description I wrote in that post does not do this game justice. While the game’s story is nonsensical, and the game doesn’t make much sense generally, the game features incredibly unique puzzles and clever mechanics.
IMSCARED: A Pixelated Nightmare
$3.99 on Steam
IMSCARED, at it’s core, is your average horror game story. However, it does an amazing job at displaying it in a much more interesting and unique way. The game makes you, the player, the protagonist of the story. Over the course of the game, you will be thrown through surreal experiences and difficult puzzles.
However, all of this comes with a twist.
To add on to all of this, IMSCARED constantly breaks the fourth wall by adding files to a folder on your desktop, crashing the game, and sometimes opening Youtube videos on your browser. In addition, the game constantly changes. After the game crashes, it may not be the same when you relaunch it. For example, you may be surprised with a jumpscare after the game starts up again.
Graphics
IMSCARED uses pixelated graphics that form a sort of 3D effect. The game obviously does not look very good, but I think it works VERY well here. It creates, in my opinion, a very creepy and eerie atmosphere for the game. Everything cohesively works together to make an incredible feeling for the game. It works really well with the ideas of the puzzles and characters as well.
Gameplay
Most of the unique gameplay of IMSCARED comes from it’s puzzles. After all, the whole game relies on puzzles to make it fun.
Believe me when I say that these are some of the most challenging puzzles I’ve ever seen in a game. Also believe me when I say that this is precisely what makes this game great.
On my first playthrough, I had to constantly reference a tutorial or walkthrough of the game. It was very confusing and frustrating at times. But, the best thing about it is that these puzzles are very unpredictable. To play IMSCARED, you really do have to think outside the box, because the game may be unsuspectingly leading you towards a certain thing, when really you should be focusing on another. Additionally, the game brings, in a way, YOU into the puzzles. For some puzzles, you may even need to reference or even edit the files in the folder the game creates on your desktop. You may need to edit numbers in text files or reference a video the game pulls up on your browser. I personally think this is a very cool way to go about it.
The puzzles aren’t without their flaws, however. In one of the puzzles specifically, I was having a VERY bad time. It was not very creative, and it constantly jumpscared you while you navigated a maze. For this specific puzzle, you must listen for three music boxes, collect them, and exit the maze, all while you are being chased and thrown off by puppets. Also, sometimes the audio glitches out, so you could be lead to a spot in the maze that will get you jumpscared.
Even worse, your game crashes when this happens, and you must start the whole thing over.
Most puzzles are not like this, though. Some puzzles may be nonsensical, but some are honestly really cool and creative.
Story
This story makes absolutely ZERO sense. This is also what makes it amazing.
While playing through the game, I kept thinking about how much this story confused me. But, after playing it, I realized that this could be made to imitate a nightmare, because dreams generally don’t make sense either. After all, the game is called IMSCARED: A Pixelated Nightmare.
The gyst of the story, or at least what I took from it, is that a character named HER, or White Face, creates this nightmare to trick you, all while these characters are simultaneously the same person, and you are simultaneously White Face, all while not being White Face at the same time. Surreal, is it not?
You can see why this makes no sense, but again, I think it works very well in this game. The story does not have to make sense for it to fit well in this atmosphere. Additionally, lore can be taken from the story too.
Ending Thoughts
I love this game, and it is definitely in my top three favorite games of all time. Everything about this game comes together to cohesively create a strange and terrifying atmosphere, and that really is all that matters to me. The puzzles are outstanding, and the mood it gives off is very well done. Overall, I give this game a collective score of 9.5/10.