If you’ve ever wanted to play a nightmare, Reanimal is the game for you. When you think back to your nightmares, they are often completely vague, full of holes, illogical monsters chasing you, and you just move on without much thought. It is the same in Reanimal. I didn’t know where I was, who I was or what I was doing, just like when I come to work hungover. Reanimal is a very interesting and memorable game, but like everything, it has its flaws.
| Initial price | Reviewed version | Reviewer copy |
| 40€ | PlayStation 5 | Provided by publisher |
Reanimal starts without any warning, just like a nightmare. You play as a Boy and a Girl. There is no real introduction or any explanations of the world, you just find yourself in the middle of the situation. That’s actually how I would describe the complete story of the game. You just find yourself in certain situations. There are no deeply developed characters or complicated political situations, but maybe that’s better. This kind of story actually suits games best. From the first moment to the last, you are responsible for the fate of your characters and it is up to you to survive the horrors that await you, without ever losing control.
If you want a concrete story where it’s clear what’s going on, Reanimal will disappoint you. I must admit that I did not fully understand what I experienced in this game. I can only theorize and speculate, and it seems to me that this is also the point of the whole experience. Not everything has to be explained. It took me a whole day after the transition to put the puzzle together in my head and create a picture of what this is really about, and that’s just my interpretation, which is not a definitive view of the story.
The situations you find yourself in are quite crazy, tense and imaginative. I won’t give anything away, but you will be confused, delighted and completely immersed in the game. That’s actually the biggest compliment I can give the story, it’s the way it should be.
Visually, Reanimal is breathtaking. Technically the game is solid, but the art style takes the experience to a whole new level. The monster, environment and character designs are fantastic. The world is bathed in cold blue light, and the volumetric effects create a thick, almost palpable fog. It is this atmosphere that will stay with you the longest. The light effects are fantastic. Each scene not only looks great, but also invisibly guides the player towards the goal. On the technical side, everything is very smooth and without major bugs, although the game is full of details. Even the grass moves when you walk through it!
Given that the player has no control over the camera, the direction of the scenes itself becomes a key artistic element. The camera is almost always in some position that creates discomfort or the feeling that someone is stalking you. In quieter moments, the camera is often moved away and positioned so that the frame looks like a beautiful painting. Of course, the light and the camera work together so that the composition of the shot and the mise-en-scène lead the story and direct the player’s gaze. When something worth watching comes along, the game makes sure you don’t miss it.
A horror game is nothing without good sound design, and Reanimal didn’t disappoint me here either. Ambient sounds create a chilling feeling. You constantly hear some kind of creaking wood, gasping and various noises in the background that really give you the feeling that someone is following you. The music isn’t something you’ll want to listen to in your free time, but it fits the atmosphere of the game perfectly. It is subtle when it needs to be, and in moments of danger it explodes and makes you jump in fear.
If the story, sound and visuals were the only components of the game, Reanimal would be almost perfect. But there is also that “play” part of the game. Unfortunately, Reanimal doesn’t bring anything new and nothing overly exciting compared to Little Nightmares. Most of the time you will wander around the environment and solve very simple puzzles that you will understand in just a few seconds.
There are also a few sneaking segments, but they mostly come down to timing, where you wait a moment until someone is looking to move from cover to cover.
The most exciting are the scenes where some kind of monster is hunting you, but even that is reduced to just running and the occasional jump, and that is not very mechanically interesting.
In some parts you’ll even be able to fight, but it’s reduced to pressing one button without any depth or thought. Fortunately, the game does not have classic jumpscare raids, but the horror is achieved through creepy atmosphere and tense situations.
If you play alone, the role of the Girl is taken over by an AI teammate, who is not exactly the smartest. The girl follows you and sometimes helps in the fight, but it has happened to me a couple of times that the AI gets stuck and walks in the same place or doesn’t want to move at all. Those moments pass quickly, but still, as we all know, humans are smarter than computers… in most cases.
If you have good company, the game offers more fun than solo. Some puzzles that are simple become a real test of coordination and communication in pairs, but I could count them on the fingers of one hand. The most entertaining are the chase scenes, where both players have to react in a coordinated manner under pressure, which creates more tension.
The game is mostly the same mechanically, whether you’re alone or in a duo. There are no complicated situations where one player does something completely opposite to another or where information needs to be shared precisely to succeed. It’s a necessary compromise to allow for solo play, but if you’ve recently played It Takes Two or Split Fiction, Reanimal will disappoint you.
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how much content a game should have for its price, but Reanimal simply offers too little. The starting price is €40, and I finished the game within four hours. Since the experience is quite directed, there is no reason to go back and forth, except for some small items to collect. Fortunately, you can split the price with a friend as only one copy is needed to play as a duo, even if you’re playing on two different systems. Three additional expansions are planned for €25 each, but the first thing that comes to mind is how long they will actually last.
Reanimal is a well-rounded experience, but it’s simply too short to justify its high price tag. The price doesn’t change the quality of the game, but it does change the sense of value you get for your money. Judge for yourself if full price is worth it, but I recommend waiting for a discount.
If we were to rate games on feel and experience alone, Reanimal would get a pretty high score. The story is very exciting and keeps pulling you forward, even though you don’t really know what the hell is going on most of the time. Audiovisually, Reanimal is one of the best-designed experiences I’ve had in years, and a game that makes a strong case for games being truly art.
However, the gameplay itself is not particularly exciting. The mechanics are very simple, and everything has already been done better in some other titles. It is possible to play the game alone or in pairs, but it is a compromise that makes the experience not optimal in either case. The gameplay is varied as it involves exploration, sneaking, puzzle solving and the occasional fight, but none of those elements are particularly elaborate.
Some people will like Reanimal and some won’t, because it all depends on whether I worship her more important in games. If you love elements that games share with other arts, such as direction, sound, and visual art, Reanimal will delight you. But if you value gameplay above all else, this experience may not live up to expectations. If you’re somewhere in between, like me, you’ll find Reanimal to be a great experience, but a flawed game. Regardless of which camp you are in, the amount of content does not justify the price.