Fran Bow Demo

The horror genre is a bit more difficult to get right than most other genres out there, because the entire thing balances on whether the events unfolding on the screen manage to make the players feel uneasy. If they don’t, then everything else is for nothing and the gameplay doesn’t make too much sense, given the fact that it’s not very fun to walk around dark corridors and stop for the occasional jump scare.

Fran Bow is a classic point-and-click adventure game currently in development, which tries to make you feel uncomfortable by using disturbing imagery and a creepy story. On the other hand, the gameplay is more or less standard for the point-and-click genre, so most of your time is going to be spent trying to solve puzzles, combining objects and engaging in dialog with various characters.

As far as the story is concerned, everything revolves around Fran, a young girl who one day finds her parents slashed to pieces by an unknown entity. She decides to run away as far as possible, so she takes her cat and goes into the forest. After she falls asleep exhausted, she wakes up in what appears to be an insane asylum, so her next task is to run away again and leave the asylum.

Although most of the gameplay mechanics revolve around the good old “use/combine/examine” formula, there are a few other gimmicks that set the game apart. One such example is the use of pills, which help Fran enter some sort of trance and see into what appears to be a different dimension. Everything is bloody and disturbingly graphic in this dimension, but you can sometimes acquire otherwise inaccessible information this way.

Speaking of which, the level design is simply amazing in some cases, especially when it comes to the horror bits. Blood is always smeared on the screen and there are many things that seem to defy explanation, such as decapitated deer sitting on a chair, or ghostly figures watching you from afar. The graphic style is unique as well and it really works quite well with the overall atmosphere.

All things considered, Fran Bow looks very promising and one can only imagine what horrors await us in the upcoming full release. For now, however, you must make due with a few short levels and try to get used to all the blood you’ll be seeing.