Blameless

Being kidnapped is hardly a pleasant situation to be in, given the fact that your captors rarely have your best interests at heart. Sometimes they only need the victim in exchange for the ransom, but other times things go much worse for the person in question. Hence, finding yourself in a strange place at the mercy of a stranger is a pretty good premise for a horror video game.

Blameless is a first-person puzzle game with a horror atmosphere, in which you have to solve a mystery and stay alive while doing so. Although it’s not a very innovative game, the puzzles are actually quite nicely designed, because they require a fair bit of interaction with the environment. The atmosphere is quite creepy as well, which is a great thing to have in a horror game.

As such, you wake up in a house that’s still under construction, with no way out of the room you are locked in. However, there are a couple of tools and leftovers you can work with to get out, which is how the whole story starts. Naturally, your goal is to find out what your kidnapper wants with you and how can you resolve the situation without getting hurt in the process.

You can pick up objects and combine them in a pretty intuitive way, but you might need a bit of thinking time before you can solve some of the puzzles. The interaction is very smooth and easy to understand, on the other hand, so you should be able to figure things out from the first try every time. The atmosphere keeps you on edge at all times, so the experience is that much more intense.

Speaking of which, the graphics are not necessarily state-of-the-art, but they are definitely enjoyable, not to mention detailed. The lighting effects are great, and so are the textures and the materials used for objects. Even the sounds are creepy and well-chosen for the setting, not to mention the discrete music playing in the background at all times.

Blameless shines when it comes to atmosphere and puzzles, but it’s a tad too short to make a lasting impression. Hence, we can only hope that the developers use their skills to create something more intricate for their next project.