Perceptions of the Dead

Whenever abandoned buildings are mentioned, ghost stories are never too far, since it would appear that spirits love to gather in creepy, empty buildings for some reason. Video games take full advantage of this, because unlike in the real world, ghosts can be integrated and made a part of the gameplay. Whether you have to chase them around or run from them, horror games love to include all sorts of undead creatures.

Perceptions of the Dead is an interactive visual novel that features three stories instead of just one, although they all share a common theme: ghosts. Since the game is tagged as “interactive, that means you get to make a few choices along the way, even if they usually just present the events in a slightly different order. However, there’s more to the game, and it’s actually surprisingly polished for a free, indie production.

The three stories may revolve around different characters, but their plots are pretty similar. Hence, Jill Count is a streamer who tries to gain a bigger fan base by going to an abandoned hospital on Halloween, Tyrone is a professional ghost hunter faced with a special case, and the other story has you unraveling the mysteries of a phantom ice cream truck. Multiple characters are part of every scenario, and there’s usually quite a bit of horror as well.

As mentioned before, there are times when the game asks you to choose from multiple options. For example, in the case of the abandoned hospital you can choose in what order to visit the wards, but it would appear that this does not affect the overall story too much. It’s still a great way to keep players guessing, on the other hand, since it’s much more enjoyable than a kinetic visual novel with no decisions whatsoever.

Lastly, the graphics are in tune with the atmosphere and the locations you visit, and the character design is decent as well. Even if the characters are fairly colorful, the backgrounds can be pretty dark and disturbing sometimes. There is full voice acting for every character, which certainly adds a lot of depth to the experience as a whole.

In the end, Perceptions of the Dead is obviously not designed to drive you insane with nightmarish visions and disturbing gore, but it can keep you entertained for a few hours. The game is very polished in every regard, so it doesn’t feel cheap at any point.