Time to Wash Up

The atmosphere is what matters the most in a horror game, regardless of how scary the monsters are or how creepy the location is. However, it’s not easy to create the right vibe, since it’s not a combination of multiple elements that work together in order to induce terror, dread and panic into the players. Many games have gotten this part right, but a lot more are just a succession of jump scares with no meaning at all.

Time to Wash Up is a top-down horror/survival game in which you have to stay alive by constantly feeding the fire and washing up at the end of the day, for some reason. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, at least not at first, but it’s exactly that feeling that can make the whole experience a lot more vivid and enjoyable. On the other hand, Time to Wash Up still has a few problems that prevent it from being truly memorable.

To begin with, the playable area is too small and lackluster when it comes to objects, since all you can see is a couple of trees, a wheelbarrow, a shed and your cabin. It takes you a couple of seconds to explore the entirety of the game, even if there is a hidden area in there as well. Thus, you can easily get bored too quickly and not be able to finish the game.

The gameplay is nothing out of the ordinary either, since all you have to do is walk from one end of the map to the other and interact with a couple of objects along the way. Naturally, weird things start to happen after a while, and the game is quite intriguing in this regard. The sound effects go very well with the visual design, which is always great news for a horror game.

Don’t expect any hideous monster to flash on your screen on the other hand, because that’s not the case with Time to Wash Up. Instead, you start to feel uneasy due to the weirdness of it all, which is exactly how a horror game should make an impression on you. The artwork is pretty striking as well, even if the environments lack detail, which is a bit of a bummer.

When it’s all said and done, Time to Wash Up is not an original concept and it’s way too short to make a lasting impression, but it can be expanded with enough work and dedication. Hence, there’s definitely potential here, but it needs to be unlocked first.