A Week of Circus Terror Demo

Every now and again a game comes along that inspires many other developers to create something similar, just because the concept is so easily transferable and easy to reinterpret. One of these examples is Five Nights at Freddy’s, which although is a pretty simple idea and an even simpler game concept, it managed to spawn a cult following and many indie productions that share the same mechanics.

A Week of Circus Terror is a point & click adventure game that feels and plays a lot like the aforementioned game series, in the sense that your purpose is more or less the same. As such, the goal is to explore a creepy location and make sure that you don’t stumble onto the creatures that haunt it. Naturally, the game shares the same problem as the FNaF franchise, which means that it loses its appeal after one playthrough.

The story revolves around a man by the name of Gerald, who goes on a mission to uncover the mystery behind his son’s disappearance. In order to do that, he must explore an old abandoned house that supposedly holds all his answers. Obviously, the house in question is haunted by terrible creatures that love nothing more than to scare visitors, which is what you must avoid.

The goal is to make it for one week without stumbling onto the ghosts, because a single encounter is enough to lose the game. Each day features a different antagonist, so that’s about the only change in the gameplay. Speaking of which, most of your time is spent going from one room to the other and using the flashlight to examine your surroundings, which gets old rather quickly.

As for the graphics, the game features hand-drawn environments which are pretty creepy, at least if you play in the right conditions. However, the fact that you are stuck in a fixed point of view kind of ruins the atmosphere sometimes, not to mention the fact that there are a couple of bugs to watch out as well. Hence, it’s possible to illuminate the whole room if you move your mouse to the edge of the screen, thus removing the whole “horror” layer from the equation.

In the end, A Week of Circus Terror is certainly not going to impress anyone with substantial experience in the genre, but the jump scares might prove to be fun enough to entertain a casual audience. However, it needs more polish before it can be called a complete and functional game.