The Letter Demo

Old houses rarely manage to avoid vengeful spirits and supernatural events, probably because ghosts are not big fans of modern architecture. Each one of them also happens to be built on some kind of ancient mass grave, or at the very least they have been at the center of a brutal murder. Movies and video games take full advantage of these cliches, since it’s the main nutrient for the horror genre.

The Letter is a visual novel with a bit more interaction involved than your usual click-to-skip ones, and it also features a lot more disturbing images. Although it is not as interactive as the Telltale adventure titles, it features some of the same ideas, such as quick-time events that spice up the gameplay every now and again. Not only that, but you also get to switch between characters a couple of times.

The plot is built around an old mansion that’s about to be put on the market by a real estate company, although everyone knows that it’s haunted. To make sure that everything is in order for the sale, the company sends someone to check up on it beforehand. Naturally, this is one of the roles you play at the beginning of the story. Isabella heads to the house and finds a letter with a scary message written all over it, as well as a disturbing spirit trying to harm her.

As mentioned before, there are quick-time events that require fast reflexes to get past, and their role is to animate the action from time to time. Jump scares are to be expected as well, and thanks to the good art design, there are some images that might stick with you for a while. Still, most of the game is about reading dialog and making a few decisions every now and again, so it’s not a true survival horror.

It’s important to note again that the artwork is truly one class above your usual visual novel flicks, especially when it comes to animations. Every character is animated and way more expressive than in many visual novels out there, and the backgrounds are sometimes animated as well. The soundtrack is on point too, but some of the sounds characters make can be a bit anti-climatic sometimes.

Although it’s far from finished at the moment, The Letter is definitely on the right track in almost all regards. The game impresses in the artwork department, and while the story is not at all original or mind-blowing, the way it is presented makes up for it. Hence, The Letter has the potential to cause a few nightmares if you give it a chance.

Note: If you want to support the game and contribute to its development process, you can donate money in its Kickstarter campaign, as well as vote for it on Greenlight.