One Avocadoan’s journey delving into the realm of survival horror.

Fear the Spotlight, a retro survival horror game developed by Cozy Pal Games – a small indie studio consisting of married duo Bryan Singh (previously a game designer for Journey, The Last of Us, and the Uncharted series) and Crista Castro (previously an art designer for Nickelodeon and the Animaniacs reboot) – was actually released in some form or another three times.¹ The first time was as part of the Spectral Mall Haunted PS1 Demo Disc compilation in late 2022, alongside at least two other demos that later became full games (Dead Letter Department and House of Necrosis).² The second time (the first as a full game) occurred on PC in late 2023, but it was taken off the platform only a couple weeks later. This obviously took the game’s budding fanbase by surprise, but it turned out to be for a good reason. Almost immediately after the initial full release Cozy Pal Games had been approached by Blumhouse, the well-known horror film and television production company, who were in the process of establishing their own game publishing arm. Blumhouse had been impressed by the project and pledged to provide the funds to expand the game as well as to get it published on consoles, and roughly a year after its disappearance Fear the Spotlight was re-released as the first game to be published by Blumhouse Games on October 22, 2024.^3,4

Fear the Spotlight is centered around Sunnyside High, a high school that had been ravaged by a fire roughly twenty years before the start of the game that had killed twenty-four students. The story begins with friends Vivian (bookish and introverted) and Amy (rebellious and obsessed with the supernatural) breaking into the newly renovated school’s library after hours. Amy had been feeling a presence following her around the school for days and, believing that it was connected to the tragic fire from two decades past, convinced Vivian to perform a séance with her using a Ouija board from one of the library’s display cases. The séance seems to go fine at first, until a shadowy figure appears behind Amy and the lights briefly go out. As soon as they come back, Vivian finds that the school has been transformed into a gloomy, derelict shell of itself. Even worse, however, is that Amy is nowhere to be found. It’s up to Vivian to rescue Amy while avoiding the burning clutches of the monstrous being now stalking the halls.

One of Fear the Spotlight’s strongest and most immediately noticeable elements is its visual style and atmosphere. The developers went all in on reproducing a classic, PS1-esque graphical style. Blocky character designs, relatively simple textures, those iconic PS1 wobbly/jagged edges, that fuzzy CRT look, it’s all there and on its own would be enough to give the game a surreal feel. (I’ve seen complaints that the wobbliness is a little too much, but I liked how it contributed to the dream-like vibe.) Add in the grimy and decaying environments littered with fallen debris and the enveloping darkness broken by the beam of Vivian’s flashlight, and you’ve got a surprisingly oppressive atmosphere. 

Really, this game turned out to be a lot creepier than I expected. The visual obstruction caused by the narrow hallways and cluttered classrooms, dim lighting, and lower draw distance allow the developers to include a lot of “What did I just see” moments. The biggest examples are the mysterious dark figures with glowing eyes who will peek around corners or through empty spaces in walls or shelves, often showing up just at the edge of your vision, before skittering away. Another such moment that thoroughly spooked me was when I was making my through a bathroom and spotted a pair of legs in one of the locked stalls just as they lifted up and out of sight. The excellent sound design further contributes to the creepiness, with creaks, drips, thumps, and the occasional hum of machinery  leaving me constantly on edge. Many areas have no music at all, the silence sitting over everything like a smothering blanket. And when I did notice music, most often when the main stalker enemy was nearby, it tended to be heavy and industrial in a way that ratcheted up the tension.

Another component of the game’s atmosphere that I liked is the way the game flips the typical light/darkness dichotomy on its head. Frequently in horror games, lighted areas are places of safety while darkness is where the monsters lurk. (Resident Evil Requiem’s chronic care center comes to mind.) In Fear the Spotlight, on the other hand, the light is the enemy. Over the course of the game Vivian frequently encounters bright spotlights shining down from the ceiling as well as the Spotlight, a humanoid being with a spotlight for a head who relentlessly searches for her. Getting caught in one of these beams instantly burns Vivian and deals significant damage. As Vivian has no means of fighting back (as the game has no combat), she must avoid them as best she can by sticking to the shadows and hiding under furniture. As indicated in my The Dark Descent write-up, I’m not typically a huge fan of stealth sections like this. I think it mostly works fine here, though, and there was one room in particular – where you had to solve a puzzle involving various computers around the room while Spotlight hunted you – that utilized the mechanic to great atmospheric effect.

While Fear the Spotlight can be dark and disturbing, there is also a lot of charm to be found. I love how Vivian’s health bar is an illustration of her lungs, with inhalers serving as her recovery items to represent her asthma. (Sure beats jabbing yourself with every random needle you find lying around, eh, James Sunderland?) Every interaction with a key object is actually quite tactile as well. To open a sliding door on a display case, you have to grab the handle and pull. To remove a vent grate, you have to click on each screw individually to use the screwdriver on it and then grab and lift the grate. To connect a TV to a VHS player, you have to manually plug each end of each cable into the correct receptacle. It’s a fun gameplay style that I haven’t encountered before in a survival horror game, and it helps to provide the game with its own quirky identity.

What additionally drew me into the game outside of the graphics and atmosphere, and helped to keep my attention throughout, are the characters and story. The game does such a good job of establishing Vivian and Amy as people from the get-go, both through their visual designs (simple and playing into archetypes but nonetheless giving us clear information about their personalities right away) and the way they interact with each other. They have such good chemistry and feel so natural together (and it’s also pretty clear from early on that they harbor crushes on each other), and part of this comes down to the voice actress’ excellent performances. As with a lot of old-school survival horror games, much of the plot is fleshed out through scattered documents – school notices, diary pages, etc. (I love how the game establishes early on that the students were forced to use notes to communicate with each other to avoid getting into trouble during class.) The story isn’t the most unique, but the fire incident provides enough of a mystery to keep it engaging and it’s fun to put things together as the player gets more pieces of the puzzle. The way the plot ties into the spotlight motif and other visuals is pretty nifty, as well.

On the whole Fear the Spotlight is a fairly short game, clocking in at around two to three hours total. What’s cool, though, is that completing Vivian’s story unlocks a second chapter in which we play as Amy and see what she was up to after disappearing at the beginning of the story. Almost as extensive as the first chapter, Amy’s story isn’t just a retread; it has an entirely new plot, different locations, and different puzzles and gameplay mechanics. She can utilize her lock pick (complete with lock picking minigames) to open doors and boxes, for example, and she frequently receives text and voice messages on her phone that provide deeper insight into her complicated family life as well as how she met Vivian and how their relationship has blossomed. There is some great character work here, and I even found the second chapter creepier as a whole than the first one.

Looking back on it, it’s hard to tell what exactly this game most reminds me of. The lack of combat and focus on stealth puts it firmly in the Amnesia side of the survival horror spectrum. The puzzles, meanwhile, are pure Resident Evil, complete with keycards and multiple fuses. At the same time, the ominous, heavy atmosphere brought my mind straight to Silent Hill. And yet there is that strange coziness and charm to the game that (combined with the characters’ doll-like appearances) strongly reminded me of Crow Country. Fear the Spotlight may not be the most original game, but not every game needs to be revolutionary. Sometimes just being lovingly crafted and fun to play is enough, as it is here. I had a great time with this one, and I would love to see the developers jump into the horror space again sometime.

Survival horror and adjacent games I hope to cover (in no particular order) – Resident Evil 0, Resident Evil (OG), Resident Evil 2 (OG), Resident Evil 4 Remake, Resident Evil Revelations, Resident Evil Revelations 2, Resident Evil: Village, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, Amnesia: Rebirth, Amnesia: The Bunker, Tormented Souls, Alien Isolation, Yomawari: Midnight Shadows, The Evil Within, The Evil Within 2, Alisa, Dead Space 2, Alone in the Dark 2, Alone in the Dark 3, Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare, Alone in the Dark (2024), Curse: Eye of Isis, Dino Crisis, Dino Crisis 2, Darkwood, ObsCure, Cold Fear, Lempo, Stasis, Stasis Bone Totem, System Shock 1 and 2, Metro 2033, Look Outside, Heartworm, Little Goody Two-Shoes, SOMA, Empty Shell, Bendy and the Ink Machine, Clock Tower: Rewind, White Day: A Labyrinth Called School, Condemned: Criminal Origins, Sorry We’re Closed, Fragile Reflection, Bioshock 1, Bioshock 2, You Will Die Here Tonight, My Friendly Neighborhood, Conscript, The Callisto Protocol, Penumbra: Overture, Penumbra: Black Plague, Penumbra: Requiem, Lamentum, Outlast, Outlast 2, Carnival Massacre, Late Homework, Routine, Alan Wake 2, White Night, Onimusha, Onimusha 2, Heavy Metal Death Can, Remothered: Tormented Fathers, Remothered: Broken Porcelain

My Current Survival Horror Ranking:

1. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (9.5/10)
2. Resident Evil Remake (9.5/10)
3. Silent Hill 2 Remake (9.5/10)
4. Signalis (9/10)
5. Dead Space (2008) (9/10)
6. Resident Evil 2 Remake (9/10)
7. Resident Evil Requiem (9/10)
8. Cronos: The New Dawn (9/10)
9. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (8.5/10)
10. Crow Country (8.5/10)
11. Fear the Spotlight (8.5/10)
12. Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake (8.5/10)
13. Subversive Memories (8/10)
14. Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse (8/10)
15. Silent Hill 4: The Room (8/10)
16. Silent Hill f (8/10)
17. Resident Evil 3 Remake (7.5/10)
18. Resident Evil 4 (7/10)
19. Amnesia: The Dark Descent (7/10)
20. Alone in the Dark (1992) (7/10)

Up Next: Sorry We’re Closed

Header image courtesy of the PlayStation Store.

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1. Cozy Game Pals ↩︎
2. Spectral Mall on Itch.io ↩︎
3. Reddit AMA ↩︎
4. Deadline ↩︎