Review for GYLT. Game for Google Stadia, the video game was released on 19/11/2019
It is easy after years to go back to the time spent at school and remember only the good things. Less easy, however, is to delve into less positive memories with thought, in those much less happy moments that many of us have experienced as children and that our mind has set aside for a spirit of self-preservation and quiet living. GYLT speaks precisely of the problems related to bullying, the first Google Stadia game reviewed on Epic Videogames Guide ft. VGNetwork is made by the good Spanish guys of Tequila Works, already known for the colorful RiME.
The talent and ability to create worlds and stories of the Iberian team are not questioned even in GYLT, an exclusive Google Stadia (what a rarity) which, however, in the practical act of “playing”, is barely enough.
Infant only in appearance
In GYLT the player will take control of the young Sally, a girl like many others, who, however, cannot give herself peace due to a tragedy that occurred a few months earlier: the mysterious disappearance of cousin Emily a few years younger. Emily is nowhere to be found, no one knows what happened to her and Sally seems the only one who has not yet surrendered to her seemingly doomed fate, filling the walls of her small American provincial town with flyers and spending all her free time looking for her. . Her wanderings will one day take her to the site of the old cable car that led to the mine, now in disuse. What he doesn't know is that that detour will only be the beginning of the most terrifying adventure of his still young life.
Sally, in fact, will find herself attacked by strange monsters in a version of his hometown of Bethelwood he hardly recognizes, but in which he will find evident traces of the recent passage of his cousin, whose pursuit will act as the main theme of the plot, within a stealth title with a duration of a handful of scarce hours from the Stephen King flavor. Quotes from the works of the king that go to waste, from the setting in Maine to a Sally that is very reminiscent of "The girl who loved Tom Gordon", sealed by thanks to the author in the credits. But don't expect a real horror, because apart from some sequence (the invisible enemies oh my God, Ed), GYLT isn't really scary, it works more on a good atmosphere, also helped by the splendid graphics sector and the impressive play of light.
GYLT is not a scare for an end in itself, but - as mentioned at the beginning of the article - it wants to tell in an original way a great problem such as bullying, using the monsters scattered throughout the levels as a metaphor of bullies and leaving his strongest messages in the writings on the walls or in the scenes represented by wooden mannequins.
The great sin of GYLT is that it starts from an interesting premise, as mentioned it has got the technical and style sectors right, it has dubbing even in good Spanish, but, even before moving on to the analysis of a decidedly incomplete gameplay, we must point out. a plot that leaves too many questions and too much to the imagination. There are some interesting glimpses in this story, but the developers seem to have left the most intriguing parts paradoxically to unnecessary content: In fact, Sally will discover a lot of what happens if you waste a few more minutes collecting the different collectibles scattered throughout the levels. This lack of focus and bite of the main narrative strand is also demonstrated by a truly anti-climatic ending, apparently almost truncated and which leaves with a bitter taste in the mouth.
Sam Fisher's granddaughter
However, if we can judge the plot of GYLT at least enjoyable, it is on the gameplay that - similar to what happened with RiME, we must say - Tequila Works has done less than what we expected, especially for what is currently one of the only exclusive games of the certainly not thriving line-up of the streaming service of one of the giants of the network. GYLT is in fact a mix between Murdered: Soul Suspect (in its most pedisseque stealth phases) and Alan Wake (whom we thought of for the fights and mechanics related to the flashlight). Its structure, its animations and the mechanics that govern the clashes between Sally and the monsters in the school rooms or in the Bethelwood arcade seem unfortunately taken in weight from a low-budget project from the PS2 era, with enemies that follow pre-established paths to distract and remove from our journey with simple red herrings.
Sally, however, is not completely helpless against the mysterious monsters that crowd the city: thanks to her torch she will be able to - once she has acquired some skills - fight more or less directly the vast majority of her opponents, including a handful of original bosses. Too bad that right this possibility of eliminating monsters takes away weight from our moves, as it will be possible to get by more or less always, destroying the threats in each room one by one. A stealth title must play on the edge of tension, absolutely absent here, in an easy and mundane video game. Things only improve slightly in the second half, when new enemies are introduced that are more complex to circumvent, but the missed opportunity is evident.
GYLT has a great premise, great graphics and soundtrack, great message to convey, great setting. However, it deserves a not too edifying vote due to the stammering in the narrative and above all a gameplay anchored too much in the past. We expected more from the first Stadia exclusive.
► GYLT is a Horror-type game developed and published by Tequila Works for Google Stadia, the video game was released on 19/11/2019
