A Trip To The Cabin Quickly Turns Into An 80s Horror Nightmare
The slasher movie has been a staple of the horror scene since back in the 1970s, hyped through the 80s and beyond. Made famous through films like Halloween and Friday the 13th, a masked, silent figure, often wielding just a knife or machete, will stalk teenagers in a small town or holiday camp. The genre spun countless movies and even became very meta with the Scream franchise, while it was parodied in Scary Movie.
Games have employed this trope too, mostly with the hugely successful Dead by Daylight. Now we have a single-player experience in Yellowcreek Stories: The Cabin Watcher. Can you survive the night?
Yellowcreek Stories: The Cabin Watcher has all the 1980s vibes you could ever want, developed by a small team who obviously love the decade. We have scary synthesiser music, VHS distortion going across the screen, old-style computers, and, of course, a huge maniac trying to kill you. You play a successful horror writer who has gone away to their cabin by the lake to finish their latest novel. As they arrive, they hear on the news about a dangerous patient who has escaped from the local asylum. Sound familiar? When you get to the cabin, you feel like you’re being watched, but when a policeman is killed, then you know you’re in trouble, and from there, it’s all about escaping, hiding, and stopping the monster.
A Familiar Slasher Setup
The story is fairly simple and doesn’t go into much backstory or deliver too much context. You know little about the protagonist, except that he is a successful horror writer and needs quiet to finish his book. You don’t know about the escaped mental patient either, except that he likes stabbing things and, for some reason, hates you. It might have more plot than some of those 1980s slasher movies, but there isn’t much here. Not that it is a bad thing, because the simplicity of the set-up is what makes it work. But don’t go looking for anything deeper in Yellowcreek, because you won’t find it.
There are some interactions with other characters, like a policeman and a shop clerk who is also having a bad night. And whilst the dialogue is fine, it’s a bit cheesy, I guess which is in line with the horror movie motif.
From Peaceful Cabin Life To Being Hunted
Gameplay is in first person, and it covers a load of different things to do. In the first part of the game, you will be trying to complete simple tasks as the game gives you prompts; putting your suitcase down in the bedroom of the cabin, or heading to your old 80s processor in hope of writing some bits of your new novel. Then you might enjoy eating some pizza and watching a horror movie on the VHS.
These commands are very simple to use, as is the movement for the author. There are even pink highlighted areas where you need to go and use an object or find where to pick something up. At least that’s the case in the first half of the game, but when the big bad turns up, the gameplay changes.
When The Big Bad Arrives
Now it’s all about hiding in the shadows as the man-monster walks around looking for you. There is a meter on the right-hand side which shows how visible you are and whether you are hidden or not. Here you will have to look at his routes and perform a series of tasks, like setting a generator as a trap or finding a gun in a restroom. This part of the game is very annoying at times, as he does seem to spot you quite easily, and you will end up replaying whole sections of the game again and again. This isn’t a good stealth game, but it serves a purpose.
The visuals found in Yellowcreek Stories: The Cabin Watcher come with some nice touches, like the disorientation effect throughout, which looks like a worn videotape. There are also the different cinematic angles employed in the cutscenes. It even has some actual scenes from George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. The soundtrack is good as well, with that Halloween-type synth score throughout, ramping up when you are hunted in the stealth sections.
Yellowcreek Stories Is A Short But Familiar Fright
You’ll probably like the 80s references and filmic nods to the genre, but Yellowcreek Stories: The Cabin Watcher is a fairly short game; one that you can complete in an hour or so. And there are many moments that could be better, especially in the more stealth-focused sections, which feel a bit basic in terms of being spotted and the enemy AI.
However, if you want to be hunted in a cabin, then Yellowcreek Stories: The Cabin Watcher might be your next fright, as it’s capable of delivering the odd good scare, even if that fear fades quickly.
Important Links
Yellowcreek Stories – The Cabin Watcher Wants To Make Every Sound Your Last – https://www.thexboxhub.com/yellowcreek-stories-the-cabin-watcher-wants-to-make-every-sound-your-last/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/yellowcreek-stories-the-cabin-watcher/9nrf0cnvlvhc
