Darkfader spends time in a creepy hole with death all around and makes friends with a mouse who runs the operation - must be worth a read!

You find yourself wandering around a forest. The light from a hotel catches your eye and you decide to take shelter for the night in a nearby hotel. The hotel keeper - an eccentric rat by the name of Gregory signs you in then leads you to your room.

It doesn't take too long for you to realise the hotel is a bit weird. (The words weird and bizarre being buzz words for this game). The night of your arrival you have a dream in which the grim reaper himself tells you the only way to get out of this hotel and back to the "real" world is to collect souls and deliver them to him in your sleep.

Trouble is, each of the souls is being held captive by the deranged hotel guests (don't ask me why - it's based on a Japanese kid's cartoon! - you figure it out) who are keeping the souls for themselves. The game therefore involves wrenching these souls back from these weirdos and delivering them back to death one by one.

Presented in a familiar third person action/adventure style, the idea is to wander around collecting objects such as keys, book fragments, health promoting herbs and most crucially spying on the oddball occupants as much as possible; whilst they are going about their business, when sleeping or when just having a little think to themselves - (yes even have the ability to "hear" their thoughts - spooky).

Darkfader has a spooky time of it in Gregory Horror Show.

You need to find out what makes them tick, their weaknesses and their thoughts on other guests. Ultimately this is the main way in which to steal the souls from them.

You log each of the guest's thought onto a personal memo then it's up to you to piece together the clues to work out how to get the souls back.

Despite the lack of hand-to-hand combat, shooting or general killing, you still have an energy bar of sorts - a mental gauge - which constantly ticks down.

It's your primary concern to stop this being eroded to nothing; in effect you are fighting to retain your sanity whilst being shocked by the bizarre behaviour of the hotel guests.

Should the guests catch up with you or should you inadvertently run into them, the game cuts to a brief "horror show" and a big chunk of your mental energy is lost in the process. Reading books, eating, drinking and sleeping stave off the effects of being subjected to constant madness. (Well they would wouldn't they?)

The visuals add a truly unhinged air to proceedings. All the characters from Catherine (the pink hippo/lizard/nurse creation) to judgement boy all the way to Gregory himself look like characters you might find in a Tim Burton movie.

The character art is very stylised, with all the characters (except judgement boy) having boxy corners and flat limbs and the voices given to them make them both funny and endearing to the gamer - (imagine death with the voice of an American game show host!)

It's a little too short and at times a little frustrating with regard to the puzzles. However GHS is a surprisingly different and original gaming experience. Fans of dark humour and lovers of an unusual gaming experience will definitely want to check this unique offering from Capcom.

7/10

Darkfader