Not every spooky season adventure needs to frighten you. From iconic favorites such as mystery-solving cartoons to delightful stories like Over the Garden Wall, plenty of Halloween-themed favorites are enjoyable without requiring causing fear. Moreover, a growing library of ghostly-adorable releases with autumn atmosphere, though lacking the keep-you-awake degree of terror. Gloomy Eyes arrived in September, and acts as an excellent cozy choice to the deeply scary titles of 2025.
A Unique Collaborative Solo Adventure
Described as a single-player cooperative puzzle game, Gloomy Eyes teams up a undead youth known as Gloomy and a living girl called Nena as they start an mission to return daylight to their dark, dark environment. Their design evokes collectible figures combined with the puppets from a animated feature. The light-complected and baggy-eyed style is influenced by the visual style of Gothic fantasy movies, and the narrative is a quintessential family-friendly tale. The pair builds an unbreakable friendship over the course of the game’s numerous levels as Nena strives to prove to her priest uncle that, look, perhaps living-impaired beings aren’t half bad.
Innovative Problem-Solving Features
The innovative term comes about from the game’s world-based challenges. After Gloomy and Nena cross paths, gamers switch between the recent allies to solve puzzles and move forward through the levels. Since he's not alive, Gloomy can’t walk through the illumination of a lamppost, while Nena may be grabbed by idle zombies without a lamp is shone on them.
It's necessary for them to work in tandem — in practice, you’ll use them together — to advance through areas. Nena may move or momentarily deactivate lights to clear paths for Gloomy, while the thoughtful character will use his zombie strength to move obstacles in the environment, revealing ways for Nena.
Engaging Level Design
The puzzles evoke memories a little of The Gardens Between, in the manner the stages are floating, model-like designs that the perspective pans around in sync with your heroes. Gloomy Eyes’ environments are quite fun, leading the friends around a carnival and through a haunted house, among other locales. There’s a “diorama view” option that allows you to view from afar and spin the areas, both to admire the designs and hunt for paths that may not have been apparent.
Small Issues and Complete Gameplay
And that’s one of the sole difficulties with Gloomy Eyes. Similar to other titles with a fixed perspective, occasionally it's confusing where the protagonists can and cannot go. Players might have to just bump into a few random elements to figure out which ones are interactable, as it’s not always intuitive.
Nonetheless, those small obstacles don’t get in the way of a ghostly-charming fun adventure. Gloomy Eyes is relatively brief, with approximately several hours worth of brain-teasers. Later levels integrate minor stealth and dynamic sequences with the challenge completion, as Gloomy Eyes marches toward a fulfilling — and moderately unexpected — ending.
Availability and Final Thoughts
Gamers avoiding the frights of fear-inducing releases won’t want to miss Gloomy Eyes. The game is out on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox, and is presently discounted for 25% off on digital platforms.
Gloomy Eyes has been released on several consoles and provides a delightful alternative for fans in search of autumn enjoyment without the terrifying moments.
