With the wave of true classic survival horror revival that’s been happening over the past five or so years, I’ve always been more excited about games that don’t just copy the existing formula but try to do something different with it. Yet, most of the attempts at doing that so far have been quite poor, usually due to the relative inexperience of the developers preventing them from realizing their big ambitious ideas. Sorry We’re Closed gets very close to doing things well. But it doesn’t stick the landing.
Unlike most classic survival horror titles, that usually focus on the gameplay pillars of the genre and have fantastic exploration and fun combat, Sorry We’re Closed is more interested in telling a choice driven story. For a good chunk of the first hour of the game you will talk to different characters, experience first hints at choices that will affect the way the story will go, will be drenched in the style and audio and visual presentation of the game. And only after that you will start doing some survival horror-ing. And it’s understandable – the game heavily leans into being a LGBTQ+ romance game first, with very particular visual style and themes centering around looking for and fighting for love. Which it does quite alright, especially in its first half. Now, it’s worth noting that personally if I met any of the characters from the game in real life, I’d find them obnoxious and avoid them like plague, but as characters in the story they’re well written and presented. And choices you make, whatever you choose to do and whom to help does feel meaningful… in the first half of the game.
That said, gameplay-wise the title is quite inventive too. It controls as a “cinematic camera view” game, but with camera-relative controls and when you aim your weapons you switch to the first person perspective. The main cool gimmick of the game is the “third eye” that shows the world in a different state. It’s kind of like seeing the “normal world” and the “otherworld” of Silent Hill at the same time, but done leagues better than the patented implementation in The Medium that was quite crap. What’s more interesting, this ability is important for the combat, as any enemy that enters that sphere of third eye vision gets their hearts exposed, which serve as weak points you must combo for different benefits. It all feels like a smart reinterpretation of ideas from the Parasite Eve games or Vagrant Story, but made simpler and more stylish. The overall progression through the levels is clearly influenced by Silent Hill 3 in particular, so it has elements of both free metroidvania-ish exploration and linear sections. But the game balances it all out, even with the complete lack of a map screen, having fun combat, exciting exploration and well made puzzles… in the first half of the game.
So yeah, let me address that first half thing I’ve repeated twice already. The game is quite short – which I consider a blessing for a classic survival horror title, as this one also has alternate ending paths, lots of missable elements and the like, motivating you to replay the game a bunch. But it is too short for its story ambitions and clearly too long for its gameplay design competence. The story simply gets not enough time to really deliver, and the second half of the game gradually but noticeably starts feeling too rushed. Granted, not as much in its main story that remains relatively well paced, but rather with all of the side stories the game wants you to care about. There’s just way too little space to breathe for them so they wrap up quickly and not as satisfyingly as you’d hope they would. While gameplay-wise the title just starts straight up falling apart. Balance goes out of the window in several spots. Levels become almost entirely linear, and where not they get too boring to explore. Puzzles become simply annoying to solve, rather then challenging or difficult and the entirety of the last level/dungeon of the game is just a slog.
For how the tone and characters of the game were “not my thing”, I genuinely loved them in the first half of the game. I was really enjoying myself and was looking forward to how things will wrap up. But the rest of the game, especially its last third or so, were so tiring and unfun I almost stopped playing. Nonetheless, Sorry We’re Closed has a demo you can try out. And if you’re a fan of the genre (or find the style of the game your thing), I think you should definitely give it a try. Also check the soundtrack. It is one of the more unique and fun takes on classic survival horror games lately. I just wish it would’ve good throughout the whole game.