Not all spooky season journey must frighten you. From iconic favorites like animated detectives to delightful stories including Over the Garden Wall, many spooky-season staples are enjoyable without requiring raising your heart rate. Additionally, a expanding collection of ghostly-adorable releases with Halloween vibes, but not the truly terrifying level of terror. Gloomy Eyes was released in recent months, and stands as an excellent cozy option to the deeply scary releases of 2025.
A Distinctive Single-Player Cooperative Adventure
Known as a solo collaboration problem-solving title, Gloomy Eyes unites a undead youth named Gloomy and a human girl named Nena as they start an adventure to return daylight to their shadowy realm. They look evokes stylized dolls combined with the puppets from a Laika film. Their fair-toned and baggy-eyed aesthetic borrows heavily from the look of Burtonesque cinema, and the plot is a archetypal all-ages journey. These two develops an enduring connection over the span of the game’s multiple stages as Nena tries to show to her clerical relative that, hey, perhaps zombies aren’t half bad.
Creative Gameplay Systems
The “self-coop” term originates from the game’s environmental puzzles. When Gloomy and Nena cross paths, you’ll swap amidst the recent allies to overcome obstacles and advance through the stages. Being a zombie, Gloomy can’t walk through the brightness of a light source, while Nena will get snatched up by idle zombies without a lamp is directed on them.
It's necessary for them to cooperate closely — actually, you’ll use them in tandem — to advance through areas. Nena could adjust or momentarily deactivate lamps to open routes for Gloomy, while the open-brained boy will employ his undead power to move obstacles in the surroundings, creating ways for Nena.
Captivating Level Design
These challenges evoke memories a bit of The Gardens Between, in the way the stages are hovering, model-like structures that the view moves across in conjunction with your heroes. Gloomy Eyes’ worlds are quite fun, taking the friends around a amusement park and through a spooky mansion, including other locations. There’s a “diorama view” button that permits you to view from afar and spin the stages, both for admire the visuals and search for paths that may not have been clear.
Minor Hiccups and Complete Gameplay
And that’s one of the sole problems with Gloomy Eyes. Comparable to other titles with a fixed perspective, sometimes it's unclear where the protagonists can and cannot go. You may need to randomly encounter a multiple different elements to discover which ones are interactive, as clues aren't consistently provided.
Nevertheless, those small obstacles don’t get in the way of a spooky-cute fun adventure. Gloomy Eyes runs on the short side, with roughly a few sessions worth of puzzles. Later levels combine light hidden movement and dynamic sequences with the puzzle solving, as Gloomy Eyes progresses to a satisfying — and moderately unexpected — finale.
Accessibility and Final Thoughts
Players avoiding the scares of intense horror releases won’t want to miss Gloomy Eyes. You can find it on Switch console, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X, and is presently discounted for a discount on digital platforms.
The spooky-cute adventure has been released on various systems and offers a enjoyable choice for fans in search of autumn enjoyment without intense scares.
