There are plenty of things which scare us as human beings, from clowns, zombies, spiders and Disney live-action remakes, there is no shortage of things which induce fear in us. But arguably one of the worse things we can all experience is the invasion of our home/personal spaces by strangers and dangerous individuals. Well, imagine this great fear from the perspective of a child, where you’re hunted by strange individuals wearing all manner of ghoulish masks looking to cause harm. Well, this certainly does make for the perfect scenario for an indie horror game.
What is Intruders: Hide and Seek?
Intruders: Hide and Seek is an intense stealth-based horror game, where you play as Ben the eldest child of the Richter family, whose family vacation home has been taken over by three dangerous invaders. Your parents have been taken hostage, you and your younger sister are out in the open being hunted by these strangers, and you have no idea why this is happening. Players must brave the dark, hide in plain sight and evade the invaders who seek to find them and their sister.
As Ben, players must explore the massive vacation home, looking for a way to rescue their parents, keep their sister safe, and complete various tasks in a bid to unravel the identity of the intruders in their home. Being a ten-year-old boy, you can expect to be limited in your resources, not having the luxury of tools, gear or weapons to defend yourself with, and only having your own wits and quick thinking to stay alive.
The concept is quite chilling, as the notion of break-ins and home invaders is something we know of, have seen or experienced ourselves. There is a ton of film media where the story centres on home intruders who usually want blood and carnage. So having this concept be the basis of a first-person horror game sounds like an absolute win. I personally am not a fan of survival horror games where your main character is unarmed and won’t even defend themselves. But here, the theme is extremely fitting due to the young age of the playable character. Being a child against three looming threats, three times your size, of course, all you can do is run and hide.
But does this make for a compelling horror experience?
Come out, come out, where ever you are
Intruders: Hide and Seek starts off fairly slowly with players being given the chance to explore the family home during the day, doing odd tasks such as setting up the dining table and turning on an electrical box. This does give a nice amount of time to explore and become familiar with your surroundings, and to discover early on points of interest and hiding spots. However, after a few nice exchanges and quality family time, do things suddenly take a turn for the worse, putting poor Ben against three armed and very dangerous individuals.
From this point in the game, it’s up to players to fend for themselves and do their best to evade the intruders, by hiding in empty cupboards, air vents, under a bed or simply running for their life when discovered. As the night goes on, players must work towards outsmarting the invaders, in a bid to get rid of them, but along the way, they will discover some hidden truths about Ben’s parents and why his home is under attack. The time spend in the house, sleuthing through the darkness and uncovering the truth, is quite captivating, and the payoff or heart of the mystery was decent upon discovery. There are a few interesting revelations that will pique your interest until the end, but I felt as though there could have been more dramatic events to heighten the stakes or break up the pacing a bit. There’s a lot of “go here to this side of the house and find something”, and then “go to the other side of the house to find something else”.
The flow of events never felt that compelling, and the objects just range from the hide, sneak to the next area of interest and repeat. A cool set piece dotted throughout would have complemented the mystery and avoided some tedium felt. Something akin to the times you’re locked in an area with the enemy and have to move frantically but keep your calm before being spotted (Evil Within, Alien Isolation). Or maybe even trapping an intruder in a makeshift trap to buy you some time and find a key item.
However, I felt this was due to the short playtime, with the game only lasting 2 to 3 hours, at most, and things wrapping up as the mystery becomes more compelling. I understand this is an indie game, and more so originally a PSVR game, so there were bound to be some serious limitations in play. Which is a little saddening, as there was more room to explore the backstory and flesh out the time with the intruders.
What I feel keeps things mainly engaging throughout the short campaign is the house itself, which is immensely well put together, highly detailed and has a rich environment that plays beautifully well with the style of gameplay. I did find the vacation home of the Richters to be enjoyable to explore and sleuth around, despite it being massively grounded and not your typical Resident Evil-style haunted house. Also, I loved the soundtrack for the short moments I heard it, truly frightening and kept my nerves on end when it started playing.
Stay in the shadows
For myself, I love stealth games, always have and always will. I love games which take the formula and really push for something utterly gripping, immersive and rewarding for your efforts. Games like the Thief series (even the 2014 game), Manhunt, Tenchu and Alien: Isolation offer compelling experiences where patience and planning are rewarded immensely. However, in recent years, we’ve not seen the likes of the fore mentioned greats, as stealth gameplay, even in “stealth” heavy games always feel watered down and limited.
Intruders: Hide and Seek sadly follow the same pattern, and while not entirely bare bones, it could have integrated at least one or two more truly neat dynamics. Whether that be the incredibly intelligent AI of the Alien in Alien Isolation, the light and dark elements of the Thief games, the use of sound and snuff kills in Manhunt, or the inferred camera in Outlast, these games have one, or two more great mechanics which truly heighten the stealth aspect.
There are some cool ideas but nothing that feels fully developed into a unique gameplay feature. There are times you will somewhat hallucinate if scared for too long, but this mainly revolves around the camera being blurry and the intruders looking a little more monster-like than normal. Other than that, you can hide, peek around corners and in some instances have to hold your breath if an enemy is actively searching for your while in hiding. These are fine, but we’ve seen these so many times before, and without anything else to add a layer or two to the gameplay loop, it just feels a little basic.
I did get a kick out of sneaking around, peeking around corners and finding a hiding spot from my captors. And while the basic mechanics don’t offer much for multiple playthroughs, they are somewhat fitting for the short playtime. There are moments you can trick your captors into venturing to a certain spot, but nothing else much happens aside from these few moments and plenty of hiding.
I feel that Intruders was a game that banked on its VR capabilities and I can see the intimation and risks, while having the limited mechanics, being utterly engrossing from a VR perspective. As it is on a console, on a TV, it’s overall fine but never reaching for the immense potential the concept offers.
Overall?While Intruders: Hide and Seek might not compare to a juggernaut like Resident Evil 7, or Alien: Isolation, I do greatly admire what is still here. Indeed, the mechanics are quite simple, and the short length won’t win most people over, I still found the sense of mystery, the intensity of the stalker gameplay and the design of the environment to present a totally entertaining and terrifying experience. Intruders: Hide and Seek, is more fitted for VR immersion, but without the headset, this is still a pretty decent game.
++ Great concept and environment design
+ Creepy stalkers and intense cat-and-mouse gameplay
+ Good soundtrack and atmosphere
-- Mechanically unsurprising and very simple
- Very short length for the campaign
- Story beats could have been more interesting
A copy of Intruders: Hide and Seek for the Xbox Series S/X was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
