Bye Sweet Carole

Horror has taken many forms, usually in the fixed camera, grimy pixel art, or 90’s nostalgia TV time variety. But seeing it take a form reminiscing what multiple generations of children have watched, and has become a timeless aesthetic, is quite a fascinating turn to take. Bye Sweet Carole is a new horror adventure which looks like something Walt Disney crafted with his bare hands, and purest nightmares. It’s a beautiful, yet incredibly haunting game that has the perfect vibes and tone, but does the gameplay and scares match up?


Saying goodbye is the hardest thing …

Bye Sweet Carole is what if classic Disney decided to take a massive U-Turn, and make a creepy, yet stunningly hand drawn horror game, focusing on a young woman searching for her lost friend through a series of sinister nightmarish ventures. We play as Lana Benton, a young woman trapped within Bunny Hall orphanage living her worse life as she faces bullying, being vastly downtrodden due to social toxicity, and having lost her only true friend Carole Simmons.  

Lana is at the centre of a sinister mystery, as Carole disappeared without a trace. Now all that remains are beard crumbs of clues leading us to dark places, distant memories warped by evil, and shadowy figures who want to claim Lana for nefarious reasons. And the adventure is presented in a beautifully hand drawn 2D, side scrolling method that makes it feel like a picture book come to life. Be it with some nightmarish content.

As Lana, we traverse the various beautiful, and rather more disturbing scenic routes in a bid to gather clues on the whereabouts of our dear friend Carole.  What we see and find is a rambling and stitched together tale of despair, oppression, and finding oneself through madness. The story itself has some excellent beats, but I never found myself being fully gripped by it. I quite like the setting, the voice acting, and much of the supporting cast is great. But I found trouble grasping the narrative itself as it felt quite jumbled, following a line but often interjecting a sense of random that twisted the logic just enough I lost my bearings. Whether feeling like I'm starting at one point, then moving back on myself, and then forth again with wholly new information thrown in, and forgotten about until much later on. 

It's a weird one to describe, but there is a lot of back and forth, venturing into nightmarish scenarios, time travel and other things which did bring about a sense of madness, and I guess that’s a fine point. While I was quite confused at times, I also appreciated the Alice in Wonderland vibes, of distorting paths and notions of logic. And that makes sense since Rabbits, and other worlds play a big part of Bye Sweet Carole. It’s both a blessing and a curse for me personally, but I can see people either loving or disliking this.

Still, the mystery is quite engaging, and the grounded aspects, and real life influences based on societal changes at the time mixing with the horror/conspiracy vibes was quite enjoyable, and enough to keep me going until the end. 


Down the rabbit hole you go

So, like I said, and I don’t need to go too far into this, but the presentation is simply wonderful. The hand drawn, Disney-inspired art style, the flow of animation, character designs, and general vibes and aesthetics are staggeringly great. Absolutely love the look and feel of this game, and how the artists made the more terrifying elements fit in tone of the art style. The music I would say is slightly lacking in comparison to the visuals, as it’s perfectly fine, and fits the style very well being rather classical and easy going. But there was never a song that captured the intensity, or the horror vibes in a meaningful way compared to the visual side of things. It was fine, but the art stood out in credible measures that it outshined other aspects of the presentation.

As for gameplay, Bye Sweet Carole shares a striking resemblance to that of the original Clock Tower from 1995, being that Bye Sweet Carole is 2D side scrolling, you must explore and solve puzzles, and all the while evading sinister stalker like enemies. The sneaking, hiding, and problem solving are all quite solid and fun to do. Lana herself is quite an agile character, but of course not a trained super soldier, or even grasp the basics of self-defence. However, she can turn into a rabbit …  This was kind of hilarious when I first transformed into an adorable rabbit to crawl for a tight spot. But again, it’s a neat trick that does open up some cleaver problem solving and tense moments when hiding from enemies.

And speaking of, puzzles are generally more about finding key items, or pulling the right lever at the right time, and combing key items to make a big key item. With the odd except here and there once important characters and featured are introduced. With Lana’s rabbit transformation, or when we join with another character and we can use his head to set fires or carry an electrical current that can charge transformers and water. Again, some neat ideas are thrown together, but nothing is vastly complicated, more so having to figure out the simple series of actions in order, complete them, and make sure then to die in the process.

But like I mentioned, there are a couple of exceptional moments I felt brought about the best of the straightforward mechanics, and gameplay loop.  With one section, Lana was trapped in a cave, with a shadowy stalker following close by. The only defence was through lighting lanterns up, although their glow did not last long. All the while having to get a can of petrol to refuel a generator, but doing so required finding levers, backtracking and careful placements of items. This was quite thrilling, and the stalkers are quite the highlight for the gameplay. 

Aside from the hiding, running, key finding, and stalker evasion, there are a couple of set-pieces involving combat believe it or not. This is mainly through a side character, or Lana’s puppet like companion in certain spots, who can swing their umbrella and fight off foes. It’s simplistic melee combat, and to be honest, these moments weren’t all that great, lasting a little longer than they should've, and just resorting to mashing the same button repeatedly with no dynamic flare, or changes. Kind of autopilot feeling, and while not feeling out of place, didn’t feel all that substantial.

Bye Sweet Carole features a great deal of different elements that while some don’t work out as well as intended. Whether it’s the tedious melee combat, or the more lacklustre puzzles, there were still more thrilling chases, interesting lateral moments, and a great sense of discovery and exploration through delightfully twisted worlds.


Overall?

Bye Sweet Carole is much more than one of those random, click-bait games you come across through your socials. There is a true sense of purpose, and artistic achievement, as impressive as seeing Cuphead for the first time all the way back in 2016. It’s an aesthetically stunning treat on the senses, that infuses Disney, and 90’s horror into one enjoyable, and thrilling experience. While not everything works out for the best, Bye Sweet Carole is a bloody good horror adventure, and one with a timeless charm, that will live as long as many of the films it’s influenced by.

++ amazing art style, and presentation
++ Thrilling cat and mouse gameplay
+ Solid level design and interesting puzzle elements
-- Story is a little all over the place
- Some action setpieces don't work
- Some puzzles are a little tedious

The publisher kindly provided a PS5 review code of Bye Sweet Carole for this review