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Things can get hairy when Sally gets surrounded by a bunch of monsters at once, but otherwise these items make the game so easy that players can basically ignore most of the stealth sections after they're acquired. However, Gylt is one of the easiest "survival-horror" games that we've played, and really players won't have to think too hard to solve its puzzles and will have to go out of their way to die.Īs the game progresses, Gylt equips Sally with some weaponry that she can use to pretty effectively fight off the monsters, including a fire extinguisher that freezes them and a special flashlight that can be used to outright kill them.
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When Sally isn't sneaking around monsters, she's solving standard survival-horror puzzles that we've seen countless times before, exploring spooky areas, collecting keys, and contending with "limited ammo," like in most survival-horror games. It's serviceable, though the stealth sequences are elevated significantly by the game's haunting musical score, which does a great job of heightening the tension. Much of Gylt's gameplay revolves around pretty basic stealth sequences, where players can throw pop cans to distract enemies, sneak up behind them for instant-kills, and generally just try to avoid being caught. Instead of fighting these monsters head on, Gylt encourages players to take the stealthy route. The monster designs in Gylt are creative and creepy, with Sally stalked by blobby fish people with upside-down heads, teleporting monsters with bird beaks, and even a massive humanoid creature whose consistently one of the most impressive sights in the entire game whenever it shows up. The game starts with Sally hanging up missing posters for Emily in the "real" world, but she is soon chased by some bullies into a twisted, Silent Hill-style version of her hometown, complete with giant eyeballs and deadly monsters. Players explore Gylt's visually-striking world as a young girl named Sally who is looking for her missing cousin Emily. All things considered, Gylt is quite easily the best-looking and most-polished title from Tequila Works to date. Gylt looks and runs great, with a smooth frame rate that's only ever undermined by the Stadia service itself if players decide to play on wi-fi instead of a wired connection. Gylt's art style, graphics, and lighting all come together to showcase one of Stadia's most visually impressive games. Gylt's art style also lends itself well to the "horror for kids" atmosphere it cultivates, using cartoonish visuals instead of realistic graphics. It still has a few good jump scares, but otherwise it's fairly tame for the genre. Gylt gives off a real Stranger Things vibe in that it is certainly a horror game, but it's not so overly scary that it would turn away kids or those who typically can't handle horror games. But as history has shown us, a video game platform needs strong exclusive games to reel in an audience. 21 out of the 22 Stadia launch games have been available on other platforms for months if not years, though there is one exclusive game available for Stadia Founder's Edition purchasers, and that is the stealth-horror game Gylt from Tequila Works. Google Stadia represents Google's attempt to break into the triple-A video game industry, giving players the option to stream blockbuster hits like Red Dead Redemption 2, Destiny 2, and Mortal Kombat 11 to basically any device that can get an Internet connection.
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