Horns of Fear

I did not get too far, but there's some gameplay issues that made me drop it. This game is much closer to a point and click adventure game than survival horror, I was hoping it was the latter. But I like point and clicks too, so I was happy to keep playing.

But a couple unnecessary design choices made it a slog for the hour or so I played. 1) you can only pick up items if you have found the puzzle that requires them. So if you like to scan a room for all items or interactable hot spots, you would have to come back multiple times and do it again - super tedious, and like... why?

Also, the movement speed is very slow with no run toggle. So this just adds to the tedium.

There is no map, no notebook to record hints, etc. So this all adds up to a frustrating slog that I lost patience for early. It's doubly frustrating because all of these issues are so easily remedied, but for whatever reason this is what the dev decided.

Otherwise, the game seems good. I liked the gouache looking, painterly art style. Some of the rooms are visually interesting and the lighting is great. I was interested in the plot as well.

I will GLADLY play this again and update my review if the dev decides to make some changes. But as it is, I can't recommend.

The puzzles were pretty solid, got stuck for a bit but that's okay.

9/10. spooky, great atmosphere, good puzzles, funny

Short, simple but sweet and straight to the point horror click game.

A surprisingly enjoyable micro-horror-game: a concentrated dose of creepy art/gore, inventive puzzles, satisfying exploration and a mind-melting narrative, all tied together in a short little experience oozing with atmosphere. It feels like the dev poured their heart into this, it's a true hidden gem.

You're a deadbeat journalist/paranormal investigator, researching a spooky old mansion. But as you continue to explore and unravel the mysteries of this place, and the cursed family within, you become entangled in a web of nested rabbitholes and shocking revelations. Beautiful custom 2D art from the dev, often using photography of hand-crafted clay models.

I didn't expect much for a couple bucks, but I got more than I bargained for. I was even genuinely spooked a few times. Excellent game.

Fantastic, had an absolute blast playing this game. Loved the story and characters.

10/10 recommend

I bought this game a couple of years ago. It's the sort of game that I favour. I didn't really start to play it until recently. Mainly because it seemed a bit weird, when I first played it. I found the that main factor that confused, at first, was that a lot of the puzzles or game play, is scripted. So I would often see something that required some interaction. however, it wouldn't let me until other certain things has been completed. I didn't enjoy this so I went off the game for a while. But recently I decided to get grip of all the games that I have tried but never finished and finished them! This game being one of them.
So, at the start of the game I was greeted with the first bug. It is a graphic issue. Somehow, I managed to get around it and continue to play. I got all of the achievements that there were to get, in that part of the game., in the levels/chapters played, so far. Which was around 64% of the whole game. Almost there!
Then, just the start of the game, I am confronted by the exact same bug, with loading graphics.
No matter what I did, unlike the first one, I couldn't overcome the bug!

Steam "support" claim that they can do nothing, and direct you to contact Pixolia or get refund.
Contacted Pixolia, EXPLAINED THE PROBLEM AND GOT NO ANSWER!
There is however, a pinned post. Guess what? It's about graphics. Explaining that you have to do certain things
such as check compatibility. I had already done all of those things, and I'm compatible. Still the game doesn't work properly.
Now, if a developer/software company sees the need to victim blame the user? It speaks volumes! Mainly that there is definitely a bug in the coding. The pinned post alone, shows that it's not a singular, isolated problem that you can simply blame on hardware and drivers etc.
Why can't Pixolia address this problem and patch it?! Instead of pinning a post?

My advice to anyone who buys and tries this game is, if you do get a graphics load issue, early in the game? Don't wait until you encounter the next transition in graphics. Stop and request a refund! Because you run the risk of, like myself, not being able to get any further. Then you've just wasted time and money.

Extremely disappointed in the game-play and the lack of customer support.

An Edit to my review. I have now completed that game and have all of the achievements.
The next part of the game is very bizarre but that's okay because it's how the story is meant to go, Ii think.
However it turns the game more into a story telling rather than a challenge. Which is rather anticlimactic.
To do this game and get to the end, I built an new PC, with some real souped up ram and GPU. Just to make sure I wasn't going to get blocked by bugs again.
My advice to you all is not to rely on the "Minimum" configuration recommendations for this game. They are not true because they won't work properly.

Horns of Fear is a good example of a horror game in which the scariest thing you encounter is the game designers idea of a story. Is it a bad game? No. Is it a good game? Don't ask me that. please get out of my house.

Really short, but also really fun. If you're expecting a pure horror point and click, this ain't it. There are a few good scares , but the majority of my enjoyment came from the absurdity and off the rails nature the game descends into. Just go along for the ride and buy this freaking game. Now sit down, Seinfields on

An entertaining and disturbing little horror story which ends up being more than meets the eye. The puzzles are interesting and fairly unique; challenging, but not pretentious. There are plenty of scares, but alongside the fairly "typical" jumpscares (which are used well here actually, sparingly and they're all fairly different from one another) the game uses a touch of body horror/gore (aka when the antagonist decides Jim should no longer be alive) and psychological horror. It messes with your mind, but not necessarily in the ways you'd expect! Story is intriguing, does require a bit of piecing together of things by the player until later on but I enjoyed reading the little tidbits and guessing at what was going on. OST is atmospheric and well-done.
TLDR: a spooky, fairly short horror game with a focus on puzzling your way through the house and trying to work out what the hell is going on. Buy it - only took me just under 2 hours to get all achievements, but for £3.99 I am definitely not going to complain about value for money.

A great experience, the amount of heart put into this game definitely made it stand out to me.

Short but sweet little game. It was reminiscent of early 90s games such as Gabriel Knight. The first half of the game is solid, but the latter half is weaker and kind of went off the rails a bit. Still would recommend for the price.

This is a firm no from me I'm afraid.
The first half of the game is actually surprisingly decent. You're roaming around a creepy mansion, picking up items, solving puzzles, getting spooked by a well setup jumpscare. And over this is layered a satisfying level of gore. Then you leave the house and enter the forest, at which point it's very clear the developers were running out of content. As down goes the level of thought in the puzzles, and up goes the amount of walking you do between areas of interest, with bland samey forest backdrops your only distraction. Then after all that the game jumps right off the rails into meta-silliness to the point of hilarity, and it loses all credibility as any sort of horror game.
Overall the puzzles were a bit on the easy side, just registering enough difficulty to make you think but the way is generally signposted pretty well given the fact there's not many areas open to you at any one item, or that there's not that many things to interact with.
Another drawback is it's very short. There's just over an hour and a half to two hours of content, depending on how much trouble puzzles cause you, and if you're like me you're only going to enjoy half of that time.
Avoid, even on sale.

A strange, creeping hippie flip of an experience that combines a top-down pixelated horror experience that's heavy on the puzzling with adventure game dialogue/elements (right down to the character portraits featured in conversation). I haven't played it in 2 years and did everything that I felt I needed to do in it but it stuck with me and there's a chance that this one will get a second completion on a rainy day.

You star as an anagram of Doors' singer Jim Morrison (you are Jim Sonrimor), a paranormal reporter that gets called to a creep n' freak estate in the middle of the night. From there, it's up to you to figure out the many puzzling machinations of the central mansion and how they operate (to progress of course), collect necessary items and keys, interrogate the absolutely nightmarish clan that occupies the place and even face off against a few brutal baddies. To say too much about any individual scene or set-piece from this game feels like cheating someone reading this review as much of it is weird and not what I expected at all.

The graphics are probably at the top of the pixel pack for me in terms of this kind of horror; I loved that it bucked tradition with a top-down perspective, some detailed cinematic scenes, interesting environments and characters whose mugs I'll remember long after I played. The puzzles are challenging but if you pay attention, note down clues and are experienced with this stuff dating back to Sanitarium or other games of this ilk you'll be able to get around faster than you expect. I swear Steam didn't log some time on this one for me though as I recall spending around 5 hours to finish Jim's adventure.

The control is what it needs to be, the interfaces workable and even some of the more event oriented sequences can be passed with a quickness once you figure out what's going on. And that's what sums this game up best for me; figuring out what's going on. Horns of Fear will absolutely not be for everyone but it's probably one of my favorite pixel horror games released in the modern era. Whether I ever play through it again doesn't detract from the fact that I will ALWAYS remember this weird, cultish and ghoulish little gem.

A game that I would only recommend on a sale.

The story was just not coherent enough, some of the puzzles are pretty obscure and the whole "you are only inside a game" thing has been done before.

Of course there are some merits to this game, but it won't be something that I will replay anytime soon. Still, if you like your creepy (albeit short) games, give it a try.

So...
I had fun playing through the game, you have some jump scares, some "NO" moments...etc.

The villain looks ridiculous...and the plot is---underwhelming (in my opinion)
But if you want to waste a couple hours for a couple jump scares, I'd recommend this game.

Really enjoyable psychological horror game, I 100% recommend it for horror lovers. The story is creepy with a nice touch of humour and I spent a really good time playing it. The game doesn't rely on jump scares to provide horror, which is great in my opinion.

Wow. Where do I start with this game?

If you want awesome storyline, twists, turns, gore, challenging puzzles and an awesome soundtrack to go with it, buy this game now.

I had so much fun playing this, it got me thinking, made me jump, tugged on my heartstrings and kept me on the edge of my seat for the two hours it took me to finish it.

Buy this game. You won't regret it.

This game is 100% absolutely worth your time. I've been disappointed in the lack of horror games as of late, but this game hits all the right notes for a solid horror narrative.

Art style is wonderful with a great oil painting feel, but the animations are done well.

Horror elements are my favorite kind. Jump scares sure, but it doesn't rely on purely high shrilly noises to get you. It also will psycohologically break you, but in the best way possible (However you want to take that)

Story has a strong narrative that keeps you interested in how everything comes together. I finished it in one sitting, it was like a really good book, just couldn't stop playing.

Gameplay is like a point and click adventure, but the mouse isn't really used. It's mostly the keyboard. The puzzles are challenging enough to make you really think and feel clever when you figure it out, but not so obscure you're looking up walkthrough guides going "really!? how was I supposed to know that!?"

Music was wonderfully done as well! Sets the tone and mood perfectly! Ominous and foreboding at its finest.

The ONLY complaint I have is that I still want more! But really it's $5 and it took me roughly 3.5 hours to beat. It's ABSOLUTELY a steal for that price. Stop reading, start playing!

TLDR: Great kinda point and click adventure horror game that is super atmospheric, challenging puzzles, and a haunting story. It's relatively short, but the best $5 you can spend on an indie horror game.

It was alright

Pros
>The graphics and art style was interesting

>There were some nice scares around the beginning, before the whole 4th wall thing and it got a little silly

Cons:
>Some of the puzzles didn't make a lot of sense. Maybe half of them were logical, but the rest were either random guessing or the hints were so obscure that even after finishing and replaying it, I still haven't actually seen what the hint was. Also, there was a puzzle that was a hint to another puzzle, but the problem was that there was no indicator if the player solved the first puzzle correctly or not. So it wasn't very useful as a hint

>There was no reward for choices, even more so than most games. I don't just mean there was only one ending, but even within the game the outcome of everything is the same. Skipping this battle doesn't lead to a penalty, solving a puzzle correctly doesn't stop this other character from dying, etc.

>The main storyline was all thrown away to end up with a mix of two cliches: "it was all in his head", and "he killed his own family without knowing". Basically, it seemed as if the ending was meant to surprise the player, but it didn't tie into the rest of the story in any meaningful way. It's like a murder mystery where there are a bunch of different interesting characters, but in the end the murderer turns out to have been this random homeless man that had nothing to do with anything. The fourth wall thing just seemed out of place. There was no foreshadowing

>Unrealistic hallucinations. This probably won't concern you unless you're somewhat familiar with drugs, but another common and annoying trope to me is when trips are depicted as a person going into a completely alternate physical world. Real hallucinations on drugs are more often like an alteration of reality, not like litterally being in a completely different location where somehow he doesn't interact with his actual surroundings. If it had been a nightmare, it would have made sense, but not a hallucination

I was initially drawn to this game because it drew comparisons to The Cat Lady and Fran Bow. Admittedly it's not near as good as either of those games, but that doesn't mean it's a bad game. Horns of Fear has a charm that is somehow more than the sum of it's parts. The game is your basic point and click adventure and if it had come out 20 years ago it'd definitely be cutting edge.

The art direction draws you in. The random jump scares are well paced. The puzzles are logical and rewarding. There were no real bugs. And, as a bonus, I only spotted one distracting typo. Most importantly: Horns of Fear is actually enjoyable to play. The narrative moves along nicely and only seemed to slightly drag in parts.

It should be noted that some of the horror elements are over the top and graphic. Well, as graphic as a limited amount of pixels can allow for. I personally found them so comically over the top that they didn't really disgust or disturb me, but others may disagree.

The weakest part of the game is definitely the story. But, that's also part of the game's charm. The story was just interesting enough to compell you to move forward and then just outlandish enough to maddeningly disappoint you. But, see, that's not a bad thing because if I didn't enjoy playing the game I wouldn't be disappointed in the story. I'd just be bored. Also, if you are the kind of gamer who likes to enhance your experience with LSD the story probably makes perfect sense. For me, sipping my sparkling soda, I was just left confuzzled with a blank expression on my face.

You are basically looking at a 2-3 hour experience with no replay value. For $4.99, the game is fairly priced and I give it a tenative recommendation.

Full play through: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/278248114

SPOILER WARNING - I just made it to the end of Horns of Fear, and while I'm only currently at 82%, I have to say that this game is definitely worth your time and the couple of dollars it currently costs. I'm honestly surprised at the lack of attention this game has received within the gaming community, as I think it deserves a much larger fanbase. I plan to continue returning to the game to try and make it to 100% and see what other possible endings may be available, as I felt there were many different angles the story could have taken - there were little nuggets of information and clues hidden around the mansion, and the 90's horror point-and-click style gameplay gave it both a nostalgic and creepy atmosphere. The puzzles are actually harder in the beginning - I spent probably 45 minutes to an hour determining the probability for the Pasiphae puzzle because it never gave any indication that the pieces were in the right order. It wasn't until I gave up and made it to the doll head puzzle that I realized how the puzzles were connected that the Pasiphae puzzle never gives you any obvious indicator that the pieces are in the right order - you just need to know the story.
I am not a huge fan of blood/gore, so those aspects of the game didn't appeal to me, but it wasn't so over the top that I couldn't play and enjoy the game. The part that disturbed me the most was maneuvering the torture device to try and free Diane's most recent victim. I couldn't quite get the formula for the puzzle outside of making the bars match the numbers on the side, which I now realize was likely supposed to reinforce Diane's intentions of murder rather than your intentions of freeing him. I hope to revisit that scene to try and free him instead of kill him, as I feel like that's where the whole game really took a turn. The shock-style noise made by the device put me in mind of the Milgram experiment, and made me want to leave the puzzle but it also got me into a panic while attempting to free him. One of my next goals when playing this game again will be to find the pattern needed to free him, if there is one.
The ending I got was rather off the wall, convoluted, and out of nowhere. At the beginning you get the vibe that it's a classic campy 90's-style point-and-click, but the drastic turn that the game took once Jim killed Diane was rather extreme. I tend to enjoy haunted mansion-style games akin to Clock Tower, and this game had that feeling right up until Diane's death. Not that I minded the story, but the transition was quick and rocky: you go from trying to escape the mansion to trying to escape the prison, you go from investigating a supposed occult family to your own drug addiction, you go from fighting the Caretaker to him being something of a guardian angel/boogey man archetype clearly inspired by Pyramid Head.
All in all, this is an excellent game. I feel like there's a lot more to it than what meets the eye. I think the creator left a lot of hidden symbolism in the game for us to try to piece together, or at least give abstract hints to even darker sides of the Gortyn family (who I believe exist in the game, I'm hoping there's a canon ending that isn't Jim just being drugged out) and to Jim's family. Why is one of Jim's first lines of dialogue clarifying that he attempts to be healthy by avoiding too much meat, when the premise of the Gortyn family is that Joseph needs to eat human flesh to survive and the table in the mansion greets you with a maggoty pig body? What about Ariane, why does she share so many similarities to Jim's daughter Marie? Why does Ariane have a wooden cow that she tells you about, conveniently in the same room with the Paisphae puzzle? In conjunction with that, why does Diadolos make it clear that the Gortyn's used to have a cow just like the wooden cow, and Ariane, "...loved it so."? Why is the Caretaker watching Seinfeld in Jim's apartment, when we find out in the beginning that Jim watches Seinfeld regularly and calls it a 'great show'? Does he watch it because he really thinks it's a great show, or because the Caretaker likes it? There are many fascinating aspects to this game if you take the time to think about them.
As a whole, I highly recommend this game and I hope that it gets the attention within the gaming community that it deserves. It's beautiful, it's an homage to 90's video games, and it makes you think while also not being so challenging that it's frustrating. I found no difficulty in playing this game after a long day at work, but it was also enough to keep me engaged over the weekend.

Lovely, custom graphics, a good story line, and some cool (not too easy) puzzles. I would have liked to see that the choice of actions would influence the ending, or maybe even lead to different endings.