Hide and Shriek PC Review
Hide and Shriek! Everyone is familiar with the game Hide and Seek, well Funcom are here to put a Secret World spin on everyone’s favourite childhood game.
Jumpscare style horror games have become a popular style of game appearing on steam as of late. These are horror games that strive to scare the life out of you with stuff jumping out from behind doors, dark places or just screaming in your face. Funcom, a company well known for The Secret World an MMORPG based around secret societies and the war to control Lovecraftian entities invading the world, has brought out a game just in time for Halloween that focuses on jumpscares.
Hide and Shriek is a 1v1 game meaning you can play against a random or against a friend. The aim of the game is to collect orbs and place them on an alter to collect points. Collect runes that can be used and combined to create inventive traps. Find the other person and scare the life out of them 3 times. The most points collected in the game after 10 minutes’ wins, and the game will end if a player scares the other 3 times.
As you play the game you level up unlocking more faces and various decorative add-ons to make your scare face even spookier. Everyone starts with the same starter face but it doesn’t take long to start gaining levels, and you can also find some when playing. The game also has a pretty spooky Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton masks. The person I played with made me jump a lot with the Trump mask.
The game is set in an American school with 4 different rooms that are linked with doors and a hallway containing lockers. Each player is invisible so can only be seen when they sprint, pick up an orb to take to an altar or if a spell is casted on the player by another. Once the player knows where the other is it just a matter of time until they perform the scare. The scare can only be performed when the meter is full, so you should make sure you are timing it right.
The game is a heck of a lot of fun and can lead into a competitive state when you’re playing with a friend. Scaring them is also great fun, as it’s your ideas and not just the game. Unfortunately, there is only 1 level, so nothing changes in terms of look and feel, but the orbs, runes and altars needed move around the level, so they are generally never in the same place.
Hide and Shriek is a fun game, but can get repetitive after a while. The game needs more levels to hold the players attention longer, but playing against random people can actually make it a little more interesting, as each one tends to play a little different.
