Scratches

Developed by an Argentian, which is apparently the first commercially released adventure video game product for the country too, Scratches is an inspired point and click horror adventure inside an abandoned old mansion.

I played the Director´s Cut and I had to get used towards the controls first, especially with how the camera works in here in conjuction towards the prerendered sets. Reminiscent somewhat of titles like Myst in regards to interactivity, the game naturally has key objects which need to be used and combined whenever.

Situated  at the Blackwood estate on the outskirts of Rothbury, a small rural town in Northumberland, England in 1976, I was impressed by the amount of art and detail. But although the immersion was working, so too was the tedious realization of knowing where to go next.

I was annoyed that picking up random objects in the field did not tell me what they were without opening the inventory screen and using the magnifying glass first to inspect the items better with a brief analysis of a summary.

As for the scary factor, Scratches mostly works from fear of the unknown and events that happened in the past. But getting to these parts is not easy for those with a short attention span, and although I would not label myself as one, Scratches did challenge me in that regard.

I wouldn't really recommend it, even for enormous fans of either horror and/or adventure games, but if there is nothing else available, or on your personal backlog, then it wouldn't hurt to try Scratches out.

Rating: 6.5