Heliophobia

 PC
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  1. Polygon
    Nov 13, 2018
    The world of Heliophobia is both arresting and disorienting, providing just enough clues and environmental setup to pique a morbid sense of curiosity. Despite the story dipping its toe into obscure and cult-like elements, the game’s strengths lie in its strangely crafted chapters and heart-pounding moments. Everything about its aesthetic reads like a familiar series of dreams and nightmares. And like a vivid dream, I was thinking about it long after the credits rolled.

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User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 4 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 4
  3. Negative: 0 out of 4
  1. PublicNuisance
    Dec 11, 2018
    7
    Heliophobia if nothing else was an interesting ride. It managed to make me want to keep going and unfold more of the story. I usually don’tHeliophobia if nothing else was an interesting ride. It managed to make me want to keep going and unfold more of the story. I usually don’t enjoy survival horror games that rely on me running and hiding from enemies that can one hit kill me yet I enjoyed Heliophobia enough to finish it despite that gameplay mechanic. I attibute that to the story and the fact that there is a good portion of the game that is more adventure game and puzzle game than it is survival horror.

    The game is a mixture of puzzle solving, stealth horror and adventure game. You have a good amount off interaction with the environment much like in games such as Penumbra. You can pick up almolst any object off of tables and counters as well as open most drawers or cabinets. You can also hide in cabinets from monsters, throw objects to diffuse booby traps, etc. You start out the game with an objective to kill a man named JR. From there starts a mind bending journey where by the end you don’t know what is real, who you are, where you are or what will happen from here. Part of me wishes they had more of a concrete ending but the other half of me is glad it was left a little vague for me to fill in my own blanks.

    The visuals of Heliophobia were decent. They were neither terrible or stunning but somewhere in between. Heliophobia was made by a small studio and is sold at a low price so it met my expectations. The soundrack was great though. Every so often pieces of music are playing in a level and they really seem to set the mood well with a creepy vibe

    I ran Heliophobia on Linux. It didn’t crash once on me at all. It did however drop to the 40’s for framerate a decent amount. I tried turning off SSAO and AA as well as lowering Volumetrics from high to low and while it did increase my average FPS the drops to the 40’s still happened albeit less often. I did have the game on Ultra for quality settings but in my opinion the visuals of Heliophobia shouldn’t have warranted the low framerate. It may have been an issue with the engine as Unity on Linux has been pretty poor the last year or so for optimization. Overall the settings menu is pretty decent. There is 1 quality setting, SSAO, DOF, AA, Bloom, SSRR, Vsync as well as a setting for the glitch effect that happens when monsters are near by. The game doesn’t have manual saving but each level is usually less than 10 minutes long or not much more so it’s not the biggest deal. Alt-Tab didn’t work for me which was annoying. The game supports framerates above 60 so those with high refresh rate monitors can put them to use and enjoy them. There is also an FOV slider which goes from 30 degrees vertical/51 degrees horozontal to 90 degrees vertical/121 degrees horozontal. The game used less than 3GB of RAM and less than 30% of my CPU. Overall it wasn’t taxing. I played on version 1.1.1.

    I recommend Heliophobia for those who enjoy adventure games and puzzle games. Those looking for a pure survival horror experience may find it lacking as it isn’t a huge portion of the game although those sections are enjoyable for the most part.

    My score: 7.5/10

    My system:

    AMD Ryzen 5 2600X | 16GB DDR4-3000 CL15 | MSI RX 580 8GB Gaming X | Mesa 18.2.6 | Samsung 850 Evo 250GB | Manjaro Mate | Kernel 4.19.6-1-MANJARO | AOC G2460P @1920*1080 144hz    … Full Review »
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