Shawn Hitchcock is back with a demo leading in to the second game of Emily Wants to Play. This time, Halloween is here and his demo Emily Wants to Play Too, is back to cause tension and scare the pants off of any unsuspecting players that feel the need to get in to the holiday spirit. I myself am not much of a scary game type of person but I enjoyed the new twist that this demo had and that’s why it’s my choice for a must play game for Halloween.
Emily Want to Play is somewhat simple to follow. Indie developer Shawn Hitchcock created a basic survival horror game where the player has to survive the night and play with Emily’s dolls. In the first game, the player was a trapped pizza man who just stepped in to the wrong house. This time around in the second game, which is anticipated to be released sometime this quarter (the demo is out now), the concept remains the same, survive the night from 11pm to 6am. Although this sounds a bit like a Five Nights at Freddy’s setup with the timeline of survival, the game isn’t like this at all. Players must learn how to interact with the dolls in order to survive, much like PT in a way. This time around however, if you die, the night starts over a lot like Groundhog’s Day. As frustrating as it is, the urge to continue until you win is still very much alive, scares and all. This might be part of the finished game, or used only for the demo.
Without giving away any spoilers to the game, Emily’s dolls like to hide, growl and scare so using the first round or so to adjust to how they function is key. Wandering through a new environment, even though you are still in a house, is refreshing. Things are in disarray but everything seems new and crisp and just all around better to look at. Sometimes these little things can get in the way of focusing on the main objective because the mind automatically jumps to wanting to clean or create a path. Don’t get too used to the house, as the game might be somewhere else entirely. With all of this in mind though, the game looks great. The developer took a year to create a second game and it looks fantastic.
This game seems basic on the surface but there are more twists and turns as you play with the dolls. Some want you to freeze, others want you to run, but the method is all up to the player. So choose carefully how you interact with Emily’s dolls and don’t get caught!
Emily Wants to Play and Emily Wants to Play Too can be purchased and played on Steam but was released for Windows and OS X. The first game is now available in VR, specifically Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, if you’re a brave soul (which I am not). Luckily too, for console players, Shawn Hitchcock has also announced that the games are coming to PS4 and Xbox One for purchase soon. With the first game however, they were released for Android and iOS but will integrate soon.