Survival Horror Has Never Been More Queer
HIGH Witty, offbeat dialogue steeped in queer culture, Grammy-worthy soundtrack.
LOW Boss fights.
WTF This game is hornier than a Renaissance faire, so how are there no sex scenes?
Sorry We’re Closed, a new survival horror title published by Akupara Games, is a startlingly strong debut for developer à la mode games whose creative team is more of a dynamic duo — one person wrote the code and another created the lore, world, art and music. From the moment I laid eyes on footage and stills of it, I knew it would be something special, and I was glad to be proven correct.
The story beats mostly deal with the unique challenges of navigating queer relationships, made even more complicated when they are between angels and demons.
SWC’s protagonist, Michelle, has a fraught relationship with love due to her history with another woman, and she clearly suffers from depression as a result. As Michelle works the closing shift of her dead-end job at a convenience store, the player has to decide how to respond to NPCs who complain about their relationships or share conspiracy theories about demonic activity in the area. However, SWC isn’t just a depressing store clerk sim.
The player soon finds that the strange theories she hears are more than rumor once she meets the neon-pink Duchess — an archdemoness hellbent on making Michelle love her. Things get even weirder when Michelle discovers that a third eye has appeared in the middle of her forehead which allows her to switch between reality and the parallel demon dimension with a snap of her fingers. From here, Sorry We’re Closed quickly shifts into something resembling a fever dream, and the player is met with a nightmarish alternate reality where the rules of time and space are blurred.
Gameplay is dynamic and varied, allowing the player to alternate between the fixed isometric camera of survival horror classics and the perspective and combat mechanics of retro first-person shooter titles — and knowing how and when to switch between the modes is important as it allows for some interesting puzzle-solving.
For example, a wall in a crypt that has a gap, but the player can’t see it unless they’re in first-person. In another section, the player must maneuver around floor spikes that can only be seen by activating Michelle’s third eye. By the final act, the player will have navigated a variety of head-scratchers, the most challenging of which use a combination of all the techniques they will have learned by that point.
Another important aspect of the third eye is how it relates to the real-time combat. Using it while in first-person causes the screen to turn hot pink and reveals enemy hearts which act as weak points — the player can dispatch foes at a much faster rate if they can successfully shoot each one as it appears. This also charges up the Heartbreaker — a one-shot-kill gun that doubles as the only weapon capable of bringing down bosses. Bosses have at least three giant hearts, which means that the player must find a way to charge up the Heartbreaker (usually by shooting their extremities like tentacles or hands) before they can finally do away with them.
Unfortunately, the boss fights are one of the weakest points of Sorry We’re Closed. The first boss is woefully easy — just a few moves for the player to memorize and then wait for an opening to hit its vulnerable points. Others called for more skill and precision as well as multi-tasking (endgame bosses force the player to dispatch waves of enemies at the same time in order to be able to use the Heartbreaker) but they were all more or less achievable using the same strategy.
In terms of creature design, however, the bosses are thoughtfully realized as they often reflect certain qualities of the people they began as, such as the aquarium level boss, Matilda. She was a pop singer before turning into the towering, tentacle-slinging monstrosity the player finds at the end of the level, and they’ll know it’s her from her signature lavender bow which can be seen comically resting on the back of the monster’s head as it emerges from an overflooded tank.
Speaking of design and style, the neon-soaked PSX aesthetics are on-point and the attention to detail is undeniable, from the blocky, dreary environments to the flashy, anime-inspired character models (the Duchess resembles a classic shoujo villain, replete with a posh-sounding laugh that accompanies every line of dialogue) and the enemies are pure nightmare fuel. One bloodied, angular creature sent a chill down my spine the first time I encountered it, and many offer a considerable challenge, especially in groups when the player must sometimes hold off multiple waves of enemies while waiting for an objective, like a power generator that needs time to charge, in order to be completed.
It’s worth mentioning Sorry We’re Closed‘s music, courtesy of the Okumura Collective — a group of singers, rappers, beatmakers and producers who also worked on the soundtrack for No More Heroes 3. Their music effectively complemented the atmosphere and echoed thematic elements. For instance, the refrain, “the more I start to change, the less I see myself,” reflected how Matilda became a monster by succumbing to her desire for personal gain at the cost of her own humanity.
Despite its underwhelming bosses and somewhat awkward FPS mechanics (which I actually found endearing as a PSX nostalgist) Sorry We’re Closed presents one of the most singular gaming experiences I’ve had in recent memory. I was charmed by its low-poly graphics, hearkening back to the classics while maintaining its own distinct visual style. It also had me constantly on the edge of my seat, not knowing what to expect in terms of the varied, hybridized gameplay and the unconventional story filled with queer-centered subject matter and a delightfully warped sense of humor.
For players looking for something a little outside the usual fare, Sorry We’re Closed is the offbeat survival horror genre-blend they didn’t know they’d been waiting for — and as one of that number myself, I can say that it was an experience unlike any other.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Disclosures: This game was developed by à la mode games and published by Akupara Games. The game was obtained via publisher and it is currently available on PC. It was obtained via publisher and reviewed for PC. Approximately 13 hours were devoted to the campaign mode. The game was finished. There is no multiplayer mode.
Parents: This game is not yet rated but there is a considerable amount of violence, blood and gore, explicit language (f-bombs are dropped several times) and sexual innuendo so I would rate it M if it were up to me.
Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game features dialogue presented in text format or audio but only as a way to highlight the emotions of a particular text e.g. sighing or screaming. In addition to sound, incoming threats are indicated by different markers and there are no other sounds that affect accessibility for members of the Deaf community which makes it fully accessible.
Remappable controls: The controls can be remapped.
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