Guest review by Ryan Byers
Obscure Games and Consoles
Game Name/Developer/Publisher:
Paper Cut Mansion is a third-person roguelite horror-themed game from Space Lizard Studio and Thunderful Publishing.
Story:
The game has you playing as a detective named Toby that is tasked with investigating the mysterious Mansion that you find yourself in. Each run has you going floor to floor solving puzzles, fighting or avoiding enemies, and collecting evidence that will help you to unravel the mystery.
Gameplay:
Paper Cut Mansion is played with an isometric viewpoint that is reminiscent of titles like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, or even Zelda. Toby can talk to the inhabitants of the Mansion to gather information about the room he’s in or the Mansion as a whole. There are a lot of coins and items to collect by rotating objects found in each room with the coins falling to the ground and having to pick them up rather than going straight into an inventory or coin counter. There is a green moth that flies around above the room you’re in, making the player feel like Toby and the Mansion are in the background with the moth being very prominent. The point of the moth is there to act as a compass of sorts to help the player identify important things in the room they are in but instead of doing this in an effective way, it often feels more like a distraction than helpful. It would have been better to have the moth presented in a less distracting manner like having it in the corner much like a compass pointing and glowing instead of flying around the screen the way that it does.
Cluse that characters provide Toby are useful to helping solve puzzles and finding locations with the problem being lack of a map or any sense of direction. One of the very first things you’re told is of a talking door up ahead. What the game doesn’t make apparent is the location of this talking door as it’s beyond your view and several rooms ahead that could potentially be missed. The game allows the player to explore the Mansion in their own way and I am all for freely exploring an environment, but the inclusion of a map even if just on the wall periodically would have been a great addition to the game.
Despite these issues I have with the game, the game is overall very enjoyable as a roguelite horror game with puzzles. Puzzles aren’t too difficult, and the game does a great job of giving the player a sense of uneasiness and keeping them on the edge of their seat.
Graphics and Performance:
With the isometric-style camera, the game performs very well with the camera movement and rotation being very smooth. Using this camera style allows the environmental objects to be small, plentiful and detailed. Each object doesn’t look blurry or unrecognizable but rather clear, and recognizable, and lets the small details stand out and be noticed. Toby along with the NPCs are very well modelled and the animation is smooth when the main character is walking or the NPCs are walking or have idle animations. Having everything having a paper look to it makes for a very unique-looking game that reminds me of Terra way or Paper Mario but just better in the way that the game handles the texture choice and the graphical capability of the platforms the game is running on.
With everything mentioned in the graphics department, you would think that this would all lead to rather poor performance or slowdown, but there really isn’t any. This is in part to the smaller objects in each scene coupled with the choice of camera angle/player viewpoint. The game runs very smoothly with there being no issues with pop-in, animation stuttering, or really anything to show the game is a struggle for the Xbox to handle. I primarily played the game on the Xbox One S despite this being a review of the Xbox Series X version. Yes, the Xbox Series X handles this game superbly well and looks and performs even better than its previous console generation, the game plays wonderfully on either system. The only issue I ran into where slowdown existed was when the game loaded you into a room and it would depend on how much was in that room but wasn’t at all a deterrent from wanting to continue playing or dreading having to wait to load into the next area.
Sound:
The music in the game sets the mood well by being creepy and a bit unsettling. Narration in the game helps to tell the story and makes you feel like you’re really able to understand Toby and the creepy situation that he’s found himself in. Allowing you to get into the character’s head and emotionally connect with the character and the world around him. Sound effects in the environment, noises the characters make, and sounds that sometimes come from the main character all help to set the tone and overall feel of the game which is that of a creepy and unsettling game but one that encourages the player to be curious and want to explore the Mansion. The most annoying aspect of the game in the sound department is the moth that is at the forefront of what you’re seeing while playing the game. The fluttering the moth makes can be distracting and annoying, and can sometimes distract you from what’s going on behind it should there be an enemy you’re trying to take down or are running away from.
Conclusion:
Paper Cut Mansion is a beautifully crafted game and despite some of its glaring issues, has a lot of things going for it. This is a game that has a strong narrative story, characters that you can relate to, and a good atmosphere. Puzzles are challenging, textures, environmental elements, and atmospheric sounds make this game one hell of a horrifically stunning package. If you’re looking for a horror game that takes you back to the roots of horror with a modern spin, this is a game that is not to be missed.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided
Available on Xbox and PC
Reviewed on Xbox