Originally a Google Stadia exclusive, Gylt follows the story of 11-year-old Sally as she searches for her missing cousin, Emily.  Her journey takes her through a nightmarish version of her hometown of Bethelwood, specifically Bachman School and the surrounding area.  I was surprised with how good this horror game was.  Not only was it creepy without being gory, they also handled the stealth aspects of the gameplay quite well, which is not something that all games can get right.

As stated before, you spend most of your time exploring Bachman School, though there are a few other locations, as well.  Fortunately, the game features a very helpful map, so I never got particularly lost, and the puzzles required to progress made me think without being frustrating.  Again, there was never a moment where I was especially confused or where a solution seemed overly complicated.

In addition to puzzling, gameplay is sufficiently varied.  I’m often not a fan of games that require stealth, as it’s too easy for these sorts of games to become incredibly irritating as you move about at a snail’s pace, only to get caught and for all that slow-paced progress to be lost.  In Gylt, not only are enemies generally easy to bypass, you have multiple options for how to deal with them.  You can sneak past enemies if you so choose, and if avoiding their notice proves too difficult, you can always create a distraction by throwing a soda can to draw the monsters’ attention away from your presence.  But if all else fails, you can fight back with the multiple items you collect across your adventure, whether you choose to shine concentrated beams of light at enemy weak spots, freeze them with a fire extinguisher, or temporarily stun them with a flash of light.  Not only does this give players different options for how they want to deal with enemies, but it also means that not all is lost just because you’ve been spotted.

An example of a game that gets stealth very, very wrong would be FNAF: Security Breach, where enemies are far too easily alerted to your location.  Plus, in that game, you can often outrun enemies, making the act of being stealthy seem like a pointless waste of time anyway.  On the other hand, running away in Gylt will often not work out for you, meaning that, unlike Security Breach, you will not be rewarded for playing haphazardly.

I also appreciated the times when I had a new area to explore, and I was allowed to get my bearings before enemies showed up.  Again, this is another thing that Security Breach got wrong.  In that game, successfully navigating a new location was very aggravating, as you would constantly find yourself having to avoid enemies.  Frequently getting caught and being forced to run and hide makes it extremely difficult to understand the area’s layout.  I also really liked the fact that, once you complete the game’s ending, you can easily return to the school to continue exploring and locate missing collectibles.  Then, if you want to see the other endings (there are three in total), you need only interact with the school’s front doors to rewatch the game’s final cutscene, allowing you to easily see other endings without having to replay the entire final section of the game all over again.  (I just wish you could skip the credits.)

The game looks really good, as well, and has an equally fitting soundtrack to match, whether you’re quietly appreciating the eerie atmosphere or finding yourself forced to defend yourself when things get tense.  Story-wise, the game’s theme centers heavily on the topic of bullying, and the characters’ struggles were surprisingly real.  Several of the collectible diaries that you can find scattered about talk about a young girl’s struggle with moving to a new town and trying to make friends as she quickly learns that the “new kid” is seldom met with open arms.  I had similar experiences myself as a child, and I found that some of the diary entries hit very close to home.  In addition to having a very important message, the game’s lore seems pretty interesting, as well, though I won’t go into more detail to avoid spoilers.

I was eyeing Gylt for a month or so before a small sale motivated me to buy it, and I definitely didn’t regret my decision.  This is a really solid horror game, with some good enemy designs and some decent scares.  Sure, if you’re looking for a really scary game, then this one’s probably not for you.  But if you want a game that will give you some chills (just wait until you reach the Arts Center) without being overly intense, then Gylt is an excellent choice.  The people who made this game certainly knew how to do stealth horror right, a genre that is easy to get wrong.  Gylt is available on PC and modern XBox and PlayStation consoles for $19.99 and takes roughly 6-8 hours to complete (though I got it on sale for $15.99).