Anna Review

Anna is a first person horror point and click adventure game brought to us by the developers Dreampaints and published by Kalypso Media, the game is said to delve into the darkest depth of the human psyche.

The floorboards creak as you tiptoe over them, doors left slightly ajar whine, creepy paintings haunt you from every angle and the only thing that’s constant is the perpetual darkness, and the soft tones of the music. Wait.. the music has stopped… now you know you’re in the shit and BANG BIG SCARY THING RUN.

Ahem, whilst that may be a crude way to sum up the game play of Anna, Dreampainters scary love child, it is fairly accurate. You start the game outside an abandoned house, your goal is to solve puzzles within the garden to gain entry into the house that is supposed to hold the key to the strange dreams you have been having. Something is seriously wrong with the house and it’s your goal to work out what and why and how is this connected with you.

You wonder around the house looking for anything that is interactive, from picking up items to examining items found around the haunting environment, sometimes combining the two to create some new. But be warning the house is alive with spiritual goings on, as you find out from the get go, things fly around the room; ghostly figures appear out of nowhere and haunting voices echo in the distance.

The game plays out like a hybrid of paranormal activity and the old silent hill games, but with less death and more jump scares to get your out of your trousers and keep you on your toes, this is until you learn you are Invincible,” yes you are a super hero” and cannot die, this also means failing is not an option either.

Yeah ok, about that “Super hero aspect”, it kind of sucks the horror and panic out of the game a little, why should I care about anything now, I simple cannot die regardless of what the game chucks at me, however this does not stop the game from making you shit your kegs and letting out a waking shriek once in a while m this does not help when you have guest around trying to sleep. (assuming you’ve got the balls to play this after dark.)

The game can also reduce any sane human to a babbling mess of swear words and anxiety with its often baffling puzzle process, which normally equates to “Combine these items” without any clue as to why or what items to combine, or what the after effect of doing so was.

Ok maybe the puzzles would be more fun if not for the poor or should we say an unfinished interface, and this is why, remember what we do here then times is by loads as this is what you shall be doing loads and loads of time; Open Inventory click use on an item, close inventory then use item with a world environment item or combine with others, this gets unbelievably tedious after doing it for the first few times, and even more tedious when it comes to the crazy hard puzzles.

The game promises “multiple endings” which really mean if you try to go through certain doors at certain points, the game will end, and only if you manage to avoid these doors, can you get to the end of the game, and finish the narrative, this seems to the another questionable decision by the developer.2

All in all, Anna does throw out a few chills and brings in a few fear factor moments until you realize you are an immortal being. Add to that the below average “give me a gun I shoot myself” interface. The game need to be refined and a little bit of Developer polish until then the game is between mediocre and some times chilling.

Key Features

A haunting tale of psychological terror
Three possible endings, each determined by the player’s actions in the storyline
Physics-based environmental puzzles
A faithful 3D recreation of the Italian countryside and a sinister sawmill that await your exploration
Atmospheric in game soundtrack
Brain-twisting puzzles to solve and horrific clues to uncover

System Requirements