In the winter of 2021, an indie developer by the name of Ares Dragonis released their horror-driven ‘walking simulator,’ The Shore onto PC via Steam. Fast-forward to this spring, and the game is now available on PlayStation 5, under the name of The Shore: Enhanced Edition. Later on, it’ll come to Xbox, but that hasn’t happened yet.
We were able to get our hands on a review code of this one, and can now share our thoughts after spending an early morning playing through it and meeting its iconic horrors.
This narrative begins as a man named Andrew awakens on a strange and desolate island. Marooned, disoriented and just generally confused, he must make his way through its rocky and sandy geography in order to find out why he’s there. However, this isn’t any ordinary island, as evidenced by the strange statues, numerous shipwrecks and messages left by people who previously found themselves stuck there.
As players help Andrew move throughout this desolate location, they’ll soon discover that there’s more to it than meets the eye. He begins to see strange visions, and notes the existence of odd, monstrous, creatures out of the corner of his eye. Those who explore thoroughly will also find strange notes about people driven mad, those displaying odd behaviour and even disturbing statues, ritual sites, orb(s) and caverns. In doing so, they’ll hear weird incantations, see things that bely reality and more. Strange voices will also appear in Andrew’s head, telling him to do things and guiding him towards his goal of seeing his deceased daughter again.
At heart, The Shore is a cosmic horror story. Those familiar with the works of H.P. Lovecraft will be right at home here as a result, because some of his most famous elder gods play important roles within this narrative. We’re talking Dagon and Cthulhu, whose names you may recognize. As such, you can expect weird horror, including strange rituals, incantations, and almost cult like behaviour. That, as well as weird monsters, caves that feature disturbing veins, and those that almost look like they’re living and breathing, or happen to be the insides of some creature.
Needless to say, some of the art design, creatures and locations are the things of nightmares. I’ve been desensitized to it all though, and didn’t really find it scary.
The core gameplay experience of The Shore involves walking, picking up important items, solving puzzles and exploring. It isn’t too complex, but it can be pretty frustrating — especially the obtuse puzzles that feel like trial and error. Later on, though, you’ll pick up an obelisk that allows you to fire an energy beam to activate things, or attack monstrous abominations that are chasing you through its caverns. The last half of this game introduces enemies, as well as the aforementioned chasing. If you don’t turn around, and stun or kill them by using the beam, they’ll quickly catch up to you and hit you until you’re dead. This doesn’t take long, and happens especially quickly, because the monsters can move faster than Andrew, even when he’s running.
The first chase sequence involves jumping into an underwater chasm and then running away from a creature that is barrelling towards you. Since you don’t have the ability to attack at this time, it’s a huge pain in the ass. If you don’t drop, immediately locate the empty tunnel and run, you’ll quickly perish as I did, multiple times. It’s frustrating how little room for error there is.
Some of the puzzles are also very obtuse, and there were admittedly times where I watched a walkthrough in order to complete certain sections. At one point, I discovered that I’d been in the right ballpark, but hadn’t noticed the tiny cursor telling me that I could place a light blue orb into a statue’s eye socket. Said cursor is tiny, and it can blend into things, as can important items that you’re supposed to pick up.
There was one time where I wasted effort trying to find a plate to fit into a second statue, because nothing happened when I randomly placed one I’d found into the statue at the opposite end of the lighthouse. Then, when I went back there, I noticed that it had sunken into the earth, opening up a passage, but it hadn’t done that right away. Then, there was another room full of skulls all over the floor, and I kept randomly picking them up and trying to slot them into a skeleton hanging from the roof. It never seemed to work, and they all looked the same. There was one that was different, but I had no idea of what I was looking for, as was the case with almost every puzzle herein.
You’ll also repeatedly find yourself in dark and disturbing caverns during the latter half of the game, unsure of which way to go. You’ll run around like a chicken with its head cut off, look for doors to open and avoid (or attack) monsters that are chasing you. It becomes really repetitive, and it can be annoying trying to figure out where to go or how to create a portal in order to leave. This is especially true of a tiny room with a monster in the wall, and three beams that must be connected. I died a lot in that room.
The thing about The Shore is that its gameplay is relatively simple, and straightforward, but the mechanics and execution lead to frustration. This is a game that started with a good idea, but didn’t land the execution, and the result is a very mediocre and occasionally frustrating experience. I’m not a fan of obtuse puzzles, and don’t love video game puzzles to begin with, but I do like walking simulators. I also feel that that term, or genre name, does a disservice to some generally good and interesting games. This isn’t one of the better ones, but I respect what it was trying to do.
Based on what I’ve read, The Shore: Enhanced Edition hasn’t fixed the main problems that existed within the original release from 2021. The frustrating chase sequences, obtuse puzzles based on trial and error, and the graphical glitches seem to remain. However, given that this is an indie game made by a very small team, it’s understandable that it isn’t perfect and is rough around the edges.
Visually, this is a decent but dated looking game. It won’t wow you visually, but it has some impressive art design. It looks good enough, but has some dated textures, and visual glitches, including a rock floating in the air and seagulls who were supposed to be standing on a big rock but were slightly above it. That’s not a big deal though.
The music can be pretty good, and is at times haunting. There’s limited voice acting too, including stylized creature voices from the ether, and Andrew’s own dialogue. He will speak about his past from time to time, will converse with the voices inside his head and will read some of the notes he finds out loud. It all does the job, and is fine.
If you’re a fan of walking sims and cosmic horror, you may want to pick up and play The Shore: Enhanced Edition. It isn’t a long experience, and can be completed in an hour and a half, but it may take you longer if you don’t use any sort of a guide. The frustrating chase sequences, confusing caverns, obtuse puzzles and clunky gameplay can artificially add length to the game, as can getting lost on the island. I dealt with all of the above from time to time.
At the end of the day, The Shore is a game that I respected more than I enjoyed. It’s not bad, but it’s not especially good either. It’s an impressive effort from a small team and indie developer, but it leaves a lot to be desired. It does tell part of an interesting story, which makes you want to continue, but the payoff isn’t there due to an unresolved ending. At least the monsters look cool.
This review is based on the PlayStation 5 version of the game, which we were provided with.
Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this product from https://www.keymailer.co