Doorways: Holy Mountains of Flesh

As usual the Doorways games are filled to the brim with atmosphere and ambience. From the main menu you're already being put at a slight bit of unease from the sounds; once you get into the game things are both eerily calm; yet will with a sense of dread.

I simply cannot praise the great atmosphere enough. The games have never been about action, or junk scares. Instead you set off as an agent to always solve the strangest and most mysterious of cases. As such the game might seem slow paced, and it certainly takes some time to get into the thick of things. Despite that though, they never disappoint, it always feels like you're playing the paranormal version of the X-Files. You're on edge, surrounded by the complete unknown, and seemingly impossible at times; and yet you need to keep going forward to try and find the truth. In a strange sense, it's almost like a Point n Click adventure, but that's a gross generalisation. Sure you need to find clues, and items to aid you; and you do spend a heck of a lot of time simply looking at everything and trying to see if you can interact with it. But that's simply because as an investigator you Have to, how else will you find out just what's afoot. Here and there you find notes and files, and the narration for these are simply well done. The voice actor chosen does a great job, and certainly fits with the surroundings and feel the game goes for. Also it won't be a horror game without some heart pumping moments, and while some are a little jump scary ( namely the flashbacks/projections ), the game does well at making things feel more urgent and tenser as you delve in deeper. Quite early on you meet a rather nasty creature. It's just lying there, and due to the music and ambient sounds it's simple twitching and later movements certainly gave me a little start. Without those it would have had little effect. The story is very interesting, as all the Doorways games I've played are. If you do like things similar to the X-Files, and like a slow to moderately paced horror mystery game this is certainly a game, and series you should not miss out on.