The end of the year is usually comprised of an onslaught of big, complex, and time-consuming games, so it’s nice to distract yourself from AAA and live services every once in a while, and tackle something small, a game that can be beaten in, like, an hour or so. I was also in the mood for a traditional point-and-click experience, so I decided to give Softie a go. Whilst it didn’t exactly disappoint me, I’m not going to pretend I’ll remember about it after this piece is published.

Just like most toys in this house.

Softie is a brief point-and-click adventure about a sentient teddy bear looking for his owner in a seemingly abandoned, but otherwise common, house. The game begins without a lot of setup or a briefing about your owner, where you live, or what’s going on; you are supposed to pick up the pieces throughout your playtime, but considering the game is meant to be beaten in about an hour (that is, if you know where to go and what to do), there isn’t a lot of room for character development.

The few characters you get to meet throughout your journey influence the story’s outcome just briefly. Softie is filled with NPCs, but for the most part, their roles are one-dimensional, usually reserved to one item interaction or such. At first, you get to talk to other toys, but the more you play the game, the creepier the characters become. In no moment does it feel like a horror game, but it did weird me out like once or twice, mostly whenever the game’s few enemies decided to show up.

Just a matter of perspective. Look at how the other head is chill. Wait a minute…

I am not going to spoil things for you, but let’s just say that the twist is somewhat decent, even though you can see it from ten miles away. When things start to become freaky, you need to occasionally use your “play dead” command, which is one of the two functions your character can actually perform. It’s not even a case of being stealthy; you may be right in front of an enemy, but playing dead will make them go away. Do that for a while, and you’ll eventually reach the (predictable but still creepy) end of the story. That is, if you don’t get stuck at some sections, as the game can be very obtuse at times, with no hint system being available.

Magnet Man is the only NPC that felt actually above mediocre in terms of writing and relevance.

Softie is a short, occasionally cute, occasionally creepy, but constantly obtuse point-and-click adventure. Even if its runtime isn’t mean to last for an hour, I got stuck once or twice due to some confusing puzzles and a lack of a hint system. Regardless, it was a merely passable pasttime for a day, one I don’t regret tackling, but not exactly one I’ll remember. Fans of “edgy-but-cute” art and media (the people who used to hang out at Hot Topic two decades ago) might have a kick with this quasi-Burtonian imagery and creepiness, but for everyone else, there are other equally short, but more interesting titles out there to distract you from the recent barrage of time-consuming AAA and live service titles.

Softie is available now on PC.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB.

A copy of Softie was provided by the publisher.