2024 has been one hell of a year for weird and wonderful games that have a unique charm to them. Metaphor ReFantazio‘s insane visual style and creature design is some of the best we’ve had. Then we have the horror games, Mouthwashing is a short and horrifying experience that isn’t afraid to get weird thanks to its approach to non-linear storytelling.  Sorry We’re Closed is another one and this has kind of fallen under the radar, but is well worth checking out for its bizarre approach to survival horror.

Spencer’s Mansion is a little more flamboyant these days.

You play as Michelle, a regular retail worker who has just went through a difficult breakup. Now under the spell of an otherworldly entity known as the Duchess, Michelle only has three days to figure out how to stop the Duchess and regain her freedom to win back her ex. Working with various demons to collect items and clues to stop the otherwise unstoppable foe.

Sorry We’re Closed is very much a story driven game that puts it’s themes on love and loss. It’s something unique for a horror title and will absolutely keep you hooked from start to finish even. With plenty of interesting characters to interact with, all with their own motivations to help or go against the duchess.

What surprised me most on Michelle’s quest for freedom is just how open-ended the story is. You will encounter a wide variety of characters and creatures all with their own motivations and personality that all feed into the main story. Different dialogue branches open up sidequests that often impact the ending. In a way, it reminds of Silent Hill 2 and the original Resident Evil remake in the way that your choices have a tangible impact on the ending. It’s incredibly well done and will leave you wanting to do another playthrough to see how these quests can play out differently.

Bosses are often large set-pieces that work incredibly well,

Gameplay is a mixture of good old retro, survival-horror adventure with some more unique elements. You will explore the world in an isometric point of view with incredibly limited visibility. Forcing you to move slowly through environments, watching out for threats that are just out of your field of view. There’s your standard collection of looping hallways and some pretty basic puzzles to solve.

Michelle’s unique ability is the third eye that allows her to see the normal and supernatural world. Roots that cover the demon world can be bypassed by looking into the real world. It’s a nice gimmick that is used throughout the entire adventure; explorations and puzzles whilst uncovering some secrets as well. Use it often as the interactions between both worlds are pretty solid.

To help set it apart from the other retro horror games like Signalis, aiming will put you into a first-person person view for some precision aiming. You can’t move in this mode so positioning is key. Combine that with your third-eye ability which highlight heart weak points, hit those in a sequence to deal combo damage. However, whilst you are in third-eye you can’t shoot outside the field of view. There’s a sense of risk vs reward with this mechanic. Do you fire at enemies at a distance? or deal with them in close quarters and risk-taking damage if you’re not fast enough at aiming?

Deal enough damage by shooting the hearts and you get an ultimate that can one hit most enemies. Unfortunately, for the most part I found the gameplay in Sorry We’re Closed to be somewhat mediocre. Guns feel pretty basic to use and there’s not a lot of strategy or inventory management, with a bog standard gameplay loop that doesn’t really evolve with the enemies you encounter. Although, boss fights are also a wonderful spectacle that makes full use of all the game’s mechanics and are generally a blast to play.

They’ll never spot me in this bright pink coat.

My endless love for retro horror is well-documented at this point. Something is striking about games that manage to replicate that classic look with some more modern techniques. Sorry We’re Closed takes that to the next level with an incredibly distinctive art style. You will be exploring two worlds, able to swap between them. It feels like Killer 7 and Resident Evil, with a touch of Bayonetta in a low poly style. With bright colours to offset the horrors behind the designs. Although, what truly stands out are the insane character designs. The store where you can upgrade your weapons and sell relics is a goat coming out of a pair of lips. So that pretty much sets the tone there.

To go alongside the wacky visuals is some solid sound design as well. With an often haunting soundtrack that complements the settings and characters you meet throughout the adventure. However, it’s the boss themes that really ramp things up. I wasn’t expecting to fight a demon of desire with a rap track in the background but all of it just works.

Sorry We’re Closed is one hell of a game. It throws a ton of ideas into a blender and comes out with a retro-action horror quite unlike anything else I played. It has such a great concept and stunning visual style that really sets it apart from the competition.

Sorry We’re Closed is available now on PC.

Reviewed on PC.

A copy of Sorry We’re Closed was provided by the publisher.