Calm Time - PC Review

(SPOILER WARNING! Download the game free HERE)

Calm Time is an indie horror title that creates an interesting atmosphere with it's lo-fi graphics but fails to actually scare or provide an interesting gameplay experience.

Calm Time starts off with you holding a dinner party in your isolated mansion for several guests. After making small talk you eventually end up in the kitchen where a female guest asks you to hand her the knife located on the counter. After grabbing it and approaching her, the only action you are able to take is to thrust the knife forward, stabbing and fatally wounding her which results in those in attendance to panic and scatter around the grounds of your mansion. It then becomes clear that you have invited them here for goal of murder and you set off searching the area for the different guests to evicerate.

 

Before you are able to proceed anywhere the game tells you through text that you must first head to the basement to cut the power to the house. Here you find a previous victim of yours dead and chained to a wall. Hitting the power switch results in the games first jump scare in which the ghost of the woman in the basement materializes in front of you. Stabbing this apparition results in a full screen static effect along with the appropriate sound.

Oops! Oh well, better kill everyone now.

Here is where the "game" portion of Calm Time begins and shows off the weakest aspect of the title. First your character moves at a maddeningly slow pace. Your victims are able to speedily run past you resulting in you slowly chasing after them as they move between the various rooms of the house. While there is a thrill of being placed in the shoes of a psycho killer, stalking your hiding victims, this lasts for about a second for as soon as the first one zips past you and you have to slowly turn around to chase after them again and again. Then the game spirals into tedium.

"Yes he killed her! With a KITCHEN KNIFE! That's the important thing!"

You kill all the guests in exactly the same manner with the ghost woman appearing every so often to stare and judge you silently. The game abruptly ends when you finally kill the last person and took only about 10 minutes to complete.While the basic concept is sound, most of this time is taken up with you slowly walking in empty spaces for painfully drawn out moments where nothing happens. I understand that this is an experimental indie title, and I appreciate what it can do with such limited graphics, I just didn't have "fun" while playing it.


Bottom Line: 

Calm Time manages to succeed in the few moments where you feel you are an insane murderer but ultimately the incredibly boring gameplay brings the whole experience down.

Pros:
Interesting premise
Good atmosphere for the limited graphics and sound
Makes you feel like a psycho killer (although only for a second)

Cons:
Not scary
EXTREMELY slow and tedious play mechanics

3/10