Camp Sunshine Nintendo Switch Review 6.5/10 "If you go down to the woods today…" 🔪🩸 @Fossil_Games #GameDev #IndieGame #IndieGameDev

Originally released in 2016 on PC, Camp Sunshine if now available on consoles. Part of Fossil Games’ ‘Sunshine’ series, the game casts you in the role of a young boy arriving for his first night at camp, only to find that during the very first evening there, things have gone…awry.

A perfectly timed release for the spooky season, Camp Sunshine is a game made in RPG Maker that admirably captures the 16-bit era. Whilst however, it scores highly for mood, sound design and setting, issues with the core gameplay take the wind out of its sails a little.

Being an RPG-Maker designed game, the core mechanics of the game are very easy to grasp. The large sprites, character designs and overview of the campus in map form all looks great, and the simple setup and slasher setting makes for a solid first impression.

I was also really impressed with the claustrophobic sound design, Fossil Games have nailed the use of lighting and this encroaching sense of dread bleeds through the awesome use of soundbites and clips, with the voice acting, and breathing / heartbeat sounds all coming together to weave a wonderful tapestry of darkness.

The violence and tension riffing well with the innocent teen setup, calling back to the heyday of slasher movies. There are also many pop culture references to be spotted, and the flashback sequences add some depth to the narrative.

That said, What dragged the game down for me was that the actual writing and quest thread didn’t have the same focus as the sound deign and visuals, in that the writing felt haphazard and bland, whilst the initial impact of the creepiness faded away as I just felt I was moving from A-B on the map completing tasks that felt more functional than fun.

SUMMARY

A decent dash of horror for the diehards, but I do wish that the writing and gameplay was at the same standard as the presentation and sound design. I’m a sucker for bite-sized horror titles, but whilst this initially delivers the gore and scares, it lost its lustre a little too quickly for my tastes as the game wore on.