I recently got the chance to play around an hour of ASYLUM on the PlayStation 5 Pro, thanks to a review code provided by Soedesco.
You can find my gameplay video, as well as my first impressions, below:
Pros:
- Gameplay stays faithful to Scratches.
- Unsettling atmosphere.
Cons:
- Clunky and glitchy movement.
Overall:
ASYLUM is the spiritual successor to the cult hit point-and-click horror adventure game, Scratches. The long awaited follow-up was first announced in 2010 and did not come out until 2025 for the PC. Now it has been ported over to the PlayStation 5.
In terms of gameplay, ASYLUM stays very faithful to Scratches. For one, you can only move from one hotspot to another by pointing and clicking. When standing on a hotspot, you can turn around 360 degrees to find objects to interact with and/or other hotspots to walk to.
ASYLUM also nails the unsettling atmosphere of exploring a very sketchy mental institution. Not to mention that the piano music adds to the creepy vibes.
However, staying faithful to the gameplay of Scratches does have some big drawbacks. By today’s standard, movement in ASYLUM feels clunky. You often have to make several clicks to move several feet in a hallway or open a door in a small room. Since you will be exploring a massive building, moving around will quickly become tedious.
I also encountered a glitch where the brightness level will change back to its default setting when moving. This was extremely frustrating since some scenes are very dark, which means I had to constantly increase the brightness again to see clearly. Hopefully, some of the issues get fixed in the future.
If you are willing to overlook some of its major issues, then ASYLUM should provide a compelling point-and-click horror experience thanks to its immersive atmosphere and chilling story.