Outcry uses a standard first-person, point-and-click interface to explore the panoramic locations, with a full 360-degree rotation in each individual node. As usual, the mouse cursor changes over hotspots to indicate movement directions or the opportunity to interact with the environment. However, even when such possibilities are displayed, sometimes clicking will result in nothing. This can mean that an object is required (fair enough) or that there is still a prerequisite action to perform. Given that the character doesn’t say a word and that the game will give you no hint on how to proceed in these cases, this design choice is highly questionable because it often leaves the player disoriented and forced to double-check every location and every possible combination. Moreover, some necessary objects and documents are often hidden in the most dark corners of the screens, or placed at the very highest or lowest limit of player’s viewing angles, thus resulting in painstaking pixel-hunting. The murky graphics don’t help, either. Every screen has an opaque, grainy look similar to the damaged film of old movies from the ’20s, with a ubiquitous use of a wide-length lens, which distorts the borders of the screen. Add to this that the light is always dim – as the name Sublustrum clearly indicates – and sometimes even intermittent, with sudden increases and decreases of luminous intensity, and it becomes even easier to miss vital objects.

Aside from obscuring hotspots, however, the graphic design is one of Outcry’s undoubted strengths. Firstly, the use of colour is top-notch: from the sepia, dusty rooms of the professor’s apartment to the ink black and charcoal grey of the Shimmering Wolrd with its Escher-like geometries, each location is lavishly depicted. Every little detail – old framed pictures, faded daguerreotypes, worm-eaten furniture and weathered book covers – is reconstructed with meticulous care, and the documents – if you can ignore the triviality of the content – always appear credible, especially the scientific manuals. Furthermore, graphical effects like distortions, zooms and over-exposure mimic the dizziness and the disorientation of the character (and the player) with striking perfection. For example, during the transitions between screens, the peripheral vision becomes twisted and out of focus, while the light sources like candles or lamps seem to brighten vividly. There are also some nice touches that enhance the unnerving mood of the environments: for example, if you leave your mouse untouched, the camera won’t be still, but will rather slightly wave, as if the character is feeling light-headed.

I left the best feature for the end, because the sound department is the diamond point of Outcry. The game is accompanied by a soft piano orchestration, classical and quiet, but sometimes a more subtle, visceral theme surfaces, with gloomy sounds and deep, unnerving voices that remind me of Jocelyn Pook’s work in Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. Late in the game, rock guitars and gypsy drums add a strong, fascinating mood to the orchestration. Sound effects such as footsteps, echoes and water dripping are also top-notch and, with the proper sound system, they can wrap up the player in an very unsettling atmosphere. The voice work, although extremely sparse, isn’t particularly memorable and the professor’s voice is as ranting as his writings, but since you won’t hear it very often, this is a minor complaint.

All in all, with such an intriguing premise and strong production values, the developers had the foundation to make a great game, but the corny plot, pretentious writing, uninteresting characters, and some questionable design issues prevent it from achieving its full potential. The game is also quite brief: it’s unlikely that a seasoned player will spend more than five or six hours to reach the ending, unless becoming significantly stuck on particular puzzles, though that’s likely to happen at some point with the pixel hunting and lack of feedback offered. As it is, Outcry is aimed solely at fans of puzzle-driven games, who will appreciate the challenge as long as they don’t expect anything nearly as meaningful and profound as the game wants to believe it is.