Sorry, We’re Closed Review (PS5) – I learned four years ago with In Sound Mind that neon colors can, in fact, blend well into the horror genre when used properly.
Frankly, seeing that opened my eyes to the fact that horror games can be just about anything if done well and sincerely. That’s where Sorry, We’re Closed comes in. It puts together unique visuals, a well-written story, and intriguing gameplay to make quite the finished product.
Sorry, We’re Closed Review (PS5) – Refreshing Take On Old-School Horror
Neon London
Michelle is a woman living in London, still trying after 3 years to accept losing her partner. In the early minutes of the game, her circumstances start to change. First, she has an intense dream where a demon enters her apartment and hovers over her bed while she sleeps. Soon, this culminates into a situation where a powerful demon named The Duchess wants her love. Not love in a healthy way; more in an American Horror Story kind of way.
The introduction to the game is a slow but steady build that does a great job of introducing you to this neon version of London. The space you occupy is small, which helps a great deal. You soon grow acquainted with that space, knowing where to find your friends and who your neighbors are and where to find different things. This also helps to make progression feel spontaneous. With each of the five chapters, different buildings open up into different realms.
Following customary old-school survival horror, Sorry, We’re Closed uses fixed camera angles and retro visuals. This leaves you with limited perspective and boxy visuals; perfect for this genre. Better still, it helps to make the game conceptually more abstract, an effect made more pronounced thanks to the neon colors.
This allows you, as the consumer, to take in the concepts and mold the visuals in your imagination. Granted, if you don’t buy into the concept or need high resolution visuals, then you won’t enjoy this game. Fans of the source material that creates survival horror will undoubtedly eat this game right up.
On a personal note, I have played my fair share of retro horror games. Older games require more imagination from the player just because of the limited visual portrayal of the game itself. With that said, it can take a bit to get into the groove of retro-styled games and buy into their concepts.
With Sorry, We’re Closed, I remember maybe my first 5 minutes at the beginning of the game thinking about the way the game looks before just buying into the concept as a whole. That’s pretty rare for me, even with high-fidelity games; a consequence of gaming for 30+ years, I suppose.
Open Your Third Eye
Gameplay is generally what you would expect from a game inspired by the old-school horror classics. What this game does well when compared to many of its modern classic-inspired comparisons is how it paces movement. The animation looks like your character is moving quickly, but really she moves slowly. This contributes to that feeling of vulnerability necessary for good horror.
Michelle receives a “gift” given by The Duchess called The Third Eye. This allows her to get glimpses of the other realm. If she’s in the demon realm, she can see the human world, and vice versa. The influence of The Third Eye is limited to an immediate circle around her that doesn’t stretch out very far. With this, you can look for clues or objects in either realm in order to progress.
Sorry, We’re Closed adds a new element to the formula that spices it up rather nicely: first-person combat. When using either a melee weapon or a gun, you go into first-person view. As a disclaimer, you can shoot at enemies while they are still far away. However, that wastes a lot of bullets. Instead, enemy weak points appear when they stand inside of the effect of The Third Eye.
Another handy use for The Third Eye is stunning enemies. When they get within your perimeter, they get stunned for a little bit when you activate The Third Eye. At first, the stun only lasts a second or two. Thankfully, you can level up the strength of that stun along with different upgrades for your weapons. When combining these upgrades, you can deal quick damage and dispatch enemies just as fast.
Thank You, Aim Assist
Regular enemies only have one weak spot, but stronger ones have more, depending on how much stronger and bigger they are. With bigger enemies, the different weak points pop up immediately after you shoot them, allowing you to chain them together. Chaining those attacks is important because it fills your Ultra Shot gauge, which does exactly what you expect.
Where this can become a problem is how finicky first person aiming can be. Thankfully, the game provides an accessibility setting that helps move your cursor onto targets when you aim close to them. Due to the finicky aim controls, I recommend turning on aim assist before you start the game. While it’s not game-breaking, it’s so easy to overshoot your target.
Then, you frequently fight monsters along the way, many of them you fight several times. As a result, constantly missing your target when regularly dealing with so many enemies causes a lot of frustration the longer you play. With the aim assist on, combat becomes more par for the course than a hindrance, which is a step up from a lot of old-school horror titles. Still, you end up fighting a lot of monsters along the way.
The Bright Colors of Horror
Sorry, We’re Closed does a lot of things well: storytelling, organic world building, and writing. It even adds in its own twists on the horror genre, like the neon presentation and the way it delivers combat. The Third Eye makes for a nice touch as well. Aiming can be a finicky problem unless you turn on aim assist, and the game likes to throw a lot of enemies at you.
Even with all that, Sorry, We’re Closed is an easy recommendation and necessary content for anyone even claiming to be a horror fan.
Sorry, We’re Closed is available March 6, 2025 for PS5.
Review code generously provided by the publisher.