The ghost ship movie comparison comes in big once you get on the train. That’s when you start to see things that aren’t there. Or are they? You get “transported” to the past just like in Ghost Ship and get to see what happened to the train and the people aboard again like the mentioned movie. There are really 2 stories going on here. The first one is in the modern world with Saki and her friends in the broken down haunted nightmare train. The second is the past in a wartime brand new train. The past and present overlay and weave together to make a fun game perfect for spooky times.
The whole game sets a great creepy atmosphere with its original music. In addition, its beautiful pixel and hand-drawn style add a lot to that feeling but it’s in my opinion cheapened by the reliance on jumpscares. You can have a scary game without the reliance on jumpscares. I honestly thought this would use the creepy environment it sets to do instead of loud noises and flashing visuals. I don’t mind the jumpscare let me be clear! However, I feel this could have done so much more especially being in development so long.
Aside from the reliance on jump scares I do have some other things to talk about on Re:Turn – One Way Trip. The main menu needs to have a continue button instead of Start. A couple of times I hit start and it took me right to the beginning of the game. Additionally, you then have to watch an unskippable 5-minute opening sequence, then quit to get to the main menu and hit load.
The game’s art is beautiful. I’m not trying to take away from that but the hand-drawn sections can look low resolution almost like the asset wasn’t upscaled correctly or drawn at the wrong size. In my opinion, I feel Re:Turn could do with a hint system or something small like that. Nothing that outright solves the puzzles but helps when you’re stuck on a puzzle for 10 mins or more. I got stuck on one puzzle for way too long. I don’t know if I was tired or just not understanding but it almost stopped me from progression. Seriously I spent about 40 mins trying to figure it out. I almost quit this whole review because of it. However, I won’t let me getting hung up on the puzzle take away anything objectively from the game.
To be honest I think this will be a sleeper hit even with all the points I made for and against somethings in the game. I did have a spooky good time. That’s all I can really ask for. Yes, I do wish some things were done differently and some design and gameplay choices were different. Overall I had fun with Re:Turn – One Way Trip it’s a quick little indie title to play during Halloween. This is a game I’ll probably go back and play every once in a while. I’ll have my eye on the studio to see what they come up with next. You can pick this up on Steam right now!
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$13.49
7.4
Pros
- Beautiful Pixel Art
- Great Atmosphere
Cons
- Reliance on Jumspscares
