There’s something uneasy about extraterrestrial life. The idea of a more powerful and intelligent life♕ form that’s not only out there, but is actively watching us from afar. At a glance, Greyhill Incident appears to capture this, pulling from that X-Files-eque sect of media culture that we seldom see in modern gaming. But you can’t trust everything ‘The Man’ tells you, can you? Beneath the deep state, the truth is out there: this game is a terrible, frustrating mess.
Throughout 🤪the game, you control Ryan, a resident of the rural American town of Greyhill. After a walkie talkie conversation with the other residents, the stage is set by the anti-government, conspiracy theory-laden tones of the locals. You’re been sent out to investigate the neighbor’s field, ❀only to discover that UFOs have appeared and little grey aliens have begun to search the town. Sneaking back home, you eventually discover that the aliens have abducted your son. The rest of the game is spent trying to get him back, jumping through the usual detours and hoops expected of a video game.
Visually speaking, Greyhill Incident almost holds itself well. The environment captures that small rural town feeling. The characters, while not the best I’ve seen, are uniquely desi𝄹gned and fit the world well. Everything else is primarily pre-made asset packs, but they are implemented well.
Unfortunately, you won’t be able to effectively enjoy any of this world, because the vast majority of the game is spent fumbling around in severe darkness. To play on the recommended Gamma setting is essentially to play blind. Even when set to max brightness, a fair degree of squinting to parse out dඣetails in the distance is inevitable. You have a flashlight, but it provides very little respite from the shadows, while also requiring you to constantly mash the F key to remain lit.
As if wandering with minimal visibility wasn’t enough of a hassle, the entire game has a terrible trend of providing as little direct🌠ion as it possibly can. With zero UI markers, no c𓃲ompass, and no map, your only guidance is what an NPC tells you and a brief summary of your instruction on the pause screen.
Normally, this would be sufficient. Except the pause screen is extremely vague and unhelpful. My favorite example of this is encountered very early on, where you find a cat and are told to “bring the kitty to Bob, his caravan is over there.” I can imagine times where “over the🧜re” might be enough info. But when you’re standing in the middle of a cow pasture in the dark with no discernable lights or pathways to follow, it was usel𒁏ess.
By this point, I was feeling inconvenienced and mild🌜ly annoyed. It wasn’t until a little later, when the aliens showed up in earnest and the stealth gameplay kicked off, did things rea๊lly take a turn for the worse.
A majority of the game is spent sneaking around the aliens wandering the landscape, hitt🔴ing them with a bat if they see you and running to hide in a car or trash can after. Here’s the 𒅌problem: any movement at all that isn’t done crouching, will be heard by nearby aliens. They could be outside, out of sight, and seemingly distant, it doesn’t matter. If you’re not crouching, they will hone in on you. Cranked your inconvenient flash light? They heard that too.
There’s almost no escaping them, either. They are slightly faster than your walking speed, and what limited sprint capabilities you have are never enough to break line of sight and hide before they spot you again. More often than not, one of them will spot you before you ever knew they were there. Their giant black eyes must let them see better, because their eyesight doesn’t fail in the darkness like🌸 mine.
Trying to hide in trash cans proved to be more dangerous than intended, too, though not by design. More times than not, if an alien found me in the t🔯rash, their attempted capture would glitch out, causing them to enter broken animation loops while I was held hostage. Sometimes I would break free, only for them, or myself, to become glitched into a nearby wall (and once below the floor, where I fell endlessly).
The further I progressed, the more annoyed, and𓄧 downright frustrated I became. But I wanted to know how the story ended. And wouldn’t you know it? It wasn’t worth it.
The plot and pacing felt nice at first. I liked the premise and the motivation. But the more I went, the more nonsens🍒ical it became. NPCs made less and less sense. Fear for one’s own survival eventually crumbled down to the butt-probing panic and wrapping your entire body in tin foil. It wasn’t funny enough to be a parody, but not engaging enough to be serious. There are countless loose ends that aren’t addressed, seemingly injected into the setting just because it’s something that was done in alien media before. The ending was terribly unsatisfactory, as well, with all of your efforts resulting in no actual conclusion or resolution.
Do not play Greyhill Incident. It is a great idea that falls apart utterly and completely. The core gameplay loop is infuriating, unrefined, and unenjoyable. What specks of quality I may have encountered do little to mask the sully of the rest. The biggest commendation I can give this game is how well it implements the store-bought asset packs. There’s potential for this developer to create something better in the future. But f🐈or now: hard pass.
