Narin: The Orange Room: A Supernatural Horror with Little Bite - Review

Venturing into the video game horror genre is not a simple undertaking, and a single mistake can lead to a real gaming disaster. And, generally speaking, atmospheres of constant tension (in which fear and player vulnerability also emerge) should merge with exploration mechanics to create a more or less satisfying experience. Among the many works that try to delight the "aficionados" of the genre stands Narin: The Orange Room, a title set inside a school building full of supernatural forces and secrets to discover.

Before going into detail, let us say that Narin: The Orange Room, despite interesting premises and an inspired, albeit already seen, context, failed to fully convey that sense of unease it had promised, clinging to gameplay elements that are far too dated and repetitive. The story seems to work quite well and, in some ways, even manages to entertain (provided you know English well): for the rest, this third-person horror did not fully convince us. 

A Mysterious World and a Missing Sister

We are in a school, one of those oriental-style ones with perfectly ordered desks and a large blackboard that marks every single lesson. We will take on the role of Narin, a first-year student who wakes up in a completely desolate classroom in the hours before night, at dusk. Struck by a soft orange light, Narin enters (against her will) a strange dimension that leaves her stunned: and the matter thickens when she hypothesizes that her sister might be in the Twilight Dimension. And now, Narin will want to come to terms with this strange parallel world, characterized by unsettling presences lurking in the corridors illuminated by an orange light and sinister eye-flowers that seem to observe her more than they should. 

A noble beginning, no doubt, a face-to-face mission with terror to find her sister and investigate the disappearance of the children who have ventured into this alternative version of the school. And if on the one hand the themes addressed prove to be mature and make us reflect on problems that afflict young people in particular (including bullying), on the other hand this survival horror clashes with technical limitations that do not leave the player indifferent.

Let's start from the beginning: Narin: The Orange Room is a third-person survival horror in which we will be called to explore a decaying school and discover its unsettling secrets. Our protagonist can therefore run, crouch to pass under desks or improvised openings, and move silently so as not to be seen by ghosts or other unsettling presences. And being stealthy will be very important for most of the experience, because if we are seen wandering around calmly, the sentinels will try to kill us, chasing us as if there were no tomorrow.

But here also comes into play a not-so-brilliant intelligence of the villains: it will be enough to simply duck under a table or hide inside a locker to make the entity give up and get rid of it quickly. The tension, or at least as far as we are concerned, we never really felt it: everything seemed very mechanical and the dangers can always be avoided in the same way. For her part, Narin can also throw cans to knock down keys placed too high or use them to activate switches: the latter create an electric light beam that will close unsettling red flowers on the ground, also because stepping on them will be like shouting to the world "Game Over".

In the early stages of the game, and after meeting a bizarre talking cat, we will equip ourselves with a special lantern that will have a dual purpose: to eliminate (at least temporarily) strange roots placed to obstruct our various passages and to illuminate the path along the various corridors of the school. The gameplay, without too many words, seemed far too repetitive and particularly frustrating.

A frustration not due to a marked difficulty, but rather to mechanics anchored to a few generations ago that make the various sections rigid, far too much for a survival horror that wants to provide a more or less distressing experience. However, it must be said that Narin: The Orange Room, at least in the second half of the game, manages to provide quite satisfying puzzles. In this case, it will be necessary to collect various key objects to proceed into adjacent rooms, somewhat in the vein of any Resident Evil.

Many Errors and a Style Not Exactly Survival Horror

Narin: The Orange Room attempts a very interesting expedient that, in other circumstances, could even have been successful: creating a distressing game world with anime-style 3D graphics, a stylistic choice we would have appreciated more if it had been implemented better. It must also be considered that the various adversaries, although equipped with several eyes and not exactly graceful shapes, fail to instill fear in the player at all: imagine that, once we are discovered, the screen will turn black and we will find ourselves at the previous checkpoint. An animation, a scream, a jump scare, any expedient could have been used to involve us more.

Graphically speaking, it's not the best, considering that during dialogues Narin has a softer appearance that clashes with the in-game polygonal model. In other words, the art design does not match the game textures, making the whole thing not very pleasant to look at. The sound is decent, with musical tones that perhaps support the 5/6 hours it will take to reach the credits. We won't hide it from you, although the story has interesting ideas, we couldn't wait to reach the credits and close this chapter. Are we too "brutal"? Perhaps, but we want to be honest and tell you what you encounter when playing Narin. 

The real problem with Narin: The Orange Room is the lack of fear itself, that feeling of being hunted when entering a hostile place with entities ready to kill you. The game world is barren and uninspired: an abandoned school and a few puzzles are not enough to make a video game enjoyable and suitable for all fans of the horror genre.