Eresys Review

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Eresys is a first-person co-op Lovecraftian style horror game developed by Ares Dragonis and published by Dragonis Games. The game can be played with up to 4 players online or it can be played single player. Dragonis’ previous work include The Shore which you can find the review for here on The Gamers’ Temple. The Shore had some fantastic creature design but some overall lackluster gameplay. Sadly, I’m seeing the same problems with Eresys for the most part.

In Eresys, you get to choose from one of three missions: Sentinel Island, Abyssal Temple and Innsmouth. After customizing your main character, you are able to choose between the various mission types. With all mission types, you have to collect pages that are strewn throughout the area. You also have to sneak around. Any type of noise can lure enemies to your location. You get a lantern, but the light can catch the attention of enemies as well, so it’s really best to stay in the dark... and sadly, this can be a very dark game.

The Island mission has an absolutely huge map. You must sneak around the map to avoid enemies. It’s kind of easy to get by enemies since the map is so big. Once an enemy attacks, it is super hard to get away. Enemies will distort your screen while in pursuit, so it makes the already dark map even harder to navigate. This particular mission gets annoying with how much there is to explore. For the most part, you’re just walking around a huge forest looking for book pages. Every now and the, you’ll stumble across a unique area such as a cave or a cabin, etc. It’s so very easy to give up after around 2 hours of wandering this one map. It can get interesting once you start collecting a good majority of some of the key items needed however. This mission is definitely the longest.

The Abyssal Temple has a much smaller map when compared to the Island. The objective is still the same for the most part – explore the area and find pages (less pages to find for this map). This map has one enemy that appears from nowhere. I died so many times on this mission, making it quite frustrating. The enemy appears to be attracted by any sort of noise you make and its detection is SUPER sensitive.

Innsmouth is the shortest map out of the three. You start in a fishing village. Every now and then, a massive wave of fish people will rush out of the ocean and attack the village. At that time, you must find a place to hide to avoid them. You have to hide in buildings that have doors that you can close. Once again, you have to search for pages in the area to progress. Along with the enemies from the sea, the map also has enemies that wander the village.

Basically, everything that I described above is Eresys in a nutshell. All enemies in the game are instant kill enemies, so if you see an enemy and it catches up to you, you die. It seems nearly impossible to get away from enemies. The enemy on the Abyssal Temple is faster than you, so once he sees you, it’s all basically over. With enemies on other missions, you can outrun them, but it takes a while to lose them. The game is ok for its price point, but I can’t see many people having much fun with this game for long. I only played it single player. If you play it with friends, you might find more to enjoy. The gameplay is extremely basic. The overall design and atmosphere are what really stands out more than anything else.

The Good:
+ Unique enemy designs (very Lovecraftian) and overall atmosphere

The Bad:
- Gameplay is not satisfying
- Sentinel Island is way too big of a map
- The entire game is too dark
- All enemies are instant kill, leaving practically no room for error