Don't Be Afraid Reviews

Don't Be Afraid is a horror game unlike most others. Instead of playing as a soldier, police officer, or adult capable of fighting back, we play as an 11-year-old kidnapped by a child killer. This perspective makes the experience much more tense, as players can immediately feel the helplessness, fear, and eerie atmosphere from the victim's perspective. The audio design is quite powerful, the graphics are quite detailed, and the level design successfully builds a terrifying atmosphere without relying on surprises. The puzzles are light but effective in keeping the storyline and gameplay engaging. The game's strongest point is that it doesn't just make horror feel like entertainment, but rather a psychological experience that creates a dark and terrifying nightmare. Unfortunately, the game also has its flaws, such as limited environmental interaction, underexplored character narrative and villain motivations, and some exploration sections that feel repetitive. Despite this, Don't Be Afraid manages to leave a disturbing impression, which is indeed its main strength.

Very rough around the edges and a lot of room for improvement - particularly when it comes to sound mixing which makes the game unplayable for me. - Poor sound mixing - the sound effects were far too loud in comparison to the background music - not what you want in a game that has lots shrieking, metal-on-metal sounds. Really needed separate audio controls for BGM and SFX. - Easy to brute force an early puzzle after finding just 2 clues. - Majority of the 'scares' are just awkward and a little odd. Do we really need the dissolving meat walls? The stuff with the mannequins moving is fun when it's not strapped to an overly-loud sound effect that ruins my immersion with how unnaturally loud it is even with volume at 0.3. - So many, many mannequin butts. So many butts. - There's points of no return without warning, probably to necessitate replays for a different ending with the items you can miss. I wouldn't know, because I got a tape with significantly louder audio than the rest of the spoken audio and that tape ends with an EAR-PIERCING SCREAM. Fuck this game. MIX. YOUR SOUNDS. PROPERLY. Acoustic shock isn't horror! This isn't a matter of preference, either. It's a fundamental of accessibility.