Face your fears in GYLT, a haunting tale about bullying and childhood nightmares, as you help Sally navigate a creepy world to rescue her missing cousin Emily.

9.3 / 10

Reflect back to grade school – do you remember any bullying? If not, then take a good long look in the mirror and recall carefully; you may have hurt others with your words or actions – you may have been a monster.

This piercing story, through the imagination of a child, illustrates the evil of bullying with powerful metaphor. To those I may have hurt in my careless, selfish, and insecure moments – I am sorry.

Disclaimer — this review is a result of my biased first impression after consuming four hours of poignant gameplay and should be taken lightly.

Overall: 9.3 / 10

GYLT is an expertly written journey of introspection that unfolds through the experience of a brave and shrewd young girl. Composed of acute moments, imagined with gripping imagery, and set within a chillingly familiar atmosphere, the story plays out with excellent progression as our protagonist discovers the secrets of her town, her family, and herself. Engrossing from the first moment, GYLT successfully depicts the darkness of bullying in this probing tale.

Gameplay: 9.2 / 10

A well-designed and clever means to tell the story.

Controls 8.6 / 10

Pretty smooth and well-thought-out. One complaint: why is there no menu to see the controls or adjust in game settings? Did I somehow miss this?

Difficulty: 9.3 / 10

Maybe, just maybe, a little too easy. But it doesn’t get in the way of the story which is the right idea.

Progression: 9.8 / 10

The game mechanics unfold in parallel to the story, progressing nicely in difficulty and scope.

Story: 10 / 10

A triumph.

Characters: 10 / 10

Keen, piercing, acute. Perfect.

Setting: 10 / 10

Familiar, unusual, transformative. Perfect.

Progression: 10 / 10

This.

Production: 8.7 / 10

Expert in storytelling.

Music 8.0 / 10

Maybe the biggest miss out of the whole production, and that’s only because I don’t remember it – did I just miss it?

Art 8.8 / 10

Nice artwork throughout; elegantly captures the imagery of the story.

Graphics 9.1 / 10

For the most part they look nice and the animations are clean. However the graphics degrade in the shadows and in the darkness. I was hoping to fiddle with some settings (i.e. brightness) but no luck in finding a menu for that.

Recommend?
At the very least for the story.

Replay?
I WILL finish this game, God willing.

Joy?
The story evokes sorrow through the long night, but I’m anticipating joy in the morning!