Frightence
Developed/Published by Playstige Interactive
Released for Xbox One (3/8/2022)
Also on PC/PS4/PS5/Switch
Enhanced for Xbox Series
Intro
I've always enjoyed a good horror movie or game, but over several decades of indulging in the genre I've found that you often have to encounter several poor products in order to find some of the overlooked gems. Frightence comes to us from Playstige Interactive, a developer that we've never played anything from yet. They're a mysterious group that have mostly released games for the Playstation and Switch platforms, but in 2022 they expanded their horizons and started releasing games on the Xbox, with Frightence being their 1st game on the platform. The game promises a short but intense first-person experience, so let's dig in and see if it can live up to its self-proclaimed intensity.
Story/Concept
In Frightence, you play as a janitor that is who works at an infamously nasty apartment. This is your last night working here as the building has been given an eviction notice. Your task is to search every resident's flat in order to make sure the building is empty. This is actually a good premise for a horror game and had me hoping for something along the lines of Condemned, but unfortunately this game can't even touch that classic but it was also produced by a small team with a fraction of the budget so we'll try to cut it some slack (and to be fair few games match up to Condemned's superb atmosphere). So Frightence has a solid premise, let's check out the rest of the package to see how it pulls it off...