Tim Burton is a filmmaker who rose to prominence in the 80s due to his signature visual style. Movies like his take on Batman, or Beetlejuice had a distinct look that made the world and characters have a whimsical twistedness to them. While the quality of the movies was uneven, you could always count on them having unique imagery.
When he began producing stop-motion animated films, he was able to tap into his Disney animation background and make very expressive movies. There isn’t anything like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, or Frankenweenie; they established a style that took influences from German Expressionism and Edward Gorey.
Burton influenced a generation of comic artists and now video games. You can see it in the likes of Little Nightmares, Limbo, Don’t Starve, and American McGee’s Alice. What if there were a puzzle-centric adventure game that leaned heavily on the stop-motion aesthetic? Can art carry a game alone? Find out in our Gloomy Eyes review!
Gloomy Eyes
Developer: Atlas V, Be Revolution Gaming, 3Dar, Fishing Cactus, ARTE France
Publisher: Untold Tales
Platforms: Windows PC, Meta Quest, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 (reviewed)
Release Date: September 12, 2025
Price: $24.99
Gloomy Eyes is a very whimsical and storybook-like take on a zombie apocalypse. The world is in a perpetual, dark, eternal night where the sun has abandoned humanity, awakening the dead and sparking endless conflict between the living and zombies.
Players assume the roles of Gloomy, a kind-hearted zombie boy who’s rockin’ a sweet Marty McFly jacket, and Nena, a spirited girl who cribbed Coraline’s iconic yellow raincoat. The story (narrated by Colin Farrell of all people) centers on their unlikely friendship and joint mission to bring daylight back to a world trapped in eternal night, facing opposition from both human and zombie societies.
Other characters, like generic zombies or human adversaries, serve as environmental challenges or minor antagonists, but the focus remains on Gloomy and Nena’s bond as they work together. The cute diorama visuals and Farrell’s intensely Irish narration add a great deal of flavor and whimsy to the scenario. His character is a strange and tall, spindly traveler, who would fit right in at Holloween Town.
The production design and overarching plot are top-notch. This is a stylish game that’s bursting with personality. The artists did their homework when it came to capturing Tim Burton’s style as well as tastefully cribbing from Henry Selick’s movies.
Details like Gloomy’s exposed brain and the elaborate security systems built by human characters are clever touches that suggest great care was put into the world’s design.
It’s too bad that this wasn’t an animated film because the visuals and story presentation are the best things going for it. Regretfully, the gameplay is merely adequate and does not live up to the standard set by the production design.
The core gameplay is pure puzzle adventure while juggling two characters as you explore detailed, rotatable dioramas. Its execution is very stiff and overly relies on contextual button prompts to do most actions.
In similar-styled games like the Little Nightmares series, Gylt, or Bramble: The Mountain King, there is some level of reactivity to the way players interact with the world. Those games had physics and some fuzzy logic implemented into the playability, which made the games feel organic and made the world seem more convincing. Gloomy Eyes is very rigid, and if an object isn’t flagged to be interacted with, it may as well not exist.
The puzzles in the game make full use of the diorama theming and make each level feel like it transforms as you solve it. Gloomy Eyes‘ puzzles are easy, which makes the game feel boring because there’s a good chance you’ll solve the puzzle in your head the minute you see what it is. You’ll know exactly what to do, but you’ll be required to go through the motions of tediously moving stuff around to get there.
Gloomy Eyes is a short game. Not bothering with the useless collectibles will see players reach the end credits in about two hours, roughly the length of a feature film. There isn’t much replay value either. No alternate endings. No silly costumes. The gameplay is basic, and the fact that it was originally a VR game is apparent in how it leaned on its novelty. Without VR, Gloomy Eyes is a garden-variety adventure game.
Gloomy Eyes is a low-cost, entry-level adventure game that’s perfect for kids who have just gotten into video games. It looks amazing, and it probably would have been better off as a film, but there is no denying that using two characters to solve puzzles is always fun, no matter how average they are.
Gloomy Eyes was reviewed on PlayStation 5 using a code provided by Untold Tales. Additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy is here. Gloomy Eyes is now available for Windows PC (via STEAM), Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.
