Full video review: https://youtu.be/lq30tHcy8FQ

I play a lot of weird games for my YT channel, but I don’t think I have ever played one that has me questioning the mental state of its creator.

Gameplay
The Gray Man is basically a first-person point-and-click adventure where you play as a serial killer. Or rather, you play as his conscience. It’s kinda cool actually. You’re playing as the serial killer, but not really. You see what he is doing and can try to sway him to a different path, but you’re not always in control. It’s a very cool perspective to have in a story-based game.

Story
The story here is absolutely demented. I knew I was in for something sketchy when I opened the game and one of my first tasks was to keep this girl locked in my basement. You will witness murder, torture, and really just the entire internal conflict going on in this guy’s head. You can tell that he doesn’t really want to do some of these things, but can’t help himself and the game really likes to make think you can lead him in one direction before just snatching away that chance and subjecting you to depravity.

I know that sounds terrible and all, but it makes for a really engaging horror game. It was very interesting to see such themes tackled in this way and the constant tug and pull gives the story a nice psychological thriller feel to it.

Aesthetic
The art is actually just insane. Scribbles going everywhere, seizure-inducing cutscenes made to resemble an internal battle, memories popping in and out in mere fragments… Having such raw visuals accompany such a story is literally a perfect match and the fact that so many of these visuals are only visible for fractions of a second goes to show just how much work the creator put into the art here. It is a very cool visual direction for the type of story here and honestly might just be my favorite aesthetic in any indie game released all year.

Gameplay cont.
The actual point-and-click elements are very hit or miss. In some areas, it’s fine, serviceable enough. In others though, it’s not good. There are some sequences that utilize full 3D levels and to move around them you have to hit arrows on the sides of the screen and it’s like the most unintuitive thing ever. I frequently lost track of where I was, what direction I was supposed to be facing, and it’s just a confusing mess.

Difficulty
You will get one sequence that is simple enough to go through without needing any assistance, and then some areas where you literally have no idea what you are doing because the game oftentimes does not explain basic mechanics to you. This is very prevalent in the final sequence, which is some extremely frustrating stuff. The clunky navigation combined with the insta-death phantom that just goes around in loops makes it very difficult to complete. I must have restarted that entire level at least 20 times before I finally made it through.

Bugs and Polish
I ran into a couple softlock issues during my playthrough, which fortunately were easily solved by a simple save and reload. The game saves often enough that I never really lost too much progress there. Still, any issues, including softlocks, need to be mentioned and absolutely should be something the dev should fix. I have been seeing constant updates sent the game’s way, several per week, since its launch, so it appears the dev is already hard at work doing so.

Overall
The Gray Man is a powerful and honestly horrific visual experience that had me questioning the mental state of its creator. The story, even for how dark it is, is incredibly engaging and tackles a perspective I can’t say I’ve ever seen done in a video game before. The visuals are insane and easily some of the best I have ever seen in an indie game like this. The gameplay, well, that part isn’t really as good. It’s kinda bad, actually. So it’s a bit of a half-recommendation here. if you’re in it for the story and you like psychological horror, you’ll be set, but if you’re in it for point and click gameplay, I’d stay away.