Unsealed: The Mare Review - Atmospheric Psychological Horror That Becomes Repetitive

Unsealed: The Mare is a first-person psychological horror game about pushing through a hellish nightmare realm. The story is literally written on the wall, and the gameplay is a mix of stealth and scavenger hunts. The twisted dreamscapes incorporate binaural audio in a way that strengthens the use of shock horror elements. However, despite the ingredients for a compelling horror experience, Unsealed: The Mare is an unsatisfying one-trick pony.

A heavy atmosphere of dread is achieved by scraps of narrative and constant environmental storytelling. Unsealed: The Mare fulfils the requirements of a ‘psychological’ horror quite well. The graphics aren’t mind-blowing, but they don’t have to be with the reliance on dark visuals. The horror elements are built upon what is unseen, and there aren’t any scenes of gratuitous violence and gore. The game is supposed to take place in a twisted dreamscape within the mind of our protagonist, which allows for creative storytelling techniques. Our protagonist has a lot of post-traumatic healing to process, and the depth of that trauma is represented in the game. All throughout the environment are messages displayed as text on the walls that generally appear to be internal monologue. They will often consist of harsh, single-sentence statements of self-doubt or low confidence. By passing these messages, we can interpret this as character growth by progressing through a series of locations from her memory despite the slew of put-downs endured.

Every step of the nightmare is magnified by the well-crafted soundscape. The game recommends that you play with headphones, and I absolutely agree. The binaural audio delivered through the headphones creates the ultimate immersion. The ambient audio present in each room helps put the player into the experience; the creaking floorboards, the sound of objectives, and the footsteps of the titular Mare have weight and importance in every facet of gameplay. The dread-inducing environments and the superb audio direction are the best parts of Unsealed: The Mare.

The best segments of the game are these simple candle puzzles. They are extremely rare, but in a few instances the player will confront a room with many candles spread throughout. Each candle has a word or item next to it, and the player can find a sticky note in plain sight. Reading the note will provide clues as to the order in which each candle is supposed to be lit in order to progress. The player can theoretically brute-force their way through the challenge by trial and error, but that is increasingly harder to do as later candle puzzles are presided over by the terrifying woman entity haunting our dreams. Figuring out the solution for these puzzles while under pressure was by far the most fun and exciting moments with this psychological horror.

The weakest part of Unsealed: The Mare is the core action concept. The main action loop is fun at first, but it soon becomes obvious that the director and developers of the game had run out of ideas because it is the same objective on repeat. These locations are completed by burning specific effigies in the environment while avoiding an instant death - the Mare. When the requisite number of teddy bear-like effigies have been burned with the lighter, a red rune on the exit will turn blue and the player can move on to the next challenge.

The difficulty lies in finding each of these teddy bears hidden in the dark confines of the environment. The first chapter consists of a lot of dark tunnels and industrial-looking liminal space, where the bears can be discovered among shelves of junk. This can be frustrating to complete as the bears appear to spawn in randomized locations. If you fail and are caught by the entity, the next attempt will see the bears spawn in slightly altered spots. This concept works well enough in the first chapter but gets repetitive and boring quickly. It begins with finding three bears to progress, then four, then five, and then the room might have two runes requiring bears - then three! The novelty of the idea wears out before the second chapter. The game promises to add new mechanics to challenge in each chapter, but those mechanics do not improve the concept. Instead of adding new concepts or activities to explore, the difficulty progression is as follows:

Find the bear in the dark and burn it.

Find a few bears in the dark and burn them.

Find several bears in multiple dark rooms and burn them.

And just when this task ironically becomes sleep-inducing, The Mare unseals its next shakeup:

Find several bears in multiple dark rooms and burn them - BUT they run around now.

Unfortunately, Unsealed: The Mare relies on this loop for far too long. The second and third chapters would have been the opportunity to change gears, so to speak, and without refreshing gameplay ideas results in The Mare being a one-trick pony.

Each consecutive challenge room waters down a good concept, and that isn’t the only problem with the game. If half of the game is a teddy bear scavenger hunt, the rest of it is navigating dread-soaked corridors and spooky set pieces. As previously stated, Unsealed: The Mare does an excellent job of establishing a horror atmosphere using audio and dreary messaging, but that achievement is betrayed by the use of cheap jumpscares. I will admit that the first few jumpscares had me shouting out loud, but they quickly became predictable. There is one jump that I should have seen coming in a dim-lit basement dungeon from the instant I read “Look deeper” next to a mirror. It got me, and I shouted in surprise because that moment almost felt like the game was laughing at me. That would be the final genuine scare of my experience. There are many instances of predictable scares, and each one cheapens the horror experience. The average horror game enthusiast playing this game will quickly become desensitized to these cheap tactics, and in hindsight I think the first few jumpscares were only effective because of the earsplitting volume spike in my headphones.

Unsealed: The Mare is an ambitious attempt at a first-person psychological horror that ultimately falls short. Navigating surreal environments under pressure can be exciting, but the repetitive gameplay and an onslaught of cheap jumpscares becomes an unintended nightmare for the player. The audio, environments, and vague narrative are effective and are all very well crafted, but the gameplay is the definition of a concept stretched beyond its breaking point.