Fran Bow

Fran Bow is a point and click adventure game under development at Killmonday planned to be released next year. The game takes you on a psychological trip to the deepest and darkest side of the human mind as you take control of Fran. The ten years old girl finds herself stuck in a mental institution for children called Oswald Asylumafter witnessing the gruesome murder of her parents.

Driven by her fervent desire to find her parents’ murderer, the little girl decides to escape the asylum, find her aunt Grace and search for the killer herself, not before finding her beloved cat, Mr. Midnight. But things aren’t as easy as they seem.A devilish creature is chasing Fran and his sole purpose is to prevent her from returning home.

The main mechanic of the game is switching between the reality and the world created in Fran’s ill and broken mind. Players switch between the worlds by using self-administered medication. You will use this mechanic to solve the bizarre puzzles you come across, requiring you to take advantage of the twisted relationship between the real and imaginary world. Throughout the game, this makes you wonder whether the little girl is indeed crazy or if she’s just a victim of paranormal activities. The situation is made even more unclear because other sick children in the asylum seem to also see the same imaginary world as Fran.

The graphic design is unique, being a mix between a bloodier version of Alice in Wonderlands and Beetlejuice. The graphics, along with the creepy soundtrack, create the perfect ambience for a horror game. Even the children, that are normally used to portray innocence and cheerfulness, in this case look extremely eerie and you can tell by their looks that something is really wrong with their minds.

There’s a lot of indiscriminate blood and gore in the game be it children with gouged eyes or headless horse corpses, so Fran Bow is not a game meant for the squeamish or the soft-hearted. The cutscenes are well executed and suggestive,conveying a lot of tension despite using just three colors: white, black and red.

The game shows a lot of potential, having one of the darkest stories I have seen in a point and click game and the demoleft me wanting more. Fran Bow currently being green-lit on Steam Greenlight and it also has an ongoing IndieGoGo campaign to help fund the game, so make sure to support the developers if you want them to reach their goal.

Cirstoiu Alexandru Constantin, NoobFeed