Decay: The Mare picks up with the game's main protagonist entering a program to kick his drug habit. It's not long before Sam finds himself trapped in a nightmare that only gets worth with time, and there seems to be no escape. There aren't many characters in the game outside of the game's star, but the protagonist is interesting enough to carry the game throughout its duration by himself. The entire game lasts about 3-4 hours and has enough content to make it worth the relatively low price tag.
Gameplay in Decay: The Mare is very simplistic with mechanics based in the point and click adventure genre. Players much search static backgrounds for items and clues needed to solve puzzles and progress through the game. Key items will be added to the player's inventory as they are discovered, and the items can be used for a variety of effects such as opening doors, breaking down walls or even combined with other items to solve more complex puzzles.
The creepy atmosphere in Decay: The Mare is made even more frightening with pop-ins and brief cutscenes that display horrific hallucinations seen by the game's main characters. The scenes are reminiscent of certain popular horror movies, and the off putting images go a long way in making players feel uncomfortable throughout the main campaign. Ambient sounds and eerie themes also haunt players throughout the game to make for a scary experience overall.
Decay: The Mare has enough scary images and horrific scenarios to produce a good horror storyline, but the games puzzles lack the same creative design and care. The game often forces players to backtrack through several of the same areas and screens to use newly discovered items to solve puzzles passed by earlier in the game. Even more frustrating is how some items are used in unorthodox ways to progress. Getting stuck for many minutes at a time happens a few times in each chapter of the game and break any immersion the game had previously established in the current objective.
For a game available across mobile platforms and Xbox Indie Games, Decay: The Mare is a strong looking indie title. The game doesn't have as strong of a presentation as the most popular indie games in the industry, but the title doesn't have too many bugs and problems seen in other pieces of shovelware seen on some platforms. The game's graphics are decent, though in-game and main menu options and aesthetics leave something to be desired. The game is easily playable on Steam despite being available on touch screen platforms.
Overall, Decay: The Mare is a good horror game that offers several hours of fun gameplay with only a few troublesome stretches of puzzles and objectives. The multiple episode adventure offers plenty of scares and some pretty fun gameplay that makes the title worth owning for fans of the point and click genre. Players that have already enjoyed a release from the Decay series won't find a ton of improvements in the new game, but the game is definitely easy to pick up and play for fans of the franchise. Decay: The Mare is newly available on Steam.
Decay: The Mare is now available for Xbox 360, PC, Mac, Windows Phone and Android. For more information on the game, check out the official Decay: The Mare website.
Game Features:
- Single Player
- Three Episode Storyline
- Psychological Horror Themes
- Multiple Endings
- Achievement Support
Game Information:
Developer: Shining Gate Software
Publisher: Daedalic Entertainment
Platforms: Xbox 360, PC (reviewed), Mac, Windows Phone & Android
Release Date: February 13, 2015
