Originally released for free on itchio, Out of Sight was a very short concept game (allow half an hour for completion) made in six weeks by a team of eight people. Two years later, it has become a fully fledged title, and although it remains rather limited in terms of lifespan (you'll need well under four hours to see it through), it's more than worthy of a new Gamersyde review.
Sophie is a little girl who has been jailed by a somehow disturbed woman who holds her against her will in a bedroom whose door has been replaced by bars. You might think that the situation is dire enough for the child, but she also has to cope with a significant handicap: the poor child is indeed totally blind. Needless to say, any hope of escape seems to be compromised for the unfortunate girl, but that's without counting on the only benevolent presence at her side. Her teddy bear is indeed able to lend her his eyes and restore her sight. We don't know how this miracle has been made possible, but thanks to Teddy, Sophie manages to escape from her jail and and then tries to escape from this madhouse, where her presence seems to be linked to some kind of ritual that the woman, whom she calls Mama Janna, intends to perform that very evening. Chased relentlessly by a twisted servant as devoted as he is frightening, the little girl will have to get through the house, avoiding him and "her" mother along the way, all that whilst understanding how to get around the various obstacles that will be thrown in her path. The atmosphere is heavy, reminiscent of titles like Among the Sleep or even Little Nightmares (for its menacing and deformed characters), but Sophie's personality manages to counterbalance all this by bringing out all the innocence of childhood. Thanks to excellent voice acting (to the point where we even wonder if the unfortunate heroine isn't played by a real child), effective art style and clever lighting, we can quickly immerse ourselves in this dark and gloomy world, and this is clearly one of the title's greatest strengths.
Gameplay-wise, Out of Sight is based on a very good concept, and in a way, it exploits it rather well, but to appreciate it to the full, you first have to accept that it never differs from its status as a video game. As a result, you have to put aside your skepticism and not resist the suspension of disbelief, otherwise you'll end up criticizing certain game design choices from start to finish. It's a rule that can undoubtedly be applied to a number of things, be they video games, films or books, but which is sometimes more or less easy to accept in the context of an interactive medium willing to immerse you in a credible world. To begin with, from a strictly narrative point of view, you shouldn't be surprised to discover that Sophie's room itself has an opening that gives access to the narrow spaces behind the walls. It could be argued that, given her blindness, she was actually very unlikely to find this hidden escape route, but it's a little ridiculous to have put her in this very room when you think about it. These passages through the walls of the sinister mansion become so frequent that they inevitably bring to mind that inevitable video game trope: going through air ducts when you want to stay unseen... even more so as, apart from the moments when we're treated to a few scripts to liven things up a bit, they serve no other purpose than to provide a little breathing space between two game phases, or to listen to Sophie as she's trying to reassure her stuffed companion. From our point of view, they could clearly have been shortened and/or made less systematic, even if this remains a minor detail in the end. Finally, don't be surprised if your pursuers don't systematically fall on you at the slightest noise you make, it may seem a tad unrealistic, or too easy at least, but you've got to be able to think to solve the puzzles after all.
Since Out of Sight is what you call a puzzle game, based on solving riddles and problems that revolve around the same initial concept, you have to accept that each of the rooms where you'll be asked to work your brain through will inevitably include certain key elements, starting with one spot (or more) to lay Teddy down. They are always represented by a comfortable purple cushion, but at this stage of the article, we should probably explain the nature of the concept behind Out of Sight. As explained above, Teddy gives Sophie the ability to see the world through his eyes. In practice, this translates into phases in first-person each time the little girl carries him in her arms, alternating with passages in third-person view where the camera becomes more or less fixed (Teddy's head can be turned, and he is sometimes placed on a rail that allows him to be moved - automatically or manually). This is how the puzzles and riddles are presented, the aim of the game being to figure out what actions to perform once Teddy has been delicately laid down, since Sophie can obviously neither climb nor interact with any object as long as she's holding him in her arms. The puzzles often involve moving wheeled carts of various sizes, pushing planks to create walkways or bridges, figuring out how to keep pressure plates activated on the ground, and so on. Simple at first, they become a little more complex later on, without ever becoming too difficult to overcome. Teddy also has a special skill that enables him to aim at a precise point in the environment to break specific objects. These interactions are, of course, scripted, and you can only perform them when the game allows it, an eye icon appearing on screen to let you know you can use the ability to progress through the area you're in.
As a general rule, there will be no danger during the puzzle solving sequences, so there's usually no need to react quickly. Wandering around the house, however, means keeping a low profile and avoiding being noticed, by trying not to set off mouse traps in the corridors or making noise by bumping into the objects suspended from the ceiling by ropes. Nothing too complicated, especially as the game isn't very punishing in this regard. What it basically means is that a simple mistake never results in a Game Over screen. On the other hand, there are clearly a lot more of them during certain stealth oriented sequences which, while always excellent in terms of atmosphere, staging and tension, are sometimes not handled very well. For example, you may find yourself hidden behind a piece of scenery and think you're safe but you can still be spotted by the lurking enemy. This sense of unpredictability (in the bad sense of the word) can be quite frustrating, even if these phases never are too long to complete, fortunately. The fact remains that starting them over, either because you think the game has cheated, or because you simply didn't do exactly what was planned, is likely to irritate some players. The same applies to the passages where Sophie has to run away in Crash Bandicoot styled passages. In such moments, it reminds a bit of Little Nightmares II, which was too unforgiving in similar situations, and this trial and error aspect isn't always to everyone's liking. However, the staging of these frantic escapes makes them rather memorable in the end, probably even more so than in Tarsier Studio's title. In Out of Sight, the development team always manages to find an idea to make them a bit different, by changing the point of view, or by sometimes requiring certain actions to be performed while fleeing. It is not always perfectly handled, however, as camera work sometimes makes is difficult to react in tome in decision-making situations. So you may find yourself complaining slightly about the game, but then once you get over the ordeal, you'll realize that, in the end, it was a really nice sequence.
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