See how deep a priest’s faith goes in his abstract journey for absolution to disprove false accusations in Gray Dawn.
Obscure origin stories are always a fun trope to use in gaming, but Interactive Stone somehow did the same thing with their rise in the ranks. Interactive Stone is a seemingly small development studio founded in 2015 in Romania, but that’s as far as their story goes, which makes things a little vague. Now, Interactive Stone doesn’t have a lengthy history or even a long list of releases… Instead, there’s a little history about this group having worked initially on mobile games until they eventually started their own studio.
Shortly after making their mark, they released their first game – Gray Dawn, in 2018, a game that matches the developer’s obscurity as a horror puzzler, which also doubles as a walking simulator. However, you’d think Interactive Stone would work on new releases or maybe even collaborate on other projects, but instead, they worked on a console port for their only release, which was released on 21 December. The release date alone is already pretty apt, considering how Gray Dawn is mostly winter-themed as well.
Your adventure in Gray Dawn takes place with you playing Father Abraham Markus. He seems to spend a fair amount of time with orphans at St. Ana’s Orphanage and back home at Black Tower, though he has a somewhat dark past haunting him. Aside from fighting his inner and outer demons, he also has to prove his innocence after the deaths of several orphans, along with following a trail left by an orphan boy who he thinks was touched by divinity. So, buckle up and grab your thinking cap; this will definitely get really weird.
Right off the bat, you’re not given any indication of what to do or even a tutorial. A slight indication to show that you’re free to move around would be nice because the opening cinematic blends over to the actual gameplay, and while the lack of tutorial does somewhat make sense when you consider how simple Gray Dawn’s controls are, small things to show what you have to do would earn a few points for initiative at the very least.
Gray Dawn will, first and foremost, play like a walking sim in a semi-horror environment; the only saving grace is that you can at least sprint without running out of stamina. While games like Gray Dawn are meant to be played at a steady pace, there’s not enough around to keep it interesting unless you’re really into religious texts and haunting writings.
Though Gray Dawn will also mess with you in odd ways, such as moving dolls, the world around you changing in small ways, or even voice prompts out of nowhere. These are meant to keep things interesting but missing the mark by trying too hard.
One of the bigger things to keep in mind with Gray Dawn is that the story is extremely linear. You’ll get to explore the different areas that David leads you to along with Black Tower, but only when you’re in those areas. You won’t be able to backtrack or revisit previously explored places, and Gray Dawn also likes to change things up back at Black Tower when you’re off exploring areas that are more akin to fantasy than actual reality.
The other reason to explore every nook and cranny in the various places you’ll be taken to is not just for collectables; it’s for the many different Icons that can affect the ending you’ll be given. You might think you’re doing everything right, but missing a few Icons can still throw you into the ‘Bad Ending” for Gray Dawn. However, this is a nice touch because curiosity will usually get the better of anybody, and you’ll find yourself rushing through the game a second time to get a different ending.
With Gray Dawn supposedly being a horror release, it doesn’t feel like one. Yes, there is the occasional bit of odd and freaky goodness, but nothing outright scary. The same can’t be said about some of the puzzles you’ll find. The majority of the puzzles tend to be relatively easy to figure out.
However, some answers are hidden in plain sight to the degree that it’s scary that you didn’t find them first. All in all, leave nothing to chance when you’re hunting for pieces of a puzzle or trying to find an answer. However, if all else fails, you can also guess with some of the puzzles and eventually get the right answer when trying to figure out a sequence.
It should be noted that Gray Dawn leans heavily on religious tropes along with some psychological influences to drive the story forward. While this type of setting is extremely difficult to pull off because of how certain audiences can react to it, it was well-built. You’re not just dealing with the devils of the Christian faith; you’ll also have some interactions with other religions like Buddhism, Ancient Egyptian, Catholicism, and many others, all of which have their own devils and ways of dealing with things like exorcisms.
Carrying on with the religious scenes, there is a clear attention to detail with some of the languages used to build the writing on the walls and some more friendly scriptures. It’s not just a lazy mix of Latin or Greek; when readable, a lot of the writing will also make sense and can come from actual scripture or was newly written. The developer did a good amount of research to keep certain aspects tied in with reality, adding a nice touch for those who can read the languages.
While carrying on with the story in Gray Dawn, you’ll be given a rare artifact in the form of a heart-shaped music box. It might not seem all that important, but it’ll change between two songs, and those songs also change small things in the world around you. Sometimes, you just need a change of perspective or scenery to get to find the missing piece of a puzzle or just to get past an obstacle. Gray Dawn has several other interesting things to look out for, but it still boils down to keeping a close eye on everything.
Gray Dawn has a lot of appeal and disgust on the visual front – Starting with disgust, the various rooms you’ll load into, while well designed, can sometimes take a while to load in. We all know slow loading times, but cutting your load time short and instead loading in textures on the fly while giving you the not-so-pretty version of everything won’t win any awards either.
Keeping your visuals on point in a game like Gray Dawn is key to getting the most impact for the story and gameplay. However, loading in untextured floors, walls, and other assets and watching them slowly get detail just ultimately kills any form of immersion and beauty. When everything eventually does load, the world around you and the various places you see are pretty well-detailed and have their own beauty, even though they’re mostly horror scenes.
Just as you think things couldn’t get worse, they did because Gray Dawn doesn’t fair too well on sound engineering or voice acting. Certain things like the old radio playing music or a broadcast are done perfectly since radios were known for not having the best audio quality during that time.
Sadly, the rest can’t be so easily excused, with voice volumes being obnoxiously loud, voice acting in some places sounding very forced or fake, and even certain vocal effects that just sound entirely unappealing. The only saving grace for Gray Dawn would be the ambient sounds and background music, both of which clearly didn’t get the same treatment and did a brilliant job at creating the various scenes.
Overall, Gray Dawn has great potential, but it fell flat in many aspects, ranging from overused horror tropes to undercutting loading times but loading textures as you play. Calling it rough around the edges is an understatement because it doesn’t seem like it got the work needed to shine, and it can come across as a little underbaked. If you can look past all the flaws, it has a somewhat interesting story, and the lore used gives the story a bit more depth, even if it is a little far-fetched.
