Horror as a mode or genre encompasses a vast range of styles and approaches from the quiet and creepy to the over-the-top splatterfest. As a self-confessed horror fan, I’m generally pretty open-minded when it comes to different iterations of the form. The one exception to this, however, is the seemingly ubiquitous ‘YouTube’ horror game which relies almost entirely on jump scares and is mostly pitched towards overly performative streamer reactions. That being said, there are some excellent games within this rough genre, with the Amnesia series and Alien: Isolation standing supreme so I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised by Evil Nun. In the end, what I got was perhaps the very definition of an empty streamer experience.
The initial premise of Evil Nun sees you cast as a child trapped in a cursed summer school. The halls and corridors of said school are patrolled by the merciless Sister Madeline – a demonic nun with a mysterious agenda who will not stop in her attempts to chase you down. To escape you must explore, solve puzzles and remain out of Madeline’s sight (and hearing). The result is a game that is incredibly reminiscent of titles like Hello Neighbour and seems to have a pretty committed following. If this kind of game is your bag then all power to you, but it felt utterly contrived, derivative and downright dull to me. To top this off, I encountered numerous bugs and glitches that further alienated me from this title.
Graphically, Evil Nun: The Broken Mask is solid, though little more. The different areas of the large school grounds are distinct enough to aid navigation and lighting effects are used well. The character model for Sister Madeline is a choice, however, and elicited laughter rather than horror from me. Music is mostly there for a creepy religious-infused atmosphere whilst voice samples are hugely repetitive and get annoying incredibly fast.
You start off your adventure in a small dormitory room with one door and a vent as exit routes. From here you can venture out and explore numerous distinct areas from the sleeping quarters to the classrooms and beyond. Many of these areas also contain vents which can be used as shortcuts or escape routes but these aren’t safe from Sister Madeline as she proves surprisingly nimble and will crawl after you if she spots you. You can try and distract her by throwing objects as she is hugely reactive to sound. Sometimes this takes a ludicrous turn as putting down a book alerts her from many rooms away whereas at others she seems oblivious to a statue smashing right behind her.
As well as sneaking around you’ll have to solve a series of puzzles to escape the school, although these mostly involve finding an object and taking it to a specific place – whether this is a fuse, a key, or a crowbar. The latter is needed quite early on and is hidden behind a ceiling tile which means you have to find something to dislodge it. In my final run at the game before calling it a day I dropped the item used to access the crowbar and both glitched out of existence rendering the game impossible. This felt like a message for me.
