You don't see many games touch the topic of bullying and GYLT gets a big plus from me for doing so. The game nails the atmosphere, it's creepy and pretty at the same time, great use of environment (mannequins especially) to create tension. Emily's diary was sometimes painful to read due to experiencing bullying myself.

However, the gameplay is painfully average :( You have very simple stealth system with a couple tools to distract or keep your enemies at bay. The two most common enemy types are dumb and are mostly annoying than scary. The boss fights are pretty straightforward and easy too. Every now and then the game throws a simple puzzle at you to progress forward, usually with no enemies around to bother you (and that's for the better, given the enemies in this game).

It's hard to recommend due to gameplay, but I hope Tequilla Works can someday return to this topic with more thought out game.

👾 Gylt (🇪🇸 2019)

Stealth horror game heavily influenced by Neil Gaiman’s eerie stories. Plot is simple enough and has a discourse about bullying. Visually is appealing although not a fan of the static cutscenes.

🎮 Played on Steam Deck
Rating: 🔦🔦🔦🔦▫️

I was totally under the impression while playing this that was a new for 2023 release, but then I find out that it was actually a Stadia exclusive at launch (and therefore buried from public knowledge or care). Finally the game has a shot at a second life now that it's more readily available on platforms people actually use.

GYLT reminded me a bit of Alan Wake, but with a much more cartoonish style. Like that game, you're combatting with some dark kind of mirror-verse and searching for somebody. Even the combat is kind of similar to Alan Wake with you shining your flashlight at monsters' weak points to destroy them. It was fun to sneak around and solve the various puzzles across GYLT's speedy campaign. It's a very fun one sitting sort of adventure that never asks too much of you.

I definitely think that you're too well equipped in this game to make the monsters ever seem like a major threat. I pretty much always had plenty of resources to take out anything in my path and cruised right through. The climax of the game actually takes away your abilities and reverts you back to stealth, so they definitely knew this was a bit of a balancing issue.

However, the small environments are still fun to explore and it's fun to unlock new abilities over time and get to new areas that were previously blocked off. I wasn't a fan of the good ending getting locked behind finding all of the collectibles- but overall GYLT was a satisfying, if short, experience.

I really wish this was enjoyable. I’m a big fan of some of Tequila Works games, but for me their quality is hit or miss. This one is definitely a miss in the hour I played. It was intrigued initially but that interest was short lived.

The story was taking too long to go anywhere. The gameplay didn’t help either and felt painfully rote, with uninspired rinse and repeat puzzle design. The enemies weren’t that much fun to tackle either. It boiled down to sneak around enemies or fight them with flashlight. Just not that satisfying and I despise sneaking and waiting in horror games.

It all screams of baby’s first survival horror. Which is okay, but I need something more to hook me.

Full review: https://gameluster.com/gylt-review-not-so-little-nightmares/

GYLT does a number of things very well, and even reminds me of masterpieces like Little Nightmares and INSIDE when it is at its best. The music is simultaneously gripping and haunting, the controlled atmosphere is intense, the 3D environments are dreadfully beautiful, and the few monsters that inhabit this world are either terribly interesting or just flat out scary. The stealth is fairly fun, although the enemy AI detection could use some tweaking, and the environmental puzzles are just challenging enough to be entertaining. I don’t know that there is one singular thing that GYLT does better than any other game, but outside of the poor story and theme exploration, it does everything else at least very well. Playing alongside a good friend so I didn’t get too scared resulted in a wonderful few nights, and if any of what I’ve said here sounds appealing, I heartily recommend GYLT.

𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐨𝐧

#𝟐: 𝐆𝐘𝐋𝐓

I have no problem when it comes to horror games mostly aimed at kids;, kids deserve good horror just as much as the rest of us. Unfortunately this game isn’t all that interesting by itself and as a stepping stone for kids to want to try more horror games, I think everything this game tries to do is either painfully uninspired or just really boring.

The moment to moment stealth gameplay is….serviceable. It’s not doing anything amazing nor is it really godawful to play; it’s just very very basic, The AI is also just very very basic, it gets the job done and the variety of enemies that hunt you down over the course of this very short game is quite impressive even if their designs are just ok. The real problem with the game though is how unbelievably easy it is, yeah yeah I know complaining about a kids game being too easy is a stupid argument but let me explain.
The game is split up into small areas throughout the parallel universe school you explore. In those areas you do some light puzzles but mostly stealthing around monsters, and for the first hour or so it was pretty alright. The game gives you different pathways to avoid the monsters and the school's layout feels like a real school and not just a video game level that looks like a school which is pretty impressive, then you get the flashlight and the game just starts falling apart gameplay wise. See the flashlight works more then just lighting your path, it also help you fight the monster so stealthing around them isn’t that big of a problem anymore; the flashlight works in the same way as the flashlight in Alan Wake where you shine the light on the monster until they explode only in this game replace the guns with shining the light on specific parts of the monsters body. It’s a little tricky at first but you get used to it and it quickly takes away any sense of danger for 99% of the stealth areas, sure you’ll need to refill your flashlight with batteries in order to keep killing the monsters but the game basically gives them to you at almost every turn so you’ll always have enough ammo to kill whatever in your path. On top of that the flashlight also gives you the ability to stealth kill nearly every single monster without alerting any other monsters in the area, making the stealth areas that were already easy just a cake walk.
Half way through the game you get a stun flash that stuns all enemies around you momentarily so you can run away and rather than it only being a temporary item you can only use once it’s unlimited and recharges pretty quickly. The most egregious item you get however is the fire extinguisher, see it’s mostly used for putting out fires to reach new areas and fighting one boss; but it can also be used as a way to freeze all monsters you come across in these stealth areas. Yes it used for puzzles and bosses and yes it has to recharge after being used too much but still this breaks in the game in ways I can’t even imagine, why would you makes a basic stealth system when you give the player so many different tools and ammo that fighting the enemies head on is actually a better much more efficient solution then stealthing around them. By the half way point (3 hours in) I was so fucking bored because I don’t even need to try to stealth past these monsters because the game holds the players hand so much that any real challenge is just gone and it becomes monotonous. The last few hours almost put me to sleep with how dull and uninteresting the game had devolved into and by the last area I just wanted to be done with it.

See I have no problem with it when it comes to games giving their kids a slightly easier experience but when it’s so easy that it’s messing with the overall design of levels and the feel of the game then it starts being a real problem. One of the reasons I really liked My Friendly Neighborhood was it kept the core of what makes a good survival horror game intact while also having the game be a great stepping stone for younger kids who want to get into the medium but are either too young or too scared to play the more popular ones. Here besides some of the neat looking monsters the game offers nothing of real substance that other games of its kind do much better, and as a representation of the genre for a younger crowd it’s just bland and forgettable. Hell the only reason I even remember this game was just because it was one of a few originale games released exclusively for Google Stedia’s launch, and I guess having a flashship game like this go along with Google Stedia release is ironic.
I mean no ill will towards the devs, I just didn’t like the game.

En el año 2019 llegaba a la plataforma Stadia en forma de juego exclusivo GYLT, una aventura de exploración llena de horror y puzles, desarrollada por Tequila Works. El pasado 6 de julio de este año hacía lo propio en PlayStation 4 y 5, Xbox One y Xbox X/S.

Cuando me ofrecieron analizar este título no pude decir que no, me gusta lo que hace Tequila Works desde que jugué a Deadlight y quería ver si mantenían el nivel de calidad al que nos tienen acostumbrados. Aunque reconozco que soy novato en el género del horror y no sabía si me iba a gustar lo que GYLT nos propone. Así que os cuento mis sensaciones en estas líneas de abajo.

Déjate atrapar por la historia de GYLT

Eres Sally y tu prima Emily ha desaparecido. Vives en el pequeño pueblo de Bethelwood y llevas semanas empapelando todo con carteles de la desaparición y buscando a tu prima sin descanso. Esta es la premisa con la que arranca la aventura de GYLT y que nos sirve de tutorial para aprender los movimientos de nuestra protagonista. Se está haciendo de noche y unos matones nos persiguen mientras nos amenazan y amedrentan y debemos escapar.

Por fin nos ponemos a salvo, pero la única forma de regresar a Bethelwood y evitar a nuestros acosadores es el teleférico de la vieja fábrica. Lo tomamos y aquí empieza la verdadera historia que me ha tenido enganchado de principio a fin. Llegamos al pueblo pero parece que haya habido un desastre natural, todo está destruido excepto la escuela y no hay nadie en las calles. Al entrar al colegio vemos a nuestra prima Emily y empieza nuestra odisea por encontrarla.

Pero el viaje para conseguir salvarla nos hará enfrentarnos a nuestros miedos, a los horrores de una pesadilla en la que parece que hemos entrado. No me gusta hacer spoilers y por ello no entraré en detalles. La historia te mantiene en tensión aunque en ocasiones es previsible, pero aún así merece mucho llegar al desenlace.

Un survival horror con mensaje de fondo

En GYLT tenemos una aventura 3D basada en la supervivencia, la exploración y el sigilo donde cobra mucha importancia el miedo y mantener la tensión. Como Sally deberemos explorar la escuela y los alrededores para hallar a nuestra prima Emily. Mientras investigamos las instalaciones encontraremos enemigos a los que podremos enfrentarnos o evitaremos mediante el sigilo y maniobras de distracción.

Al principio nuestra protagonista, una niña de 11 años, se ve indefensa y la mayoría de enemigos nos harán sentirnos desprotegidos hasta el punto de tener que huir o escondernos en varias ocasiones. A medida que avancemos en el juego y consigamos algunos objetos como una linterna o un extintor podremos pasar a la acción y podremos hacerles frente, aunque el sigilo sigue siendo nuestro principal recurso.

A medida que avanzamos en GYLT, podemos encontrar un fuerte mensaje anti-bullying, ya que la trama de fondo se centra en los abusos que se producen en el colegio y en como eso afecta a la mente de las víctimas. Un mensaje fuerte que cala y que es necesario en esta sociedad. Un acierto por parte de Tequila Works y que le da a la historia un argumento potente.

Rompecabezas sencillos y combates muy originales

Los puzles que nos plantea esta aventura son divertidos y asequibles, es difícil que te quedes atascado y permiten avanzar. Al principio se sienten originales y aunque van aumentando en dificultad, su resolución es sencilla hasta en el tramo final. Quizás he echado de menos un poco más de variedad y un pelín más de desafío en su resolución, pero lo importante es que los disfrutas.

Aunque en GYLT falta variedad de enemigos, ya que casi siempre son los mismos 4 o 5, si que es cierto que tienen un diseño muy bueno y que te hacen sentirte en tensión en muchas ocasiones. Además he disfrutado muchísimo de los originales combates contra los jefes finales que vamos encontrando, y que mezclan el ingenio y la lógica con la habilidad. ¡Me hubiese encantado que hubiese 4 o 5 combates más!

El toque artístico de Tequila Works

No sé si son las cinemáticas en plan comic, o las magníficas ambientaciones que consiguen pero el sello de Tequila Works es reconocible en cada uno de sus títulos. Y en GYLT vuelven a lograrlo, la ambientación tanto sonora como gráfica es excelente. El entorno te hace sentirte nervios en cada habitación y a cada paso. El diseño de escenarios y personajes es muy bueno y está muy cuidado, derrocha originalidad e imaginación a partes iguales. ¡Que bien se ve!

En el apartado sonoro nos ocurre lo mismo, melodías realmente bien hechas y que le dan un toque fantástico a la experiencia. Sonidos que te mantienen en tensión constantemente. Unos pasos, una muñeca hablándote, el ruido de una puerta,… simplemente magníficos.

Conclusión

En conclusión, GYLT es una aventura en 3D tipo survival horror llena de acción y donde tiene un gran peso el sigilo y la resolución de puzles. Unos rompecabezas que son bastante asequibles y que no te harán devanarte mucho los sesos. La historia te engancha y te hace querer ayudar a la protagonista hasta el final, ya que es profunda e interesante y además tiene un fuerte mensaje sobre el bulling en las escuelas. Un gran acierto.

Tequila Works cumple su objetivo de hacerte sentir indefenso en el papel de una niña de 11 años, gracias a una magnifica ambientación que destaca por su estética tipo cartoon y unos sonidos aterradores. Las 6 horas largas que he disfrutado hasta terminarlo han merecido mucho la pena.

Gylt, a Stadia (RIP) exclusive upon release, is a stealth game in a similar vein to Alan Wake. You play as a little girl trying to save her cousin Emily from monsters in a strange town, and you don't know where you are on top of all this. You slowly get introduced to new gameplay mechanics and fight a couple of bosses.

Gylt's short length means there's pretty much no story or character to capture your interest or care about. In the four hours it takes to complete the game, there is zero world-building. There's even a creepy old guy that we never find out what his purpose is or why he's even present. We don't know anything about the main character or Emily. It's like starting 1/4th through a book and ending at the halfway point. I felt like there was a lot missing. There is no context, exposition, or anything like that. You can go around collecting journals, birds, and whatnot, but what's the point? I won't collect things in a game if I don't feel connected to the world in some way. There's no motivation to push me to want to find out the small details. Gylt has pretty much none of that.

When it comes to gameplay, Gylt is a run-of-the mill stealth action game. The puzzles are elementary, giving no challenge to the players at all. You have two tools at your disposal. A flashlight and a fire extinguisher. The flashpoint can not just light your way, but a focused beam can remove objects, bust pustules on enemies to kill them, and the extinguisher can freeze enemies, freeze water, and put out fires. This is all fine and dandy, but there's nothing challenging to go along with these tools. You will be plopped into a room with a single moveable ladder. It's obvious from one glance around the room that it goes against the wall with the vent. However, you must destroy three eyes with your light to unstick the ladder. It's pointless filler gameplay. Even the light-switching puzzles are dull and simple.

Unlike Alan Wake, the focused flashlight to kill enemies just doesn't feel as fluid, and I understand combat isn't the main focus of Gylt. You are supposed to use it as a last resort—if you get caught at all. Most of the enemy patrols are easy to bypass as there are a ton of objects to hide around, and the game pretty much points a finger at your most direct path. There is a central hub with buildings that connect, and these are your main levels. Each level usually requires some sort of master key to get to its boss, and this is the only time the game was challenging or changed the pace. There are two bosses, and one focuses on combat and the other on stealth. I wanted more of this, but as the game dragged on, it never got more challenging.

The voice acting is good, the cut scenes are hand drawn, and overall, the visuals are nice. Pick any 3D animation studio in the last 20 years, and that's how your game looks. It's dark and moody, but never scary. A few monster designs are a little interesting and different, but nothing crazy. Also, don't expect the game to push your systems to their limits. This game may look nice artistically, but technically it's nothing special, and that's also okay.

Overall, by the end of the game, I had no reason to care for anything I came across. The characters aren't fleshed out, there's no back story to any single thing in the game, and I'm left just moving on from this game and will most likely forget about it in an hour. I love indie games that are short and sweet, but many are forgettable with passable gameplay and mostly decent visuals. This is becoming a trend lately, and it's kind of scary. I can't really recommend Gylt unless you want a short, spooky evening, but don't expect anything but average gameplay.

GYLT is okay. It really is a game representative of it's platform. GYLT is one of the only non-timed Stadia exclusives as far as I'm aware, and many of it's issues are the issues of Stadia itself, and therefore this review will also serve as a joint-review between GYLT and the Stadia platform itself.
Graphically, the stylized look hands itself well to the game itself, but the compression from Stadia ruins it. Colors are all washed out, even on a 4k HDR display using a Chromecast Ultra, a problem only exacerbated by using Chrome, or mobile, it got so bad that at one point I was killed because I couldn't figure out the rocks from the sand. The game also doesn't perform very well, I noticed framerate below 60 on 1080p, and especially at 4k. It makes you wonder the true point of Stadia, if it can only deliver similar performance to an Xbox One X, with more drawbacks.
The gameplay is fine. Some features, such as the flashlight stun you get at the halfway point were a little useless, and the puzzles range from toddler-level to impossible without a guide. Input lag is non-existent, sometimes more responsive than a native console, thanks to the controller directly interfacing with Google through Wi-Fi, but your mileage may vary. The controller itself is very good, it's become one of my favorite controllers. The build quality is great, it's real weighty, and the shape is magnificent to hold. The buttons are nice and clicky, and the triggers are as smooth as butter. My one drawback is the D-Pad, which is too fat, and got in my way often during games like Celeste.
The music, and sounds are average. They aren't anything to get excited over, and sometimes it's a bit overzealous. It doesn't help sell the setting, but it doesn't hurt it. I seldom find myself scared, aside from one cheap jumpscare that gave me shock. The monsters are more of a hurdle, than well, a monster. Stadia itself did not impact the sound in anyway as far as I'm aware, besides some momentary skips that happened only once or twice in my 7 hours of playtime.
Overall, GYLT is an average game, that I'd recommend only to those who are looking for something good to do with their Stadia Pro membership, or a (preferably free) Stadia Controller. I don't think the game would be worth the asking price of $30, but maybe for the $10 that Stadia Pro is worth. Stadia itself, I can't recommend. It's flaws are distracting especially in the face of the new generation. Stadia fails to meet it's mark of 4k60, while the PS5 and Xbox Series X succeed, and Google will need to do some serious overhauls if they want to keep up Sony and Microsoft.