Tattletail

Remember that nineties toy craze that swept the globe and had innumerable children playing parent to otherworldly looking gremlin creatures. Yes, that’s right, we are talking about Furby’s, the robotic yet seemingly sentient beings with a mind of their own. Thankfully, the craze died a death long ago and parents can breathe a sigh of relief that they won’t have to house one in their home any time soon. However, in Tattletail, this game aims to bring back the craze with a terrifying twist.

This game plays very similarly to the cheap jump scare genre of gaming such as Five Nights at Freddie’s, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Slender Man or Dark Deception. However, this game seems much more structured and formulaic to offer more of a survival horror spectacle.

No Pets Allowed

The game’s core gameplay loop has you play through five nights in a suburban household, taking control of a young child. During these five nights, you will take care of your tattletail, the licence free version of a Furby. It will have you give it food, water and have you play with it late in the night. This is all very mundane on paper but when you combine this with the chilling atmosphere and what lurks in the house, you’ll soon realise that doing these things is more of an uphill battle than once assumed.

The main hurdle blocking your path is mama tattletail. This Furby clone looks no different than any other, except for it’s glowing red eyes. However, it’s presence is powerful and you’ll immediately know that this omnipresent enemy is in the room. The lights will flicker, the air will grow colder and before you know it, mama will be right on top of you and your game will be over. It’s a great mechanic that borrows from Alien: Isolation or Slender Man in some respects. Plus with the verbal demands of your Tattletail constantly giving away your position, this leads to some intense and unique moments of horror.

Anticlimactic Finish

The game sadly loses momentum as time goes on. As you play through the title, you will work out how to avoid mama quite competently and suddenly a lot of the fear factor is gone. This may not have been the case if the visual quality or the atmosphere through ambient sound was better but alas, the game delivers a rather flat finish and for that reason, it doesn’t warrant or encourage the player to come back for another five nights.

A Tattle’s Not Just For Christmas

While this game does tail off toward the end and the presentation is nothing to write home about, it has to be said that the game does a lot of things well. The AI behind mama is pretty intuitive until you work out its strategies. The mechanic that has mama close in on your position when your tattletail speaks is genius. Plus the nineties throwback is much appreciated.

Pros

• Intelligent enemy AI in the early stages.
• Fun nineties setting
• Some unique and intense horror moments

Cons

• AI becomes predictable in the latter stages of the game
• Visuals and sound are average at best
• An anticlimactic end to the game