Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 16/Mar 04:28

Cakey’s Twisted Bakery – Review

What if you wake up and find yourself alone in a dark and grim-looking bakery? How would you feel if an odd machine requested the most disgusting ingredients to bake a cake? And what if it turns out you aren’t as alone as you initially thought you were? In Cakey’s Twisted Bakery you can find out! Let’s look at the specifics of what this horror game entails. Story  It is the year 1994, and children vanish in the middle of the night. Nobody truly knows what happens to them. Turns out these missing kids are transported into a different world, namely that of Cakey. The game begins with you, a child, waking up in a crate and finding yourself in the aforementioned bakery. In the process of trying to get out of the bakery, you run into various nightmare-like monsters who are keen to jump you the second they see you running around. Furthermore, there are notes scattered around the bakery from previous children who ended up in the bakery before you did. Graphics  Though ported from PC to the Nintendo Switch, Cakey’s Twisted Bakery is a fairly beautiful game. The bakery is designed in a very factory-like theme mixed with grim colors, neon lights, all emphasized with various technicolor cabinets sprinkled here and there. Unfortunately, there isn’t much to see of these design choices due to the game being very dark. Though it does well for setting the mood, it often obstructs the gameplay, as well as being able to see the world you’re playing in. It’s a mixed blessing between wanting to visualize the horror yet keeping it all a mystery. Something the game did really well, however, was the character design. The roaming monsters are very creepy and look like something a child would see in their nightmares about, well, cake. There’s also the helper, Cooker Jr., who looks like a typical children’s toy come to life. Sound  There is no music present in Cakey’s Twisted Bakery because it doesn’t need any. Instead, the player will hear absolutely nothing. The eerie silence sets the tone perfectly for the not-so-abandoned bakery. Aside from doors opening, Cooker Jr, and some steam release from the fridges and ovens in the different areas, the only thing you can hear is the loud footsteps of the monsters trailing your every move. Due to it being so quiet, the theme is instantly set in the bakery. The lack of anything feels fresh and different, due to so many horror games relying on jumpscares or loud sound effects to be scary. The only downside, however, is that this can come across as ‘dull’ after a while, once the eerie environment has settled in. Gameplay The game could be described as a survival horror game with puzzles. The goal of the game is to scavenge the bakery for ingredients, bake pies, and throw said pies at the roaming enemies, all whilst trying to avoid these monsters in the first place. Cake recipes can be found on posters throughout the bakery. Each cake corresponds to the monster’s health bar, so it is up to the player to figure out which recipes to fetch to bake as many pies as possible. Though the game mechanics aren’t anything new, the execution of them, paired with the theme, feels like a different spin Due to there being no initial tutorial level or little to no handholding (aside from an instructional video in the settings), the game can initially feel very difficult. There’s no clear goal at first, and the player is left to figure it all out on their own, unless they check the options. Of course, this also adds to the feeling the game is going for. A child left to fend for themselves will generally not know what to do in this setting. Another point that can be confusing is the controls. You start the game crouched, and assume this is just your general POV due to being a child. Yet the second you jump, you ‘stand up’. Unless you go check the keybindings or start button-mashing, there is no way to figure out how to crouch, and thus hide from the monsters, causing a respawn. This can initially be very frustrating for players who are new to this genre, and gives a feeling of being unfinished. Perhaps this could’ve been bypassed by doing a brief tutorial or explanation in the starting area, or even as a children’s drawing on one of the scattered notes. As mentioned above, you will die and respawn a few times as you try to clear the game. Luckily, the game has a feature that makes you save your progress automatically every 5 minutes. There’s even a timer above the flashlight indicating how much longer you have to wait before the next save starts. This allows players to approach things more tactfully or create a save point for themselves after making more progress. Conclusion  Players who enjoyed games such as Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach will find themselves having a good and scary time in Cakey’s Twisted Bakery. Those who are new to the genre, however, might find themselves raging or even quitting before even reaching the halfway mark. The phrase ‘less is more’ becomes quite apparent in this port, although in this example, it is questionable if there could have been more or not. Cakey’s Twisted Bakery is available on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, Itch.io, and PlayStation and had a few good elements, but failed to truly win us over.