A horde of mindless followers, a relationship that isn’t quite what it seems, and a twisted tale which quickly spirals into madness—no, we’re not talking about Wales Interactive’s controversial FMV title Gamer Girl. In fact, we’re referring to its indie stealth horror title Maid of Sker. A tale of Welsh folklore as seen through a Silent Hill tincture, Maid of Sker is a thrilling and often terrifying romp which, despite falling short of truly delivering on its unique premise, should be a worthwhile experience for most fans of horror gaming.
The Siren Song of Sker
Taking place somewhere on the Welsh coast toward the end of the nineteenth century, the protagonist, a man named Thomas, is beckoned to the Sker Hotel by his wife. Alleging that terrible things are transpiring in the hotel, Thomas has been instructed to compose a song that will, when combined with tunes from other composers, put to bed the nebulous evil afflicting the area.
Of course, as is often the case with games of this nature, nothing is as it seems, and Thomas soon finds himself on a quest to find three musical cylinders scattered across the hotel’s grounds. His quest is complicated by a mysterious cult, the members of which wear masks and cannot see, relying instead on their hearing to track their prey.
Don’t Breathe
This subverts many of the typical stealth/survival mechanics seen in similar titles like Outlast or Amnesia: The Dark Descent—two games which bear remarkable similarities to Maid of Sker—as the game never emphasizes things like visibility or line of sight and will mercifully never force the player to hide in a closet and wait for an enemy to pass. Rather, enemies pick up on Thomas’ breathing, meaning that the player will have to hold down R2 to have the protagonist hold his breath when enemies are near. However, Thomas’ lung capacity is limited, as holding his breath for more than a few seconds causes his vision to cone and desaturate—hold it in for too long, and he’ll let out a gasp, which often alerts anything nearby.
It’s an incredibly tense mechanic that will likely have the player holding their own breath as they creep past cultists, desperately hoping that Thomas can keep it together until his sightless pursuers are out of range. That said, there were a few occasions in which enemies somehow caught on to Thomas’ location without any clear provocation, resulting in a handful of frustrating deaths.
Fortunately, the protagonist isn’t entirely defenseless, as, about a third of the way into the game, Thomas gets his hands on something called a “Phonic Modulator,” a metal sphere that emits a frequency which stuns enemies. It’s no-doubt useful, but it’s not so much a means of retaliation as it is a limited-use get-out-of-jail-free-card allowing that player to escape from a desperate situation so long as they have at least one Phonic Modulator charge on hand. On the whole, the stealth—and, though it’s advertised as survival horror, Maid of Sker is first and foremost a stealth game—isn’t nearly as deep as something like Alien Isolation, though the mechanics are sound enough to muddle through it without a whole lot of trouble.
Maintaining Tension
It’s also worth bringing up Maid of Sker’s save system, as players can only save at specific points. This is significant because, in order for a game to build a sufficient amount of tension, there must be risk involved, and what better way to incorporate risk than by forcing players to put their in-game progress on the line. On the higher difficulties, there are only a limited number of saves, leading to some particularly pulse-pounding moments.
Maid of Sker weaves a fairly gripping narrative spun around the eponymous hotel, and the structure’s different floors and areas hide all sorts of oddities, horrors, and traps. One particularly horrifying moment came late into the game when a Mr. X-like pursuer is introduced. He doesn’t overstay his welcome and mostly serves to get the player’s adrenaline flowing for a moment, but the encounter is emblematic of Sker’s overall funhouse-from-hell appeal.
Should You Book A Stay At Sker Hotel?
The only major drawback was the relatively thin overarching narrative which, though mostly told through audio recordings, scraps of journal entries, and things of that nature, is far too obvious, and it comes complete with a nonsensical late-game twist that would have M. Night Shyamalan wincing. Additionally, it’s definitely on the shorter side, as the game will likely take most players somewhere around four to seven hours to beat—of course, that’s roughly the same amount of playtime as April’s Resident Evil 3 at less than half the price.
That said, the atmosphere, mystery, and overall feel of the game offer enough of a reason to see things through to the end, and, though it will primarily appeal to horror fans, Maid of Sker is definitely worth checking out.
A PlayStation 4 copy of Maid of Sker was provided to TheGamer for this review. Maid of Sker is available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
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