Maid of Sker Review (PS4)

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key review info
  • Game: Maid of Sker
  • Platform: Playstation 4
  • Show system requirements
  • Reviewed on:
Maid of Sker artwork

Wales Interactive is best known for their interactive experience games like Late Shift, The Complex hor The Bunker. The studio’s name is also tied to the recent Gamer Girl scandal. What the studio does not have is the experience in developing a survival horror game. Still, they chose to make a game belonging to this delicate genre, based on folktales rooted in welsh folklore.

The inspiration should not come as a surprise if we take into account the developers’ Welsh origin. They took all the lore surrounding the mysterious region of Cornelly, and put their own spin on the ancient folktales. The result is a terrifying story set in 1898, in one of the most haunted places in Europe. The differences serve the story envisioned by the producers.

For example, in the game, The Sker House has been turned into the Sker Hotel and Thomas Evans is no longer a poverty-struck young man, but a young composer with a rather promising career ahead of him. Elizabeth Williams is still her betrothed, who sends him a mysterious message asking her beloved to save her by composing a specific melody.

Upon arriving at the hotel, our hero discovers the preparations for a grand reopening party, but everyone is missing and there are blood marks all over the place. Following the instructions received from Emily by phone, you will start to explore the premises in search of musical cylinders, hoping to stop the violence and figure out what is going on.

Maid of Sker
Maid of Sker
Maid of Sker
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This will not take long, around 4 hours, maybe double if you want to explore every nook and cranny and collect all the musical dolls. You will have a chance to visit the different areas in the hotel and the ones surrounding it, like the cemetery or the mines. Often you will feel the fact that the game would have been even shorter if the developers would have not added elements to artificially lengthen the game with frustrating mechanisms. One of them is the electric door locks, which you have to unlock following a precise and frustrating choreography.

Even if you could shorten the process, you still have to follow all the mandatory steps put in place by the designers. By the end of the game, you will have had enough of them, but you will also figure out the secret of the sect and why are they so keen on killing everyone that seems still sane around the premises.

You will meet the members of the cult pretty early on, although it will take some time to figure out why they are blind as a bat, but with a deadly accurate hearing. The wraps they wear around their head has a special significance, but at least the fact that they cannot see gives Thomas a fighting chance. We have to admit that extensive knowledge in the art of music does not offer any advantage in combat.

As such, at first, you have to confront all the hostile cultists relying only on your ability to hold your breath, hoping that you will not be heard. Later on, you will find a sonic modulator that can paralyze your foes for a few seconds, but ammunition for it is very hard to find even on the lowest difficulty settings. Other than that you can use some scarcely placed bells to redirect the attention of the cultists, but the high number of opponents does make the few bells virtually futile.

The stealth part of the game although presents some remnants of originality, overall proves to be a completely disappointing experience. The idea that the smoke or the dust in the air can make our hero cough and thus attract unwanted attention has potential, but the repetitive implementation turns it into a killjoy. You realize easily when to hold your breath and approximatively how long you can hold it. The result is a repetitive breath-management like mechanic. Things are made more frustrating by the lack of any clue about the enemies that surround you. When you see them, it might be already too late, and when they are out of sight you can rely only on some scarce noises to locate them.

Maid of Sker relies heavily on the audio part and maybe the most entertaining part of the game is this mice and cat game you play with the creatures around you, based on the different noises you and they make. Trying to figure out if they are closing in or moving further away, trying to avoid them to press buttons and advance through barely lit areas full of the cultists can be actually fun. But to be able to enjoy the game you need pretty good headphones or a sound system supporting surround sound.

Maid of Sker
Maid of Sker
Maid of Sker
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Thankfully, the audio part of the game is very well implemented and with the appropriate equipment offers great satisfaction. On the other hand, although the graphics also look decent, in several cases the lack of details can be a bit bothering. Still, the biggest technical issue is the shacky frame rate, on the consoles the frame rate drops being a constant nuisance.


The Good

  • Great audio design
  • Compelling story
  • Immersive atmosphere

The Bad

  • Way too short
  • Puzzles completely lack challenge
  • Stealth mechanics are boring

Conclusion

Maid of Sker is a mixed bag of assorted horrors. It is often frustrating and annoying, especially when you feel that the game time was extended artificially or when the producers decide that it is time to scare you. This often clumsy attempts to terrify you break the spell of a gloomy atmosphere which the game manages to build up.

Although it starts as a walking simulator, Maid of Sker turns quickly into a horror game that will remind you either of Silent Hills or Resident Evil or maybe of Outlast or Amnesia. No matter what your experience is with horror games, you will find their influence on Maid of Sker, which is not great, not terrible. It is a lukewarm experience, which rather frustrates than scares, and which due to its length and content can be recommended only after a serious discount.

story 8
gameplay 6
concept 6
graphics 6
audio 8
multiplayer 0
final rating 6.5
Editor's review
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Maid of Sker screenshots (15 Images)

Maid of Sker artwork
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