Heartbreak is hard; often, love can be the true horror.
Lost, found, or rekindled, love haunts like a ghost and lingers like a demon. It sneaks up on us, possesses us, forcibly transforms us.
À La Mode Games’ Sorry We’re Closed is a brilliant meditation on the horrors of love. It is an incredibly stylistic game that leans heavily on its influences, namely Resident Evil and, surprisingly, Silent Hill 4: The Room. Like love itself, the game unnerves, charms, and captivates. Once it sinks its hooks into you, Sorry We’re Closed doesn’t let go without consequence.
Its brief eight-hour runtime contained some of my favorite video game moments of 2024, along with an unforgettable cast. In an amazing year for horror games, À La Mode’s debut is a staple among an already excellent lineup. Sorry We’re Closed not only deserves your time but demands it.
Not-So-Silent Hill
Horror games in 2024 were mostly dreary. Silent Hill 2 lingered heavily across this year’s outings, from Hollowbody to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. Lonely post-apocalyptic townsteads and foggy towns crept across our screens. But Sorry We’re Closed takes a very different approach to horror.
While it still maintains the aesthetic and gameplay mechanics of its early PlayStation inspirations, its world is full of color in ways that those games could only hope to be. The game takes place in a little corner in London and remains mostly local in its traversal. Each area is so carefully designed that they feel like beautiful Legos, building from one to another.
Michelle, our recently heartbroken protagonist, is balancing a lot. She is still dealing with a multi-year breakup with a woman who has gone on to have a TV career. She’s also balancing the expectations of friends and her job as a cashier.
Oh, and did I mention that a demon, the Duchess, makes Michelle the center of their infatuation near the start of the game? The antagonist curses Michelle—yay, love…—where she has three days to break the curse, or else.
Fortunately, our protagonist is rarely alone. The cast is a true delight! They are wonderfully developed characters, with well-written scripts and emotional arcs that would be more than deserving of their own games. These stories also focus on love, whether the forbidden love of an angel or the climax of long-time boyfriends.
The LGBTQIA+ representation across the cast is impressive and worth celebrating. Sorry We’re Closed celebrates these characters, their sexualities, and their love as much as it highlights how terrifying love (especially with a demon) can be. The narrative embraces these characters, their relationships with each other, and their world full of color.
Old-School, Reimagined
Sorry We’re Closed combines old-school game design with a modern twist on horror gameplay.
While running through the game’s different areas, I often felt like I had stepped into a time machine, or that I was running a PS1 or PS2 ROM. The levels felt like updated versions of classic horror worlds in a way that gives Hollowbody and Crow Country a run for their nostalgia money.
For instance, an early otherworldly level in Sorry We’re Closed feels like it is pulling directly from the train station of the underrated (but appropriately criticized) Silent Hill 4: The Room. Having recently replayed the PS2 game, I found the level design of Sorry We’re Closed not just more lively and colorful, but also more engrossing, enhancing my understanding of the London the developers imagined. The game builds on its inspirations in every way, adding new layers of terror and fun.
The game’s combat doesn’t lean on the Silent Hill franchise but rather fuses together a style reminiscent of earlier Resident Evil titles and Metal Gear Solid. Like Chris Redfield and Solid Snake, Michelle cannot move and shoot at the same time. This sounds dreadful on the surface, but in practice adds a nice tension as the camera switches from a fixed third-person camera angle to first-person. Sorry We’re Closed takes advantage of this perspective play not only during combat, but also to reveal some secrets in its levels.
Aim for the Heart(s)
Michelle’s curse also comes with an ability known as the Third Eye. There are lore reasons for this that the game will explore (and that I will not spoil here). Gameplay-wise, the Third Eye can be used to create a small perimeter around Michelle. This proves to be very useful as both a design and combat mechanic, allowing the protagonist to see the world around her differently.
Using the Third Eye, Michelle will notice that those three men in suits are actually the three-headed beast Cerberus, or that someone else is either a demon or an angel. It also transforms the environment in stunning, sometimes gruesome or gritty, ways.
Further, the Third Eye enhances the antiquated gunplay of older horror games. Activating it during combat stuns enemies temporarily while allowing Michelle to see their heart(s). (Yes, sometimes plural!) Directly attacking these hearts provides more timely damage than just shooting them outright. Hitting these hearts fills the Heartbreaker—a one-shot weapon that really shines during Sorry We’re Closed’s boss fights. When enemies have multiple hearts, shooting them becomes a bit of a rhythm challenge. Obtaining a perfect series of hits charges the Heartbreaker more quickly while denying enemies the time to do damage.
The Third Eye’s perimeter doesn’t extend far. My biggest frustration with the feature is that Michelle can’t shoot beyond its distance, meaning fights often become a waiting game where enemies must be within the Third Eye’s range, but one misfire either leads to the loss of health or the need for a quick escape.
Final Thoughts
Sorry We’re Closed is a creative approach to a familiar genre, and the best horror game I’ve played this past month—deadpans at Silent Hill 2 and Slitterhead. (“Let it go, Clint,” says the entire TPB writers Discord.) This is not the kind of horror game that will leave you jumping out of your chair, but rather the kind of slow burn that you feel in your chest and sometimes just beneath your skin.
À La Mode Games has created a horror world that I can’t wait to return to in future replays. I worked hard to get the worst ending the first time—one that took my breath away and didn’t need a Third Eye to rip my heart out. I want to earn the remaining endings and have the opportunity to fall in love with this gem again and again.
Score: 9.2/10
Sorry We’re Closed, developed by À La Mode Games and published by Akupara Games, is out now on PC via Steam. MSRP: $24.99, with a demo also available.
Disclaimer: A review code was provided by the publisher.
