Yellowcreek Stories- The Cabin Watcher PS5 Review 4/10 “Stop me if you think you've heard this one before” 🛖

Yellowcreek Stories opens in a familiar setting: a cabin in the woods. You arrive at a cabin out in the middle of nowhere; a writer has taken to seclusion to pen their next horror masterpiece. 

Now, as a protagonist, I felt great affinity with him, because when you sit down to write, he gets through about nine lines, then decides it’s off to the store to get beer and pizza and comes home to watch a zombie film instead of writing, which…yeah… I can totally understand. Sadly, that night a hulking madman who has definitely taken his style from a certain ‘Mr Voorhees’ rocks up and spoils the night.

As a setting and set-up, this has been done about a thousand times, which becomes the real downfall of playing this title; it really is generic: the setting, the killer, and the gameplay are all things that have been done before and done much better. The best thing I can say is that what is done is competent enough – it’s just uninteresting. 

The gameplay is 1st person cat and mouse, you spend your time running and hiding from Mask-Wielding Machete Man Number 412. He chases you around the small areas, and you have to find places to hide, and when I say ‘hide’, I mean just find places that are vaguely dark and even if the killer looks straight at you, the darkness apparently hides you. The killer, it seems, should have spent less time trying to kill horror writers and more time trying to get his eyes checked because he doesn't need a mask; he needs glasses. 

You will need to run around and pick up various items – and one small bit of credit is due here - you can pick up multiple things at once; they all appear in your hand, so you’re carrying several things at once, and it looks silly, but I’m super happy not to do it all one at a time. 

There are two locations you visit: the cabin (obviously) and a gas station. They are not anything exciting, but they are pleasant enough, with space to move around but small enough to feel claustrophobic when you are chased. If you are caught, you die instantly, so you have to move silently and use the shadows provided.

On a personal note, what shocks me when I play these smaller horror titles is just how generic they go; I’m always surprised they don’t pick a setting that hasn't been done a million times or make the killer something interesting. The killer in this is an escaped mental patient - that's all you ever learn about him. He has no other backstory, which is an obvious misstep; the best horror villains are ones with some interesting motives or have a personal connection to who they are targeting. I think knowing something about the madman would have helped.

The best thing about this whole game is the music, the synth score - though not varied - is an enjoyable listen and very appropriate for the style that the game is going for. I enjoyed listening to it, as a barking dog appeared frequently in the sound design and it was irritating, so the synth score was much appreciated. 

SUMMARY

You can complete Yellowcreek Stories in about an hour, and I usually try not to comment on price, but for what it’s charging, I don’t think it’s worth the money. It probably is worth about half of what they are charging, as this really feels like a demo or first level of a bigger experience.

What frustrates me about this game is that I think it obviously grasps horror, but it's wrapped in such a generic package that the small runtime really hurts it. All aspects of this title have been done so many times before and much, much better.

4/10

💦MELTED💦