• Title: Pumpkin Panic
• Developer/Publisher: Bilalaika
• Released on: 6/26/2023 for PC
• Reviewed on: PC
• MSRP: Name Your Price

Synopsis

If you loved Stardew Valley but wish it had a horror twist, Pumpkin Panic is the game for you! Bilalaika has created a straightforward farming simulator, including up to five different seed types to grow and sell while enjoying a beautiful and playful art style that feels like a cross between paper dolls and a pop-up book. However, the pleasant farm veneer quickly shatters to reveal the game’s core: an indie survival horror hidden beneath.

There aren’t many details given about our pumpkin-faced protagonist. Awoken by a fun tutorial Crow, the player discovers they have a tiny one-room house with a fence around it, four locked garden plots, a well, a dock with a broken boat, and a single open plot to plant your first handful of seeds.

Analysis

As the Crow walks you through planting and watering, players learn where their water level and oil level are. There’s a closet in the cabin to purchase different clothes using coins dropped by the Crow. At the work bench, players can use the coins from selling their crops to update their lantern, increase their speed, purchase keys to the other plots, and more to help in their escape from the island or to aid them against the island’s murderous occupants. Signs around the property give hints to potential dangers, but backstory is limited.

Were you a fisherman who got caught out to sea when your engine broke down? If so, did you find this perfectly fenced in plot? Did you quickly construct it? Or were you ushered here?

From the Crow’s presence and the pre-existing monsters, Pumpkin Panic almost feels like a mini-Purgatory wherein our character needs no clear past to be motivated to escape this superficially pleasant but truly sinister island.

By farming each plot with different seeds, the player accumulates funds to buy the parts needed to repair their boat and escape the island.

Gameplay

Pumpkin Panic runs smoothly. The WASD controls are simple and straightforward. This is important in any horror game as players should not be made to feel they are fighting both in-game threats and the controls provided. Perhaps the only unique additions are one-key commands for planting seeds and raising your lantern, which are bound to the F and R keys, respectively. This makes sense since your two main objectives are raising crops and warding off evil.

As you successfully bring plants to harvest and expand your plots, new seed types will unlock. Even after expanding the gameplay by gaining new tools like a saw and fishing tackle, Pumpkin Panic can easily be completed in a short time with speed runs currently going below fifteen minutes. According to the dev, the average time to complete the game is between forty to sixty minutes.

Visual Design

The art style is an interesting blend of two and three dimensions. Characters and environment details stand like paper dolls against a tableau with the camera showing a charming flatness. In certain shots, the graphical assets’ thin edges add a creepy whimsy to its characters, vegetation, and even your boat! The graphics are a fun blend of horror and the cozy Autumn aesthetic common to farming games.

Enemy Design

There are four main antagonists, or five since the Shadow Demon and the Well Monster may be one and the same. The others include the Skinwalker, the Sad Clown (or the Blue Clown), and the Wendigo.

As the Crow leads the player outside, the Skinwalker will likely be the first enemy that they meet, teaching the audio clue for the monster’s arrival and departure; however, while hiding from the Skinwalker, the player may or may not notice the candles by the bedside slowly blowing out, as well.

If the player stays inside too long for safety’s sake, the candles will slowly blow out, releasing the Shadow Demon from under the bed and forcing the player outside. This guarantees that the player does not have consistent shelter. Luckily, only a single candle appears to blow out when the Skinwalker comes around. At times, the Skinwalker can be seen outside the fence, running through the woods, but it will not approach to attack the player from the other side.

As for the Shadow Demon, there’s a chance that players won’t meet it until nightfall. Either way, one by one, the candles blow out, and they do not relight until the player leaves the house for a bit of time.

The third challenge takes the form of the Blue Clown. It will appear if the player fails to interact with its Red counterpart (a.k.a. the Happy Clown). Unlike the other outside antagonists, the Blue Clown can and will pursue the player into the cabin as it can open the door.

On the second day, you meet the final enemy: the Wendigo. Though it looks like an innocent stag, the Wendigo transforms into a hulking monstrosity which is almost guaranteed to catch the player due to its supernatural speed.

As the Wendigo arrives on the second day and never leaves, the game grows harder the longer you play.

The audio cues necessary to manage these threats brings me to my only real complaint about Pumpkin Panic: The game needs to be played at volume, and therefore by hearing-enabled people. There isn’t a good solution if you want to play this game quietly or are hearing impaired. If Bilalaika intends to expand or update the game, adding a solution for that now rather than later would likely be best. An option to have a light-based system for the Skinwalker would be a rough solve or even a symbol on the player’s bar to note when that music is playing. The clown’s would be more difficult as the music is directional, but adding similar text clue to the subtitles or on the inventory bar could make the game more accessible.

Final Score (5 out of 5 Stars)

Pumpkin Panic lacks depth, but it doesn’t need it. It’s a simple, fun survival horror game from an indie dev looking to polish their craft. The biggest downside to this game is its length: Once you’ve got your feet under you, you’ll probably find yourself at the end. And while it could be more accessible to the hearing impaired, it is an inventive blend of two beloved subgenres.

Pumpkin Panic is a fun game well worth the hour to play, and even more so at the current lack of a price tag. Definitely worth a donation if you can afford it!

Featured Image: Bilalaika

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