Fear the Spotlight
Fear the Spotlight is beginners’ horror, and I mean that as a compliment. It’s the video game equivalent to Goosebumps or Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, which delivers its impact without relying on violence, gore or gross-outs.
You play as Vivian Singh, who breaks into her high school on the week of Halloween so her best friend Amy can conduct a séance. Soon, Vivian has been seemingly pulled back in time to the school as it was in 1991, right before a devastating fire that killed two-dozen students. She has to find her way through the school, past a strange man with a theater light for a face, and rescue Amy before history repeats itself.
If you’ve got any horror or adventure-game chops, you’ll breeze straight through Fear the Spotlight. It’s a fast-moving six-hour campfire story that really comes alive in its second half. The real value to picking it up is if you’ve got a teenager or precocious kid who’s interested in playing some creepy games for Halloween. It’s a solid dose of memorable PG-13 dread.
