Gray Dawn – Worthy of Overcoming Inner Demons

Gray Dawn – Worthy of Overcoming Inner Demons

If you like weird religious psychological horror games, then Gray Dawn is definitely something to check out. While a lot of things might not make sense in the beginning, the pieces start to come together around the middle point of the game–if the devil hasn’t chased you off yet.

The devil and his little…bunny demon hoard.

Is Gray Dawn worthy of me?

Pros

  • Great graphics and setting
  • Deep and emotional storyline

Cons

  • Monotone voiceovers
  • Pacing is all over the place
  • Symbolism may be lost on some

Whenever you play a game that has an amazing atmosphere to it, you really tend to go in with high hopes, but I left feeling rather…empty of an emotional high with this one.

Every character you listen to, whether it’s the voice of a child or the gravelly voice of a demon, speaks like they are reading their words right off a script. They’re all so mechanical or monotone, even when they’re trying to enforce some emotion into what they’re saying. There’s almost no heart in any of it.

And there were times I wondered if one person wasn’t voicing two characters due to them sounding so alike.

Next is that there’s no clear context on anything.

One moment you might be in a room within the cathedral or home or whatever we start out in and the next we’re flashing to some outdoor terrain listening to the voice of a child who’s supposed to be David, the boy who’s dead. It’s here that we usually have to do some kind of puzzle in order to open a gateway to leave said other world.

Like…where even is that?

We’re not doing a full-on hallucination because we come back to where we were initially standing, which means it’s definitely in our head.

But where in our minds? Are these places we visit all places we’ve actually been to? Or are we just tripping and hoping David can help us from having a full-on breakdown?

Even on first starting the game you don’t really get what’s going on.

A 7th kid has gone missing from the orphanage that Father Abraham is head of I guess and he’s being blamed for the murder of all of them? Eventually we find out all of them were unbaptized so they turn into seven demons that want to drag us down to hell. And then we have to find the kids’ hearts and get their names from David and it’s all so weird.

It’s psychological horror, I get it, but I also don’t get portions of it.

And that in itself threw me out of the story.


Everything Worthy of Gray Dawn

Definitely not finished with this list…

  1. A murder of crows is staring in at us…a murderer of a child.
  2. At the start of the game, while the Christmas music is playing, if you step into the wardrobe with the green plants and turn to the left the music cuts off. When you turn to look forward, the music resumes.
  3. The sound of your footsteps isn’t consistent–the thumps might make you think something else made noise.
  4. Speaking of footsteps, where are our feet?
  5. Are we eating a honey badger because honey badger don’t care?
  6. After the boy dummy moves from beside the radio to the armchair, his head will follow our movements.
  7. We mention we think the dummy is following us even though we know he is because his head is tracking our movements!–Hello??
  8. A plaque reading “I walk the void – I am eternal” is at the bottom of a golden eagle statue–a bird that wouldn’t have to walk a void when it could fly it.
  9. The drawing of a boy to the left of the eagle has red eyes.
  10. We’re growing grass in our desk drawers.
  11. We also kept a crow in one of the grass drawers below the radio.
  12. The door to the room is chained up from the inside.
  13. 3 is a holy number, so far there are 3 drawings in the room and 3 padlocks on the door.
  14. Above the door is a painting of The Last Supper without anyone in it.
  15. Turning the spout on the Mother Mary container pours out what looks like wine as it looks too watery to be blood, but what do I know?
  16. There’s a red rope tied to a wood post on the inside that goes out the window. My escape plan in case I can’t get the locked door open?
  17. Do the people on the phonograph cylinders have broken necks?
  18. If you keep listening to the radio announcer and don’t interact with the cross on the wall, the subtitles will no longer show up when he starts repeating himself.
  19. After we mention that we know He will give us a sign, a letter to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is shoved under our door.
  20. David’s letter reads like a suicide note.
  21. The key in the envelope unlocks all three padlocks to the chains on our door.
  22. Swinging the door open and shut doesn’t make it slam, but letting it go in order to shut it will make it click shut.
  23. After appearing in the slice of paradise, we’re told we’re not allowed to stay in this world yet, but when we try to go back through the door, we can’t return.
  24. I think the owl on the first statue to the right’s wings are broken.
  25. If you don’t want to follow the path forward, you can turn around and run far off into the distance and still get an image of Christ…and eventually be forced through a door.
  26. Even after following the path and getting the image properly, turning around and going back to the first door will lead you nowhere.
  27. Father Carpenter is not a very nice man.
  28. Rain and frogs are falling from the ceiling, which happens to be one of the Plagues of Egypt.
  29. Father Abraham seems perfectly okay with rainwater filling up the center of the room while frogs fall from above and hop around the halls.
  30. He’s definitely not okay with going into the water.
  31. If you go back in the previous room and turn the Christmas music on, you won’t be able to hear it when you leave the room, despite being able to hear the radio broadcast to a certain distance.
  32. There’s a room on fire.

FAQ

When was Gray Dawn released?

June 7, 2018 via the developer & publisher Interactive Stone.

How did we find this product?

I played the game.