Is there anything worse than a bad breakup? The emotional void, the empty feeling of freedom, and the crushing weight of getting back on the saddle can all be a bit too much to bear on top of the daily responsibilities of a self-sufficient adult. But what happens if said breakup becomes the catalyst for something even worse, like a terrifying curse?
Sorry We’re Closed, developed by à la mode games and published by Akupara Games, utilizes this premise in a fascinating mashup of colorful environments and character-driven horror. By day, you’re mending the relationships of your friends and otherworldly associates. By night, you’re traversing deadly dungeons, battling demons with an arsenal of colorful weapons and a supernatural Third Eye. All the while, a return to traditional survival horror with some inventive ideas here and there makes the game’s brief but entertaining journey all the more memorable.
But should you try Sorry We’re Closed for yourself? Does its over-the-top presentation give way to something beautifully understated? Or does it fail to capture what makes its inspirations all the more engaging?
Sorry (Not Sorry) For a Neat Premise
Sorry We’re Closed follows the story of Michelle, a brightly colored convenience store worker who’s still reeling from her depressing breakup a full three years after it happened. After another boring night at work, Michelle returns home only to discover an ominous presence in her domicile. It’s a demon and a particularly haunting one at that.
The demon is known only as “The Duchess,” an androgynous being whose search for an eternal partner has crossed paths with Michelle’s isolated existence. Do the two hit things off? Well, no. Thus, The Duchess places a terrifying curse on Michelle, “blessing” her with a grotesque Third Eye that allows her to peer into the world of angels and demons. With only three days to break this curse, lest she die at the hands of The Duchess, Michelle has to find a way to resist their supernatural influence while taking on demons, gathering relics, and maintaining her tenuous relationships with those around her.
Sorry We’re Closed is a survival horror game with a few interesting twists. The game is broken into several “days,” with each day having two distinct sections: exploration and dungeon-crawling. The former acts as a hub, allowing you to wander around a small London borough (or a seedy supernatural hotel) and chat with whoever may be roaming around, be they random NPCs or characters important to the story. The latter is where the bulk of the game takes place, requiring Michelle to navigate winding hallways, slay monsters, and solve puzzles before coming face-to-face with an elaborate boss. The two sections aren’t necessarily rigid, and as you play, there will definitely be some variation in how they interact with each other.
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Anytime you don’t have a gun in your hand isn’t a waste of time, however. Your actions outside of the game’s dungeons are vitally important. You see, the characters surrounding Michelle are more than just set dressing. They have their own problems and conflicts, all of which tie into the game’s central themes surrounding love and relationships. You’ll be given an opportunity to help them out with their problems—be it their desire to destroy what they think is an unhealthy relationship or whether or not they should commit to something that isn’t a sure thing. Is there a right answer to each of these situations? Is there a wrong answer? Who knows? All that you can really trust is your gut. Either way, what you do (or choose not to do) throughout the game will affect your relationships with these characters.
Speaking of which, I found the cast here to be fairly engaging. Aside from being as flashy and colorful as can be, they never veered to the point of being obnoxious or annoying. Throughout their brief adventure, I found myself fairly attached to Michelle and one of her main friends, Robyn. The Duchess is also an interesting villain when you consider how brief the game is, as their prominence throughout the entire game authentically builds their personality and relationship with Michelle until the momentous conclusion.
You also have four total endings to work for, three of which are available on your first playthrough. These endings are directly tied to the characters you help out, and while it may seem like sticking to one particular character will lock you out of the other endings, worry not— you’ll be given a choice of which ending to take prior to the final boss. The fourth ending. . . well, we won’t spoil it here.
Carrying you to the end is Sorry We’re Closed‘s fantastic visuals and overall presentation. Yes, it borrows the low-poly look of PlayStation games, but instead of subjecting you to low draw distances and rusty, gritty textures, what you get instead are vibrant oranges and blues, pastels, neon pinks and yellows, just about every vivid color you can imagine. And also rusty, gritty textures.
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It’s reminiscent of Killer7 in some ways, wherein the horror and uncomfortable atmosphere stemmed less from the overt scares on-screen and more from how the colorful world presented was twisted into this confusing amalgamation of what should be and what shouldn’t be. Sorry We’re Closed only dives deeper and deeper into the bizarre as it continues. While it’s not as esoteric as Killer7, it’s definitely something that I was reminded of several times throughout.
Though the monster designs are a little generic compared to the environmental designs, I found that the game’s other aesthetic choices really made up for it. The gorgeous illustrations for character portraits during conversations, the character designs themselves (which each embody their varied personalities terrifically), and the strong characterization for just about everyone in the main cast really make Sorry We’re Closed feel like a fleshed-out experience compared to some of its contemporaries.
A Mix of Gameplay Ideas
Speaking of Killer7, what initially drew me to Sorry We’re Closed outside of its interesting presentation is its actual gameplay.
Sorry We’re Closed, in many ways, plays like a traditional survival horror game. It primarily takes place from a semi-fixed camera angle, sweeping along the sprawling dungeons and broken streets as Michelle treads lightly across. Though you’ll be traversing a variety of nightmarish locales, Michelle also has the ability to utilize her newly-formed Third Eye to peer back into the human world in a fixed radius around her, replacing the rusted floors and bloody walls with fresh tiles and crisp wallpaper. It’s an interesting mechanic, and you’ll be using it in a variety of puzzles that rely on its reality-shifting properties. For instance, An item stuck in barbed wire may fall harmlessly to the floor if it’s suddenly transported to the real world.
But your Third Eye also has combat implications.
You’ll have to occasionally fight off some foes instead of running away. This is where things get interesting. Like in Resident Evil, Michelle comes to a standstill whenever she has to take aim at a foe, either with her close-ranged axe or one of two firearms at her disposal. Whenever you aim your weapon, the camera swoops down to Michelle’s point-of-view, turning the game into an impromptu first-person shooter where you can freely aim at any part of an enemy. Releasing your aim will return the camera to its original position.
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While locational damage is here to some degree (as in, shooting at a head is better than just firing wildly), your Third Eye plays a crucial role in battle. When an enemy steps into the Third Eye’s radius, a visible weak point will appear on its body. Should you successfully target and destroy all weak points on an enemy in succession, they’ll be immediately killed, often with the benefit of using less ammunition compared to just fighting them normally. However, your bullets can’t penetrate beyond your Third Eye radius when it’s active, and sprinting with it active will immediately disable it. Any shots that don’t hit a weak point will also do nothing as well. Thankfully, activating your Third Eye when an enemy is already within its potential radius will stun them for a brief moment, giving you some much-needed breathing room in the event of an emergency.
Breaking weak points isn’t something that you can ignore. By destroying them, you’re simultaneously charging the Heartbreaker: an all-powerful weapon that, in addition to completely annihilating weaker foes, is the only means of damaging tougher enemies and bosses. Successfully chaining weak point shots together into a combo rewards you with more charge, giving you an incentive to learn not only when and where they pop up on your foes but how to best put them together when facing multiple foes at once.
Outside of combat, you’ll also have to do some exploring to keep yourself fully equipped. Water bottles (and sinks with clean water) are the only means of restoring your health, ammunition is either hidden behind corners or locked behind breakable crates, and save points are mostly restricted to red telephones. While it doesn’t reach the level of resource management like, for example, the Resident Evil remake, I was still somewhat surprised by how often I had to think about what I was doing. Thankfully, if you’re more interested in the narrative than its strange gameplay, an option is available to have a permanent healing item in your inventory.
Even with all these additional resources around, you still have to be somewhat careful. A certain enemy in the final dungeon compelled me to use my axe instead of my guns due to my dwindling supplies. Likewise, the game’s final few areas really throw the book at you in terms of puzzles, combat, and even a mix of the two. I died a handful of times, and I can assert that most, if not all of them, were due to my own negligence. I do wish that this was more consistent. Having a lot of experience in the genre, I believe that the first two-thirds of the game pales in comparison to the interesting challenges brought in the final stretch.
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Special mention should go to the bosses, which demand a fun mix of all the different skills you’ve accrued so far. They all follow the same formula—gather enough charge for the Heartbreaker, shoot their weak point, repeat until they’re dead—but their attacks, the way they interact with your Third Eye, and their sheer scale really make them stand out compared to what comes before and after. The final boss, in particular, is a gauntlet, melding repeat battles with elaborate puzzles that, while not punishing, do require some genuine effort on your part to nail down.
Special mention should go to the game’s soundtrack as well. While its instrumentals are all fine and dandy, a nice blend of unsettling ambiance and surprisingly laid-back tunes, its unexpected hip-hop tracks during boss battles really make those sections stick out even more. The hip hop artist who composed these tracks even opted to make four variations of the credits theme with different lyrics to reflect the four different endings you can pursue. It’s an unnecessary detail, but I certainly haven’t ever seen that before in a game. You can even purchase the soundtrack separately on Bandcamp.
Should You Buy Sorry We’re Closed?
In short—yes. If you’re at all a fan of survival horror games, it’s worth a cursory glance.
Sorry We’re Closed is a game that really doesn’t have any major faults, at least in my eyes. What it does, it does well, if not at the very least adequately. It was inspired: the final result of a vision that, despite some eccentricities here and there, came together in a way that was both legitimately engaging and entertaining.
To be more direct, I had fun, and that’s really what I look for most in games. Everything else the game had to offer was like an actually tasty version of fondant caked all over its rusted crevices and dramatic reveals. There’s a decent bit of replay value here; the game itself takes very little time to complete, and it manages to craft its own unique identity in a sea of similar horror releases. I’m pretty happy with how Sorry We’re Closed came out, and I’m curious to see what else à la mode games has in the pipeline in the near future.
Sorry We’re Closed is available on Steam, itch.io, the Epic Games Store, and GOG. A demo is also available on Steam.
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