GREYHILL INCIDENT: Video Game Review

This story-driven Survival-Horror game is about a classic Alien-Invasion which takes place during the early 90s. As Ryan Baker, equipped with a baseball bat and a few bullets in his revolver, the story takes you across the atmospheric neighborhood of Greyhill which is invaded by UFOs & Grey Aliens. – Official Greyhill Incident Synopsis

Disclaimer: I agreed to write this review prior to playing the game. I had seen the generally bad reviews this game was getting and went into the process eyes wide open. However, being such a big fan of the modern-day alien abduction mythology and loving the game’s trailer I knew I would eventually have to check this one out for myself.

Getting Into Greyhill Incident

Playthrough time for Greyhill Incident is roughly 90 minutes. I got about a third of the way into that before I hit a wall and decided to watch a playthrough on YouTube. Once the Grey Aliens show up and the game goes into stealth mode things just fell apart for me. It gets frustratingly difficult. You have a baseball bat that can stun the aliens (although it’s mostly used to break down shoddily made fences) and a recovered service revolver with barely any bullets. It takes 2 shots to down a Grey and single bullets can be found throughout the game. By no means are there enough bullets to kill all the aliens in the game. If the main character Ryan had a 9mm with just two 17-round magazines this would be a completely different story.

Things Go Downhill Quickly

Unfortunately, this ain’t Doom. The gameplay mostly revolves around exploration and playing cat and mouse with the Greys. They are much better equipped to play this game than you are. The “puzzles” are not logic tests by nature. Instead, they require the player to wander around dimly lit environments looking for a specific item. You never really get a coherent grasp of the environment. There’s no in-game map and you only ever develop a vague sense of where things are in relation to one another.

There are lots of easter eggs in Greyhill Incident that are nods to the pre-established alien abduction lore. You can find books throughout the houses you explore that share the covers of popular books on the matter (Communion, Intruders, etc). As much goodwill as that would generate with someone as interested in this topic as I am, it’s immediately squandered by the absolute deluge of anal probe jokes.

What can only be described as cybernetic butt-plugs can be found throughout the game, and comparing numbers there are more anal probes than book easter eggs. I think that sums up the game’s problem with tone right there. Besides, anyone that knows anything knows the whole “alien anal probe” thing stems from Whitley Strieber’s reported encounters and is not something that’s part of the larger overall mythos.

The ADR is also terrible. Several times the characters overlap or give responses to questions before their scene partner is even finished asking the question. It plays like a badly edited podcast.

Final Thoughts on Greyhill Incident

I wanted to like Greyhill Incident. Hell, I wanted to LOVE this game. The core idea has legs and the execution works at times. The gameplay is just punishing and the game itself feels half-finished (it ends rather…abruptly).

I could have cared more about the characters and I could have gone with a little bit of a deeper dive into the mythos. Really what I would have settled with was something that felt completely fleshed out that wasn’t frustrating to play. It’s effectively scary when it wants to be. In fact, I can honestly say I haven’t been this scared playing a video game in a LONG time. The first time a Grey emerged from a bedroom and scurried up to me I nearly shat myself. Watching them as they move eerily through cornfields or down dimly lit foggy streets is fucking unnerving. Having 2-3 of them chasing you at once is nothing short of panic-inducing.

Is this a good game? Fuck no! But if you love alien stuff and love being scared, it might be worth picking up the disc once it becomes available. At least then you can trade it in at Gamestop when you’re done.