Welcome To Kowloon
Developer: Notex, a1esska, Nb4A, Admia
Publisher: Axyos Games Entertainment
Platforms: Xbox Series X (reviewed), PC, PlayStation 5
Review Key Provided: Yes
Release Date: Out now
One of the first games we reviewed on Indie Horror Gamer was Axyos's Apartment No 129. Like Welcome To Kowloon, it's a conversion from a PC original, and shares many elements with this new game, most noticeably much of the apartment structure and design.
In Welcome To Kowloon, you're a student, looking for cheap accommodation within the eponymous walled city in China. After some exploration of the tight staircases and plain, rundown apartment blocks, you find your place, only it's haunted by a frightening matriarch who seemingly won't rest until you're dead, insane, or both.
Having realised that the cheap price really ain't worth it, your student decides to hightail it back to their car, only escaping this cramped and claustrophobic environment isn't quite as easy as you'd hope.
Welcome To Kowloon sells itself as a short walking-simulator horror, and it's pretty much that, with about an hour’s worth of gameplay. Despite one frustrating chase scene halfway through, there's nothing here to test players, with simple, signposted puzzles that are only made harder by the game's relentlessly dark display. Seemingly worse than the PC original, it's impossible to see what's happening for large portions of Welcome To Kowloon, and the crappy torch barely improves matters. Worse are its soapy, over-sensitive controls, adjustable, apparently, not that it made much difference.
Yet perhaps most damning is the familiarity. Much of Welcome To Kowloon's environment and architecture feels very similar to Apartment No 129, from the steel doors to its concrete steps. If you've played that game, it's hard to recommend this, as it hits most of the beats already covered. Of course, many horror games are similar, but when they look so recognisable, it's hard not to think of the earlier game.
It's a shame, as Welcome To Kowloon's sound design, like Apartment No 129's, is excellent: sparse bumps and clangs that effectively convince you something horrible is right around the next corner… or behind you. The graphics are decent, too, but there's just not enough, and coupled with its technical issues and a price of just shy of ten pounds, we can't in good conscience recommend it, despite some decent jump scares and a spooky atmosphere.
CONCLUSION
A missed opportunity to explore an unusual location that’s unlikely to entertain or challenge horror fans.
