When reviewing a horror game, I often judge where it fits into the genre by how much it immerses me, with the story and environment being very important. When asked to review Rainbow Gate with a short turnaround, I welcomed the opportunity. I already have had a few horror reviews under my belt (Fear the Timeloop Prologue and Out of Sight), but this one seemed different than anything I had played before. Rainbow Gate, from 7EvilStudio, intrigued me with its Five Nights at Freddy’s/Chuck E. Cheese look.

As a disclaimer, I do not jump scare easily, so I was about to heavily judge the game on how well it could do that. I expected a hide-and-seek style game, but what I actually got was more of a Saw-style experience.

A Simple Story

The protagonist is masked, as they usually are in this sort of horror story. As is par for the course, this character will be your tour guide for the death house you are about to experience. He tasks you with collecting Rainbow Coins, and to keep you in suspense, there are more than 5 and fewer than 10. The game does a good job of driving you to the point where you really want to find out what is going on. As you delve deeper into Rainbow Gate, things get odder and creepier, but the payoff does not really quantify the time spent in the facility.

There really is not much to the story of Rainbow Gate. Someone close to the player goes missing. The last place they were seen is the defunct animatronic amusement known as Rainbow Gate. The caveat is that this person close to you was investigating others going missing. When you first enter the world, it is clear the facility has been closed down for a while now.

A Puzzle of Suspense

As the game got deeper, the puzzles became more complex and less forgiving. This is a game you may have to put down and sleep on to get through, as was the case with the last coin puzzle. Games like this should not have you wanting to take a break, and so this was a let-down. However, since playing, the developer has released a balancing patch for this very complaint, so kudos to 7Evil for being a responsive developer.

Now I was hoping to play a game such as Out of Sight, avoiding a hunter while travelling through a maze of animatronics with forgiving puzzles that cater to accessibility. Once I really dove into Rainbow Gate, I understood the intensity of a game like this. I was playing Saw with killer teddy bears. Without spoiling too much of the experience, there are land mines, spiked gauntlets, and puzzles that test your mettle as well as your patience. And most of the time, you are avoiding characters that want your blood.

Aesthetically Pleasing

Built in Unreal Engine 5, the world of Rainbow Gate is beautiful. The lifelike assets, characters, and environment are the real winners of this game. Without the amazing graphics and sounds, Rainbow Gate would just be another game. However, since the colors, music, and everything else in between are so fluid and immersive, you really feel like you are actually there. The camcorder HUD and VHS-style overlay really play into this, too.

The use of lighting in some of the areas added to the creepiness. That seems to be the vibe Rainbow Gate wants to give. Rather than scare you, the game seems to want to creep you out more. It makes one wonder if we need a new horror sub-genre of games: Creepy Horror.

Scary Controls

The subgenre Rainbow Gate is put into is survival horror. The survival aspects of the game were clear through the way you had to play the game. You are given an inventory where you can store things you need to progress through certain areas, such as cranks, coins, and other items. You also have to store health pens and night vision batteries. This is a place where the game really fails. In order to use your health and night vision batteries, the player has to open the inventory and then press a hot key. This convoluted approach to item use may have been implemented on purpose. The clunky controls actually add to the suspenseful nature of the game because of having to stop to use certain items. I can see many players hating it, though. There is evidence of this in the Steam reviews already. Perhaps this will be another change the developer will make with a patch.

Not So Scary Verdict

Coming into writing this review, I was ready to be more critical of the puzzles towards the end of the game. Seeing that the developers have already addressed this is a very bright light in this industry that many indie developers create. These small teams want their games to succeed, and the team even admits in the Steam AI disclaimer that, because they are a small team, they needed to utilize AI for certain aspects of the game. This seems to be becoming more of a reality.

Did Rainbow Gate scare me? No, it did not really do a great job at that. I probably flinched 2 or 3 times the whole game. However, for me, that is quite a lot, so I have no doubts the game would scare others who play horror games for that endorphin rush.

At a decent price point of $13.99, Rainbow Gate won’t break the bank. Unless you are a big horror game fan, this one will probably pass you by. However, for fans of the genre, definitely give it a look.