Maid of Sker (video game)

The game uses a first-person perspective and features blind enemies that can find the player by the noise they make.[1] The enemies are introduced as "The Quiet Ones".[2] Since Thomas cannot fight back, except when a temporary weapon is introduced mid-game, the player must be stealthy while exploring the hotel grounds, or making sounds to distract The Quiet Ones so Thomas passes them safely. The only way to search successfully through the hotel grounds is to avoid The Quiet Ones by not making noise and holding one's breath when a Quiet One is close, or by not bumping into objects.[3] If the player holds their breath for too long, Thomas gasps for air, which alerts the enemies. In certain environments, such as when the protagonist is in a dusty location or close to a fireplace, he coughs; the player has to stop this by holding their breath since coughing alerts The Quiet Ones. Later, in mid-game, the player is given a temporary weapon called a Phonic Modulator;[4] it consists of a device which sends shock waves and temporarily damages the hearing of The Silent Ones, stunning them for a short period; this allows the player to run from the location. Ammunition for the weapon is scarce, and the player must use it carefully. The weapon is taken away from the player towards the end of the game, leaving them with no means of fighting back.

The Phonic Modulator sends shock waves across the room that stun enemies for a brief period, allowing Thomas to escape them.

The game features a manual save style; there is no autosave. To save the game, the player has to find "safe rooms". These rooms have green-tinted patterned doors, and inside the rooms are gramophones the player has to play to save the game. Before the game saves, the gramophones play records of Elisabeth and her experiences with her family, which adds to the story's background. After the records end, or when the player stops them manually, the game starts saving.[5] If the player dies or restores a save, they lose all the progress made after the last save. As well, enemies always change routes and cannot necessarily be found lurking in the same places.[3] This saving system is compared that in the Resident Evil games.[6][7][8][2] Thomas can take up to three hits in a row; taking damage makes Thomas louder and more prone to detection.[2] To heal Thomas, the player needs to find tonics; only a limited number are available. As the game's difficulty increases, it only allows the player to save the game for a limited amount of time, makes ammunition and tonics harder to get, and enemies become more aggressive.

Generally, special keys lock up the places that host necessary items needed to progress through the game. They can be found and obtained after solving puzzles or defeating bosses. There are four sets of keys the player can obtain—the Kraken Key, the Music Key, the Bird Key, and the Crown Key.[9] Each key allows access to a different area around the map. The game also features four sets of brass cylinders which Elisabeth tasks Thomas with finding—the Cerberus Cylinder, the Hero Cylinder, the Siren Cylinder, and the Medusa Cylinder.[9] The recording they are emit usually gives away the cylinders' locations. Once they are taken out, the music stops. To make the gaming experience more entertaining, the developers added doll figures into the game, which act like music boxes. They are hidden throughout the map and play music when a player is close by. They can hear it, search for it and find it, however, collecting these figurines is optional and does not add to the plot or progression of the game.

While the game was praised for its great sound design, Thomas never speaks. Aside from grunting noises, he is completely mute throughout the game and his lines are displayed as text instead; however, this is not the case for Elisabeth; she is voiced by an actor. This has received some negative feedback alongside the sensitivity of the movement on consoles. The game has been compared to Outlast when it comes to the gameplay style,[10][8] and The Evil Within 2 and Silent Hill for its atmosphere.[11]

A photograph of the Sker House taken in 1905 by Martin Ridley.

Set in 1898, the game takes place in the remote Sker Hotel on the imaginary Sker Island. Elisabeth Williams, the daughter of the hotel owner, sends a letter to Thomas Evans, the protagonist whom the player controls, telling him she is trapped in the hotel. Along with her letter, she sends Thomas a locket that belonged to her mother that plays a tune. She tells Thomas to write a musical piece, a "counter-song", to the one played by the locket, and bring it with him, telling him this will make sense later. After reading the letter, Thomas sympathetically replies to Elisabeth, writing that he was unaware of the difficulties she is going through and that he will board a train to the hotel immediately after he finishes composing the music.[12] Arriving at his destination, Thomas is greeted by a gloomy atmosphere. He makes his way to the front gate only to find it locked and is forced to take a different route to get in.[5]

Getting onto the hotel grounds, a dog then guides him into the hotel's garden, where he finds a door and makes his way inside the hotel. After the player enters the hotel, the phone in the reception room rings. When Thomas picks it up, it is Elisabeth warning him about her family's strange behavior. She tells him she has locked herself in the hotel's attic and that her father and uncle are looking for her. She warns Thomas to be careful as the place is no longer safe, and she informs him she is safe, hiding from the others. Elisabeth tasks Thomas with finding four brass cylinders that her father hid on the hotel's grounds. She tells Thomas if they are played on a harmonium, things will return to normal.[13] After exploring the grounds, Thomas soon learns that the people inside the hotel are abnormal, and they cannot see. After relaying this information to Elisabeth, she informs him they seem to find and prey on people on the grounds by sound and advises him to stay quiet.

Sker House taken from afar in 1996.

Exploring further, Thomas finds some family notes that explain what happened at the hotel. Thomas learns the family belonged to a cult called "The Quiet Ones"; Elisabeth's mother Prudence served as a priestess. The cult planned to control the powers of a Siren they found in a sunken ship near Sker Hotel after they looted the ship's contents.[12] Thomas learns from a note that Elisabeth was writing a counter-song to reverse the effects of the Siren. She could not do it alone, so she asked Thomas and three other composers to write a piece of the song. When Thomas learns about this, he asks Elisabeth about the other musicians, she says, "it doesn't matter, we are too late".[12] Later during the game, Thomas reads in a note that Elisabeth tried to perform her own version of the counter-song alone after her father learned of her plans, but she failed and not only did she not achieve the desired effect, she thinks she made things worse.

After learning this truth, Thomas is tasked with finding the other three musical pieces scattered around the hotel. Towards the end of the game, if Thomas finds all the musical notes, and all the cylinders, he is given two choices with which to end the game. If Thomas does not complete either collection, there is a third option that forces him to continue exploring the hotel to find the music sheets and cylinders. Having all the cylinders gives Thomas the option to trust Elisabeth and give her the cylinders so she can perform the song herself. However, having the music sheets gives Thomas the ability to perform the song himself. Either choice has a different ending. To end the game, the player must have completed at least one of the collection.

The game was developed by Wales Interactive using Unity as a form of a first-person survival horror game,[14] and was originally scheduled for release in 2019.[11] The game was developed for all major platforms such as Microsoft Windows, the Nintendo Switch, the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One, and was released on July 28, 2020,[15][16] with the Nintendo Switch released being pushed back to late 2020.[6]

The game is influenced by multiple Welsh folklore tales,[13] such as Y Ferch o’r Sger (in Welsh),[17][18][19][20][21][4] as well as the historic Sker House in Wales,[6][3] made famous by the book under the same name by R. D. Blackmore, which the game also draws infuelnces from.

In the original folk story, Elisabeth Williams, a high class woman, falls in love with Thomas Evans, a poor harpist. Elisabeth's father, Isaac, disapproves of the relationship, and, in one variation of the tale, locks her in a room to prevent her from running away until she starves.[3] Other variations include Elisabeth dying from a broken heart or being forced to marry a richer man she does not love until she dies from an illness.[22] According to the tale, her ghost, along with the ghost of a sailor, haunts the Sker House.[22][23][5]

The game was advertised as having a 3D sound-based AI system as the core survival mechanic, and was influenced by the psychological horror genre with gothic elements incorporated.[14]

Maid of Sker received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[24][25][26]

Andrew King of GameSpot only rated the game 4 out of 10, writing that the story and surroundings were initially interesting, but the overall gameplay experience became increasingly disappointing and occasionally frustrating.[30] He also found the plot development and ending too predictable.[30] Eurogamer Contributor Vikki Blake also thought the gameplay was frustrating at times, but she found the overall experience became more enjoyable over time.[17] She did criticize the lack of emotional connection to the game's protagonist, Thomas, and concluded that Maid of Sker "does little to surprise the player or push the genre forward".[17]

Hooked Gamers praised the game for its music and beautiful scenery while criticizing it for not being complex enough, giving the game a 90/100.[31] GamerMAG praised the game's sound and graphic design, but criticized it for "unkillable opponents and several strange design solutions", giving it an 80/100.[32] GameSpace,[33] Gamers' Temple,[34] and The Games Machine[35] rated the game 80/100, praising the game's narrative. Jeuxvideo.com criticized faults revolving around the AI while praising the game's story.[36] TheSixthAxis gave the 70/100 and praised the game for its sound design and atmosphere, calling it a "Victorian horror that deserves a rousing reception".[7]

Wccftech criticized the game for "not breaking the mold of the Resident Evil formula in any significant way" and not being innovative enough, however they praised the game for its horror elements, rating it 73/100.[37] Edge Magazine rated the game at 50/100 and criticized it for being a slow-burn.[38] PC Invasion rated it a 40/100, with its reviewer writing while the game has great visuals and design, "everything else, from its gameplay systems to its progression and foes, is so weak and ill-considered that I can't imagine most people enjoying what little it has to offer".[39] Meristation rated it 68/100, calling the story a mix of Edgar Allan Poe and HP Lovecraft styles, but criticized the game for the stealth mechanic and the saving system.[40]

• Official website