Reviving My Review of Detention

After all of the chaos surrounding Devotion this week, someone brought it to my attention that my review of the developers’ first game, Detention, is another one lost to time.

So just like my 25th Ward review, I’d like to revive my review of the horror game Detention!

Detention takes place in 1960s Taiwan, during the period of martial law known as the White Terror. There are notes throughout the game that provide context for the situation if you aren’t familiar with it.

You play a student who becomes trapped in the school building after everyone else evacuates due to a typhoon warning. But the storm isn’t all you need to fear, because the school has been twisted into a nightmare mirror of itself, haunted by deadly enemies.

There is no combat, so you’ll use stealth to get past enemies, including a feature where you need to hold your breath if an enemy comes close. Those sections can be pretty tense, but it’s really the disturbing imagery, unsettling atmosphere, and dark story that build up its sense of horror.

Although Detention has a 2D perspective, the rest of the core gameplay feels like a traditional survival horror game. You’ll need to explore the school to find key items and use those items to solve puzzles and open the way to new areas. The strange puzzles, surreal (and symbolic) environments that get progressively stranger as the game goes on, and the way the story gradually unfolds reminded me a lot of Silent Hill – which is part of why I enjoyed it so much.

The story is pretty interesting, too. It kept me guessing as the pieces started to come together, and I was invested in learning exactly what had happened there.

Detention is a short game, but it’s a great horror experience that fans of the genre should definitely check out.

And I hope we get to play Devotion someday.