Anna looked interesting . Mysterious, strange and creepy… that’s usually something that grabs my attention in a matter of minutes. In this case, right from the initial press releases, and I’ve been lurking waiting for its launch.
Anna’s story is somewhat vague. I wasn’t sure what I was getting into, but I certainly wasn’t expecting the bright, sunny outdoors of this forest and an old sealed-off sawmill. After much running in circles in the small area and slowly uncovering items to solve the initial puzzle, I found the way into the dilapidaded building. Once inside, everything became stranger and stranger by the minute.
As I slowly and very carefully explored, I was constantly waiting for something to come out and scare the crap out of me. But Anna doesn’t rely on cheap thrills and loud noises, like horror movies or certain survival-horror games. The spooks come from soft voices or strange repetitive sounds that make you turn to see where they could be coming from, to discover and face some strange vision or paranormal event.
Everything is downright creepy. The atmosphere inside the house is fantastic, and it’s mostly due to the sound. Obviously, poorly lit places are a must in any horror game, and here is no different. However, the lighting changes moods as certain events unfold.
The puzzles in Anna are definitely puzzling. Most of the time I was roaming around trying to find more items or something else to interact with, and what I did find seemed to have no purpose. Many times I’d look at the inventory wondering what could I possibly combine with what or use in a certain spot. Some of the puzzles are just beyond logic, and honestly, I couldn’t have done this without a walkthrough, even if I was trying to use it as little as possible.
It’s not easy to write about Anna without giving away bits and pieces of what happens, so I’ll try not to be too obvious. I honestly thought that the story was taking me – a random man – to this place in search of his late wife or her ghost, looking to relive memories of his past with her. But as the whispers become clearer and as the voices say more and more, the story takes an entire different direction.
There are three different endings in the game, depending on the choices you make, the events that take place and how much of the haunting you experience. I have discovered two of them, and while one left me glad to the leave the house but with a lot of questions after about two hours of roaming around in there, the other unveiled a completely bizarre tale of obsession and left me with probably even more questions and no real sense of closure.
There are a few problems with Anna, mainly the lack of control customization. This makes the process of using items in your inventory far from intuitive and pretty cumbersome. Downright clumsy for me, to be honest, as I kept misclicking when trying to use items around the house. The lack of guidance is the other obstacle, as there is little to help figure out what to do next.
Still, for the five hours that I played for, I enjoyed the creepy feeling. While there aren’t real spooks, it’s the constant uneasy feeling and the little things, like writing appearing on a wall or disembodied voices echoing all around you, that make this game special.
Actually, there was one instance where I was so into inspecting something that I didn’t realize a sound becoming slightly louder by the second. As I realized that something was basically breathing heavily behind me, I decided to turn and this… thing… was staring at me like… I don’t know, all I managed was a loud “OMFG WTF WAS THAT!” and rolled the chair back away from the desk. And then it was gone. And I felt dumb. Especially because I found it again and even had to use it, and this thing just loves to stare at you no matter in what direction you move.
Hopefully, I will manage to reach the third ending that I am missing. At least now I know what to expect and can concentrate on finding things I may have missed.