Cayne: Sci-Fi Horror Done Right

The sci-fi and horror genres often blend together well - IF done correctly. Part of the combination is the perspective of the game. First person perspectives are popular for horror games and shooters.

Cayne is a game that I discovered while trawling the free-to-play part of the Steam store a few years ago. The game was developed and published by a South African company called The Brotherhood. Cayne is considered a prequel to another Brotherhood title called Stasis.

The game has a meta score of 75 on Metacritic and a user score of 6.9. It seems to have seen a very positive reception since its release in January of 2017. So, is it a good game or a bad game? Well, let's find out.

The Plot

Hadley is a young woman who goes to get an abortion and wakes up in a lab months later, still heavily pregnant. There seems to be nobody alive in the facility, and she has to escape while avoiding losing her child.

What Works?

• The isometric perspective is an interesting one, and it's one that I've seen a couple of times in other games. It's going to take a while to get used to, but once you've gotten used to it, it can be a lot of fun.
• Story-wise, it's...okay, not great but not terrible. We've seen similar setups in horror movies a few times...I think.
• The sound design is fantastic and it built up quite a bit of atmosphere.
• Visually, the game looks absolutely phenomenal.
• The use of PDAs to give you background info isn't a new concept, we've seen this in a few other titles - Dead Space, for example. Of course, that background info can be a little...gross.

So, is there anything else? Hmmm...I guess not. Let's move on.

What didn't I Like?

• Cayne is a sci-fi horror game with a good puzzle-solving elements. That said, the puzzles are rather bland and often either ridiculously easy or so obscure that it takes a lot of trial and error to solve.
• The environments are HUGE. Now, usually that's not a problem, but the problem here is that it takes forever to get around!
• Hadley, the protagonist of the game, has a few funny quips here and there, but she starts out as a VERY unlikeable woman. She is constantly complaining about something. Now, she does (I think) get better towards the end of the game but that initial impression is a lasting one.
• The game feels drawn out. I've been running a small YouTube channel for the last six or seven years, and last year I decided to replay Cayne for the first time in a few years - if you want to watch my playthrough, you can do so here. Like I said before, moving around takes forever, and struggling with the various puzzles generates a sense of artificial length and challenge.
• The ending to the game is...anticlimactic, and it makes very little sense. There's no real build-up to it, so it comes out of left field and leaves you feeling somewhat cheated.

In Closing: Not Great, but Not Terrible

Overall, Cayne isn't a great game, but it wasn't necessarily a bad game either. At the end of the day, the game is a title that you can pick up and try out for yourself. If you like it, then great, if not, you can just remove it from your Steam library. It won't cost you a thing, such is the joy of a free game.

Cayne has a number of flaws to it, but it's worth checking out if you get a chance.

I hope you all enjoyed the review, I'm curious to know if you guys and gals have played this one. If you did, let me know what you thought of it.