I’m sure 90s kids will remember the tension of reading or watching entries to the Goosebumps franchise. Each story was twisted, terrifying and filled with just enough realism to leave you looking at mannequins funny for the rest of your life. Goosebumps: Terror in Little Creek continues this trend, mixing puzzle-solving with intense stealth gameplay that will appeal to kids of all ages.
The Terror
You play as Sloane, who’s a bit of a science nerd and reliable to a fault. She and her three friends are thrust into a mystery after discovering monsters have taken over the library. Equipped with walkie-talkies, they decide to split up to investigate, which is where things really start going awry.
I won’t go into the plot too deeply, but there are essentially three threads to this story as the Monster Society invades Little Creek. There are three monsters, covering the library, theatre and museum, all culminating in a perfectly Goosebumps ending.
There are two endings depending on some choices made at important points, so it’s good for at least two runs and a Platinum of around 10 hours. I did the bad thing on purpose each time to see if it made a difference, and it really did. It genuinely took me back how far they actually took it, all without veering into adult content.
The Horror
Goosebumps: Terror in Little Creek begins as a simple puzzle-quest adventure while you get to grips with the mechanics and meet the character. However, things change once you get the “haunted book” and meet the monsters. From this point on, you have to sneak around the monsters and jump into hiding places.
The controls are fairly simple. You walk around the 3D environment with the D-pad and use R1 to sprint or circle to crouch. There’s a stamina bar, which is great, but there’s also no jump, which can add to the tension when running away from enemies.
Strangely, Goosebumps: Terror in Little Creek plays like a cross between Dead by Daylight and Resident Evil. Except it’s aimed at kids or teens. Your health bar transitions from Critical to Stable, with a coloured bar in the menu, as in older Resident Evil games. You have very few ways to defend against the big monsters, so you have to sneak like in DBD, which was intense when trying to solve puzzles.
I eventually gained my confidence and found I could simply run past a lot of encounters. You unlock stronger slingshot pellets which take out the monsters, but I didn’t do this for most of the game simply because it took so long to do with basic ammo, that I thought they were invincible. I also liked that I could KO the ones waiting to jump scare me if I found them first.
Actual Horror
It surprised me just how many times I cried aloud in the stealth sections. The small monsters can be defeated with the slingshot, but the big ones can pick you up and cause big damage. Checkpoints and saves were pretty regular, but having to redo things isn’t fun, which added some frustration.
It’s not frustrating in a game-breaking way, but I did have to walk away from a few puzzles. Mostly, I wasn’t always aware I had solved a puzzle and walked past the item or silly things like that. I ended up Googling the solution to one tricky puzzle, however, most things are highlighted on the map, and there are clues/hints available.
Squad Goals
Goosebumps: Terror in Little Creek did a great job of world-building and character introduction. There are bits and pieces of lore scattered throughout the town, which often hold clues to solving the various puzzles.
The main cutscenes are fully voice-acted and animated, but the lip-sync was a bit wonky. I’ll admit the style felt a bit off to me at the beginning, especially the bug-like eyes of some of the adults, but it grew on me. There were some clipping errors in the animated sequences, but the rest of the game ran pretty smoothly.
In The End
Goosebumps: Terror in Little Creek surprised me on many fronts. I wasn’t expecting it to be so intense, and the story had way more meat than the average “kids’ game”. It’s everything I remember classic Goosebumps to be, while leaving the door open for a new generation of twisted-horror fans to come in.
Don’t count this one out because it’s designed for a younger audience. Horror fans of all ages will enjoy this low-stakes adventure.
Platforms: Ps5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox S/X, Steam,
Developers: PHL Collective
Publishers: GameMill Entertainment
Played On: PS5
Game Provided By: PressEngine
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