Indie Spotlight: Safety: Life is a Maze
Cute, creepy and tense: a grid-based escape where caution is everything.
If you love things that are cute but creepy, classic games and a good challenge, Safety: Life is a Maze is worth a look. You take control of Mina as she tries to escape a strange kidnapping, and though it looks simple, it packs a punch.
The most distinctive thing is how Mina moves. Each press of an arrow key shifts her exactly one square on the grid, and the enemies advance toward you with every move you make. Better still, some hazards move even when you do not, like spikes that rise from the floor, so escape becomes a puzzle of timing as much as direction. You can fight enemies off if you want to, but it is usually safer to avoid them.
Combat is where Safety really diverges from the usual room-clearing power fantasy. You need caution: approach an enemy and you will win if you are stronger, but take damage if you are weaker, and there is no clear way to know which before you commit. Picking a fight is a genuine risk. It is a more honest way of looking at combat, since you can never really be sure of an opponent’s strength until you face it.
Much of the game’s character comes from its palette and its constant sense of unease. Everything is rendered in deep, dark blues, a cool tone that sits somewhere between calm and spooky, and from the very start you have no idea what is going on. Corpses, monsters and creepy cassette-tape recordings line the path, and the quiet stretches are as unsettling as the crowded ones: enemies are stressful to be around, but their absence makes you edgy too.
Made in RPG Maker 2003, Safety has an old-school feel that suits it, and developer Moga has been very responsive to player feedback. It will not take long to finish, which makes it an easy one to check out if you have the time and a taste for cute, creepy and tense.