Gray Dawn is a psychological thriller infused with religious elements and combines story-driven quests with an artistic experience that is played in a first-person point of view. Gray Dawn is made and published by Interactive Stone and has been available on Steam since 2018, and has just now been made on the consoles so this review is based on my experience on the Xbox Series X.

The game opens on a cozy fireplace in a Christmas-themed room with traditional music, as it introduces players to the character they will be playing, Father Abraham Markus. As he listens to the festive music, you can explore the room and come across a door covered in chains with a padlock in the middle. As the radio changes from joyful music to a report of missing children, one of the latest reports was an alter boy for Father Markus.

As the story unfolds it comes into question if Father Markus was responsible for the children’s disappearance, or if he is innocent of the claims that are spreading. You will have to solve the mystery and work out how much influence Father Markus had in the fate of the children.

As you progress into the game, you will find many puzzles to solve. Ranging from a simple setting of 666 on a furnace lock, to changing the environment and season to get past obstacles with a music box you find. So many puzzles can be found in the world as you explore and dive deeper into the story.

While the story starts fairly basic to know what is happening, it can get a bit harder to track as you get deeper. Things should start making sense again as it is wrapping up for the finish.

Overall the game does have a heavy use of exploring to find all the hidden nooks around the locations. As Father Markus seeks answers he is met with visions that test his faith in the religion he serves being a man of the cloth. In terms of horror content, there were a few ok moments but nothing spooky as it is a psychological thriller and not a horror game, but what there was to see and spook Father Markus in the game was decent to experience.

The visuals for Gray Dawn were very amazing to behold. While there were texture issues after each loading screen, once everything loaded in the details inside buildings and outside in nature were great.

The water effects in one of the first areas you explored had me amazed at how detailed it was and had great animation. The flowing water while being lit by an open clear sky surrounded by a forest was amazing. The work put into the art style was great.

Another amazing highlight to go with the visual is the audio. Having fully voiced lines from characters seen on and off screen, and flashbacks in Father Markus’s head were delivered great. Hearing the tremble in his voice at certain scenes, or confusion and doubt when he was trying to make sense of things was done very well.

In conclusion, Gray Dawn has all the key elements for an amazing thriller with mild horror scenes and a gripping core story. The smaller sections of the story do feel like they tend to get

lost and are hard to follow, but they do connect toward the end of the story experience. The puzzles could’ve been a bit more challenging in my opinion, but for new players of the puzzle thriller types, it will offer a decent challenge. Overall my experience was fairly decent as I played with very minor texture bugs after loading screens nothing game-breaking happened.

Written by: Shane Walsh