COME ALIVE! 5.0

A strange Halloween movie night

COME ALIVE! is a free simulation video game wherein a movie night with friends turns strange. Developed by Angela He, this creepy but cute indie visual novel mixes 2D and 3D graphics to create a more atmospheric storytelling experience.

Created for Ludum Dare 49, the story of COME ALIVE! Is centered around a theme. Additionally, it features LGBT characters, as expected of its developer. However, unlike the developer’s other hit games—like there's this girl and a new life—the plot here is sadly all over the place as this is the game jam version that had been rushed.

The pictures seem to come alive

In COME ALIVE!, you play as a character who has been wanting to hang out with your crush alone on Halloween night. However, the two of you somehow ended up hanging out with the rest of your friends instead, watching a campy horror movie. It goes about well enough at first but suddenly, you discover that the film has become real—and it doesn’t help that it’s a slasher movie.

Gameplay-wise, the controls here are pretty easy. As with all of the games from this developer, you simply need to click on the screen, hold your clicks, and slide your mouse around sometimes. The main appeal here is the stylized graphics, which is a mixture of 2D hand-drawn illustrations and semi-movable camera panning that makes these illustrations feel like they’re 3D. This helps with setting up the unsettling atmosphere.

However, the main drawback of this jam version is that its plot is filled with holes and the story can be highly confusing. It’s pretty obvious that there is a lot lacking in terms of the storytelling department. The developer plans to release a full version that fixes all of that—since this one was rushed for the game jam—but that means you’ll have to wait for a game update.

You need to wait for the update

All in all, COME ALIVE! does an interesting concept with its graphics style and has a lot of potential. However, early players will need to return to it after the full version is out since this one isn’t truly complete, per se. Its plot has a nice twist but there are still plot points to fix, as well as endings to tweaks.