Review: Traal – A Retro 2D Horror / Puzzle Game

If you are looking to pass some time with a horror puzzle game with retro 8-bit 2D style graphics that is free and doesn’t require internet – Traal is the perfect game.

Go look it up on the google play store or itunes, and load it up – or check out our full gameplay video below (we beat the game if you get stuck, you can cheat and watch, it’s ok.)

GT Plays: Traal – A Retro 2D Horror Puzzle Game For Android (How To Beat Full Game)

Can you survive this pixel dungeon crawler?

In this game fear is your enemy, a mysterious dungeon full of spikes and creepy grotesque nightmarish monsters await you! The gameplay here is pretty innovative, you basically guide your hero with your finger – wherever you drag your hero looks. If you look at a monster, you are in for a scare – so beware! Your hero is scared of everything, monsters mostly scare you into spikes so watch out – you have to navigate this dungeon without SEEING anything (or being seen). Don’t worry though, towards the end you can get a blindfold – that helps a ton! The main objective (other than don’t die) is to find and collect all of the scrolls (12 in all) and once you do you head towards the exit!

This game was originally created in a 48 hour coding competition, so that’s pretty sweet! We’ll give it a break for being a little short under those circumstances. Also, this was originally released as a flash game which you can play yourself online in the browser without downloading anything! It plays pretty much the same but the difficulty of using your finger with touch on your smartphone really adds to the challenge (or frustration).

Design

We love the design, but we are suckers for any 8-bit games, especially new ones on the phone! The colors lend themselves well to the creepy theme Traal is going for – not too much and just enough – almost gives you sort of a Gameboy feel with all the dark green.

Gameplay

While some find it frustrating and hard to control – we really feel it was executed perfectly for the situation, adds just the right amount of challenge and frustration. Traal strikes a good balance and holds our attention with clever puzzles and new paradigms as the game progresses.

Replay Value

Ehhh, once you play it, you are pretty much done – but hopefully the backstory we have given you, and the experience you get playing through it the first time is enough to keep this one in your memories (good ones, not scary ones)

Conclusion

For what it is, it’s free, and it’s a fun retro dungeon stealth-em-up crawler to bring back the memories – and if you like creepy salad fingers type stuff, then this is for you.

Give it a try and let us know what you think! If you are patient and steady handed enough you may just escape!