Little Creek seems like the kind of place where nothing bad could ever possibly happen. The school kids are curiously invested in their studies, aided by both a grand library and a multifloored museum. The residential area is quaint, adorned with white picket fences and well-maintained gardens. Visit the town square meanwhile and you’ll also find cafes, candy stores, and a theatre with regular stage plays. Life appears pretty easy going for the townsfolk.
As you can imagine, news of an after dark curfew has left the law-abiding residents of Little Creek unsettled. Frustrated by a lack of answers, it falls onto the scientifically minded student Sloane and her three friends to discover what’s really going on, sneaking out during curfew.
It isn’t long until Sloane starts to unravel threads that lead to the existence of a secret society and the presence of recently reawakened monsters stalking the town. Question is, is this society out to protect or take over Little Creek? And who’s calling the shots?
What ensues is a surprisngly length (7-8 hour) adventure that’ll have the red-haired Sloane and her besties – two punkish twins and a soccer obsessed jock – exploring every inch of Little Creek, including its library and museum, the theatre, and the surrounding areas such as the church and graveyard. There’s a map to help guide to the next location, with more of the town accessible over time, starting with just a small area before giving free reign. While it only takes a few minutes to run from one side of the town to the other, a fast-travel option opens later to reduce backtracking. The town is a little arbitrary in its design, though, seemingly made for pedestrians rather than the cars haphazardly parked on the side of the road. By which, I mean there are a lot of narrow alleys, staircases, gates, and winding paths to navigate.
Terror in Little Creek is viewed from a third-person perspective and essentially takes the form of a puzzle-filled horror adventure for teens, swapping firearms for a catapult, and replacing the festering undead with skull-wearing Minion-esque creatures. In a cheeky nod to Resident Evil, progress is saved using a typewriter – some of which can be found outside. Yeah, the town is definitely unusual. The health system is likewise cribbed from Capcom’s horror classic, using a colour coded health status bar that goes from fine to critical. Sloane can withstand three hits, while enemies take a couple of shots with the catapult to defeat, with a handful of different ammo types (smoke, firecracker, noisemaker, etc) to play around with. The standard ammo is infinite as the catapult is used in puzzle solving, mostly for hitting switches from afar.
Later, Sloane discovers a magic book. Together with new magic symbols found along the way, she can cast spells in certain locations to make walls vanish and doorways appear. Handily, the book will glow when a symbol is nearby – although it can still be easy to overlook when and where it needs to be used. Often, you’ll find symbols that haven’t been taught yet, too.
Indeed, it takes a little while to settle into Terror in Little Creek’s sense of logic, as by far its biggest flaw is that it’s prone to getting ahead of itself. Even before the first monster encounter you will have discovered dozens of hiding spots, in addition to finding puzzle elements that don’t come into play until several hours later. This is mostly evident in the library, museum and theatre locations, which are intended to be revisited twice, with new floors opening during the second visit. This results in the puzzles appearing more complex than they actually are, with one early puzzle in the theatre – home to a masked soul-stealing phantom – leading to around thirty minutes of head scratching before realising that half the interactable items aren’t yet needed.
Thankfully, there are unlimited use crystal balls dotted around that’ll provide a hint. Even with a main objective shown on screen, chances are you’ll need to use them often to be kept on track.
The puzzle solving element proved quite surprising, with a handful being multifaceted and requiring several steps to solve. I would even say that a couple of brainteasers here wouldn’t be out of place in a typical survival horror, calling from numerous items to be gathered and placed in their correct locations before aligning. There’s also an abacus that needs to be used to solve a maths conundrum, along with detailed instructions on how to use it. On a few occasions I was left wondering if pre-teens would struggle in places…before noticing the 12+ age rating.
Stealth sections take up a hefty proportion of Terror in Little Creek too, with the museum patrolled by a mummy. Large enemies (including the theatre phantom) can only be avoided until the storyline calls for otherwise, with hiding spots frequently found. Being caught sees Sloane attacked via a short animation, which is far from graphic. Being chased through corridors is more effective at providing a scare. Nothing here is truly terrifying, though – the stock enemies are more gormless than gruesome, coughing up green ooze and such – but they can be irritating when they appear during a stealth sequence.
I was surprised to learn that this is a current-gen (PS5, Xbox Series) release, as the graphics aren’t exactly cutting edge, initially believing it had been made with last-gen systems in mind. It has a chunky, cartoony, art style with environments that are well lit but lacking in detail. You’ll be seeing the same trees, bushes, cars, and vending machines all over Little Creek. The voice acting is on par with a modern day kid’s show, with Sloane being suitably dramatic. While the story is reasonably engaging, once it gets going, it is a little contrived that the only two adults present throughout the whole thing end up being part of the conspiracy. A bigger supporting cast would have resulted in much needed curve balls.
Even though I’m not the biggest Goosebumps fan – having only seen the first movie and played WayForward’s 2D point ‘n click adventure – I still noticed a few Goosebumps references, such as the presence of a randomly appearing gnome. It doesn’t go overboard in cramming as many callbacks as possible, which is rather refreshing, although this may leave long-time fans wishing for more cameos. It’s a minor miracle that Slappy the Dummy wasn’t slapped onto the game’s cover, being one of the more recognisable characters.
It’s my understanding that past Goosebumps games haven’t amounted to much (even WayForward’s attempt fell flat) which makes this a revelation of sorts. Terror in Little Creek is a fully fledged horror game, with a respectable runtime, a handful of large locations to explore, puzzles that require several steps to solve, and a difficulty level that doesn’t pander to its younger audience. Having to revisit most of its locations twice is obviously a result of the low end budget, but the developers have been savvy here too, including new areas that were previously hidden. Sloane’s personality is reasonably well developed too, fuelled in part by the walkie talkie chats that occur when backtracking through the town.
It reminded me a lot of Gylt, the former Stadia exclusive that also featured a torch welding heroine, and in the end its only held back by having a typical licensed game budget. Considering the development team likely had a tight time constraint too, they’ve managed to produce something surprisingly good. It isn’t an essential play to anyone outside of the fanbase, but those inside it will almost certainly find a meaty adventure worthy of the Goosebumps name.
GameMill Entertainment’s Goosebumps: Terror in Little Creek is out now on PS5, Xbox Series, Switch and PC. Developed by PHL Collective.