Recall: Empty Wishes review

Puff Hook Studio’s debut is a wonderfully oblique thriller. Far removed from the typical jump scares, ammunition anxiety, and cliched creatures who habitually haunt the horror genre, Recall: Empty Wishes puts us inside the heads of its cast, probing their subconscious thoughts and examining how they process grief.

At the center of Empty Wishes is the bewildering disappearance of a young boy named Tommy Lin. Although Tommy and his sister Yonny were once quite close, the two had drifted apart recently, as siblings often do. With her daily life fraught with uncertainty and guilt, Yonny’s friend Phoebe suggests using a magic ritual to explore the dreams of those close to Tommy to discover the reason behind his departure.

Empty Wishes’ four-hour playtime is split between visual novel-style dialog and side-scrolling, point-and-click adventuring. The game employs a deliberately disjointed approach, with each individual supplying a fragment of exposition. Intriguingly, secrets are only revealed once players have put these pieces, making Recall a bit more cerebral than its peers. Similarly, some experimentation when attempting to solve the game’s light puzzles can supply supplementary details.

Unfortunately, the method isn’t without flaws, and at least one twist might upset the suspension of disbelief. Fortunately, Empty Wishes counterbalances that imperfection with subtle environmental details and pixel art portraits that reveal each character’s internal state. Even if you’re not a fan of the game’s sprite art, Recall’s rich soundscape can cultivate immersion with its phone rings and evocative moments of mobile static.

Recall: Empty Wishes was played on Switch with review code provided by the publisher.