A survival horror game that’s so much more, Sorry We’re Closed blends the past with the present
Sorry We’re Closed is a survival horror, romance video game, but it’s not a typical survival horror game per se. It’s not really scary, but uses the structure and the expectations of what that kind of game is to deliver its message of loss of love, of angels and demons, and of overcoming a breakup.
And also there’s a demon that is completely obsessed with us and we’re trying to combat it. And that’s really freaking cool.
I don’t want to spoil it because the way the game progresses as a survival horror game — find an item, do this, do that, walk around the town, talk to people, get this, go there, do this — but the story and the character interactions that happen within that are so good. I can’t even begin to describe anything to a person who hasn’t played it, because it’s just going to go over their head. Demons, angels, love, small city, horror? Art? There are so many themes here, but they gel together incredibly well because of that plot.
The game is structured from a fixed camera, so we can enter areas and explore, but then swap between third person and first person depending on combat. When we go into first person we can take on enemies by shooting our angel-themed weapons at the “hearts” of enemies that we see pop up. If we shoot correctly we can build up combo points for a meter that allows us to unleash a super attack. Different weapons do different percentages of damage and also hurt certain enemies more, so need to juggle which ones to use and when, and how they’ll affect our combos. In boss fights especially we really have to be in the zone when we’re shooting the hearts, because those shots can stun the enemy and allow us to use our special ability to really take them down. Though there are plenty of enemies, the nature of the game and its combos and attackes is moreso focused on the bosses at the end of the levels.
Interestingly enough, because the regular enemies can respawn we have to navigate around them. The developers, à la mode games, use their placement and respawning in really smart ways to push us towards the right direction in a level, whether it’s towards a goal or to find a specific item.
The game also has us emerging from this dingy darkness to more of a normal setting. In this overworld we can engage in social settings, where everyone that our character has known for years is also a demon or an angel. We get to see their true forms under the nasty layer of this little town that we’ve lived in. We get to kind of discover people and their relationships and how things have gone and how this battle of angels and demons has been going on for longer than we’ve known. And We’ve just been kind of a normal person there without seeing it.
It’s a really great multi-layered story that has us connecting this world with out place in it.
And the aesthetic is killer. The art is amazing, and is visible in the gameplaye mechanic where we can swap between the demon realm and the angel realm.
Sorry We’re Closed is an easy recommendation, and especially one where we need to go into it blind. That blank slate lets us really enjoy all of those layers, and creates connections that we never expected.
This review is based on a Steam code sent to the Editor by the Publisher. It first appeared on The SideQuest for April 14, 2025. Images and video courtesy publisher.
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