This Indie Horror Game Is a Stylish Mix of Resident Evil & Persona (And It’s Great)

Resident Evil has had an undeniable role in the industry, influencing games like Dead Space, The Evil Within, The Last of Us, Dino Crisis, Overblood, and many more. Those titles are mostly pretty dark and grisly, which is quite fitting for survival horror. None of those games are drenched in neon colors and so unabashedly queer, but, then again, none of those games are developer à la mode games’ debut title Sorry We’re Closed. Although seemingly anachronistic, this bizarre horror experience demonstrates how well-established formulas can work when they also split off in their own direction.

Some of that direction is not even rooted in Capcom’s winning formula. About half of the game is more of a social Persona-esque RPG experience where players socialize around a small town and build relationships with the local humans, demons, and angels, all of whom are strikingly designed with all sorts of loud colors and outfits. Ammo management and tension are thrown out here in order to focus squarely on the narrative and getting to know these eclectic oddballs. Sorry We’re Closed is able to flaunt its unique style through its myriad side quests that revolve around some lover’s quarrel that thematically ties back into the main plot.

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Michelle, the laid-back teal-haired protagonist, is ambushed by an imposing and seductive demon simply referred to as The Duchess that demands love… or else. This setup opens up the discussion about the complications of love, how relationships change people, and redemption. Some of these tales have supernatural twists that make them more compelling, but there’s a relatable, human element at the core just about every time. These side quests in the calmer half allow players to explore those topics by choosing outcomes that let them dissect how they feel about these complicated situations. 

Many horror games attempt to tell some sort of a story, but it’s often mostly background noise or just plainly not written well. Carving out so much of the experience specifically for the narrative pays dividends because that space is utilized well with character building, snappy dialogue, and the aforementioned side quests. Sorry We’re Closed’s well-realized narrative likely wouldn’t have been as effective if it strictly followed the survival horror template and abandoned these sections in favor of more creature shooting.

The creature shooting is more standard, yet it still finds ways to show off its own style. While it has a fixed camera and third-person exploration, combat is in first-person. Players can either aim normally or turn on a special range-limited vision mode to show weak points that become the only way to deal damage. Hitting those special targets enough times unlocks a flashy one-hit kill blast that destroys demons in a vibrant pink flash. These bombastic touches on the shooting mechanics elicit slight Killer7 vibes, and while it’s not the deepest combat system, it doesn’t outstay its welcome and is different enough to give this game yet another unique edge.

This edge is important because of how many indie horror games there are now. Two titles from 2024 in that group — Fear the Spotlight and Crow Country — are notable in this respect because of how they both play it relatively safe. The two pull from PS1-era Silent Hill and Resident Evil games and are solid modern homages to those classic franchises. There’s undeniable value in those kinds of games since art thrives on iteration and seeing how classics from one generation influence the creators of the next generation.

But both Fear the Spotlight and Crow Country don’t make as many stylistic leaps as Sorry We’re Closed; they both fit relatively cleanly in the “PS1-era Resident Evil” box. Again, that’s fine, but Sorry We’re Closed demonstrates how worthwhile it is to blend genres and twist conventions to create something that stands out a little more. More titles could benefit from putting pieces together that may not seem to work in theory but gel well in practice. Should a boss battle against a giant demonic worm match with a hip-hop track blaring in the background? Probably not, but it does here.

If Sorry We’re Closed had stuck to the established script and had more typical characters and combat, then it would have likely just been another solid if disposable tribute to the horror games of yesteryear. But by combining multiple genre blueprints and presenting itself through a bold, punk art style, it’s able to stick out amongst its peers and evolve into something greater than the sum of its many seemingly discordant parts.