Bye, Sweet Carole promises gameplay where you “investigate through puzzle solving, sneaking around deathly enemies, and overcoming platforming challenges.” It also claims to be a heartfelt love letter to classic animation and 90s adventures. Most of this sounded right up my alley. I love classic animation and am nostalgic for both animation and adventures from that era. I love puzzle solving and investigating in games, so that sounded great. I’m not opposed to platforming, I occasionally play platformers, though it’s not my favorite genre. What made me hesitate was the “sneaking around deathly enemies” paired with the game’s tags of “Horror.” While I’m all for “supernatural,” “atmospheric,” and “dark fantasy,”(other popular tags for this game) I knew horror paired with sneaking was probably going to mean game play or story elements I wouldn’t enjoy. The question was would the art and story be enough to balance it out enough for me to enjoy it? The main reason I decided to buy this game was the art. It was obvious they delivered on that part of the sales pitch. The visuals are exquisite and very reminiscent of the style of animation used in the 80s and 90s! It has the sort of eerie charm of Watership Down mixed with themes from Alice in Wonderland. Yet, it captures some of Disney’s darker whimsy seen in films like The Black Cauldron or even Beauty and the Beast and grittier dark palette used in Don Bluth films like All Dogs Go to Heaven or The Secret of NIMH. They’ve created a world that feels lovingly drawn, frame by frame. The environments drip with atmosphere, the character animation feels alive and the overall presentation makes it one of the most visually striking games I’ve played since maybe GRIS. Unfortunately, my admiration for its art didn’t extend to the gameplay. What begins as a beautifully crafted dark fairytale quickly becomes an exercise in frustration. As I‘ve already mentioned, I’m not a fan of horror games, and I really dislike quick time-events. I can usually tolerate them when they are one or two moments dispersed in the game and highly relevant to the game context. In this game it seems like it was built almost entirely around that mechanic. By the second chapter, I was already fed up. I wasn’t just annoyed, I dreaded the next sequence. When eighty percent of your playtime is quick-time events, all of them unskippable, the pacing starts to feel less cinematic and more punishing. It’s the kind of gameplay loop that demands both repetition and patience but rewards neither. Sometimes a game like this could still redeem itself with a compelling story that really draws you in but here, while the story is competent, it doesn’t have the emotional weight to balance out the tedium. It wants to tackle heavy themes like death, loss, acceptance, and even women’s rights in early 20th century England, but those elements never feel fully realized. The suffragette backdrop is an interesting choice, but it’s ultimately more ornamental than integral. It provides context for the protagonist’s desire for independence and resistance to social norms, yet it could easily be swapped out for a dozen other settings with minimal impact. The core plot is searching for your missing friend, Carole. There’s more of a late-game attempt to weave in the grief and acceptance aspects, but it feels like it’s too little, too late to have any real emotional resonance. The voice acting is strong across the board. Performances are natural and grounded, the sound design sells the mood, and the score fits the tone; eerie when it should be, gentle when it needs to be, but nothing leaves a lasting impression. Like the story, it’s well executed yet strangely forgettable. Structurally, the game is extremely linear. There are no branching choices or alternate endings, and player agency is minimal. Perhaps that lack of control is thematically intentional, echoing the protagonist’s own lack of power in a society that undervalues her autonomy, but as a player, it just feels restrictive. The illusion of choice is faint; you mostly watch a story unfold while occasionally having to mash a button or avoid danger. The sections that allow for exploration are undermined by constant chase sequences, which interrupts pacing and discourages curiosity. I ran into two bugs in Chapter 6 and another during the final boss fight. Restarting fixed them, but it didn’t help my enthusiasm. I let my first playthrough run over ten hours so I could earn the “10-hour” achievement, but it felt longer. Another achievement for finishing in under 4, means at least two playthroughs are required for 100%. For completionists, who dislike its mechanics, it might be discouraging. The story doesn’t change so the either/or achievements (succeed in every dance check vs. fail them all) feel more like repetition than replay value and if you find the mechanics grating, it feels more like a chore than a reward. I can respect what Bye, Sweet Carole tries to do. The developers clearly poured immense care into the visuals, tone, and atmosphere. The art direction deserves praise, it’s hauntingly beautiful and the soundscape complements it well. But art alone can’t carry a game that isn’t enjoyable to play. The emotional moments are reduced to reflex tests instead of lived experiences, and that dissonance undercuts what could have been powerful storytelling. Ultimately, it’s a game I wanted to love. Its concept, a dark fairytale laced with social commentary, is ambitious, and its hand-drawn animation is stunning. But as a complete experience, it’s uneven. I came for the story and stayed for the visuals, yet found little joy in the moment-to-moment gameplay. It’s a game I respect, not one I liked. If you’re someone who adores quick-time mechanics, cinematic horror, or tightly scripted interactive films, you might appreciate this more than I did. But if you value meaningful agency, exploration, or gameplay that flows naturally with the story, it will likely test your patience more than your reflexes. I recognize this probably appeals to a slightly different market than I fall under and that skews my review toward a not recommended status. So, I'm choosing to just barely recommend it with the caveat that you really have to love quick-time events in a platformer AND darker horror-leaning games to fully enjoy this. If that's not you, it might be better to watch a playthrough to experience the art and story.
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