When it comes to the indie horror scene, unfortunately I’ve very quickly become jaded. Too many walking simulators, too many jump scares, and a general lack of something resembling fun or engaging play have come to rule the day more often than not. While I could choose to give Ash Pines some minimal credit for bucking at least one trend by opting for an old-school top-down feel, unfortunately it pretty thoroughly falls into the trap of the rest.

Checking into a motel named Ash Pines strangely enough, it doesn’t take too long to get the idea that something may be up. You’re greeted at the desk by a note, and you’ll then pretty quickly retire to your room, looking to get a decent night’s sleep. Awakened by a scream, running back to the office you’ll see what’s supposed to be a grim scene, with a reaper-esque figure standing over the owner’s body. From that point on pretty much the entire experience will involve trying to avoid that same figure, who’ll just seem to randomly pop in on you, yet again reveal its creepy face, and you’ll be dead, needing to start again not far from where you left off.

One reason that you rarely lose much ground in the game is that there simply isn’t much space that it happens in to begin with. A handful of spots are about all there is to explore, the majority of things you find are unremarkable and benign, and there aren’t so much puzzles to solve as things to find and take somewhere else. The near-constant run-ins with the killer quickly begin to get old, and then once you discover just how little there is to this experience it clicks… they were designed to disguise the fact that the game is pretty well over before it gets started. While perhaps I could respect it not wasting any more of anyone’s time, what little there is still feels like it could have been spent better on just about anything.