Originally released back in 2019 for Google Stadia, GYLT put players in the shoes of a young girl as she explores and sneaks her way through an eerie town in Maine. Developer Tequila Works has cited seminal survival horror game Silent Hill as one of the game’s major inspirations.

As they play through GYLT, players will have to explore their surroundings while at the same time keeping themselves hidden from strange creatures. Along the way, there are also plenty of chances to solve some puzzles in order to make progress through the game.

July 2023 saw GYLT coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S after having spent a couple of years available exclusively on Stadia. For more details on GYLT, check out our review.

GYLT starts out simply enough, with the player assuming the role of Sally – a young and impressionable girl who embarks on a quest to find her missing cousin by putting relevant posters all across her hometown. She is soon ambushed by bullies, and her escape plan leads her to a simple-looking cable cart that takes her to a dark and abandoned version of the town of Bethelwood. It is here that she starts seeing the first signs of her lost cousin Emily, but the path to rescuing her is wrought with all sorts of dangers like shadow monsters and otherworldly creatures.

The story itself has a simple premise, and Sally is a well-written protagonist with all the innocent charm and personality one would expect from such a young character. The voice acting is also well done, and it does a good job of portraying Sally as a character that’s worth rooting for. Her backstory also reveals itself in layers, and the game also briefly touches upon heavy themes like bullying, depression, or survivor’s guilt – but the narrative rarely does justice to these serious topics. The problem with the game’s story is that it isn’t really fleshed out in any meaningful way.

"The story itself has a simple premise, and Sally is a well-written protagonist with all the innocent charm and personality one would expect from such a young character. The voice acting is also well done, and it does a good job of portraying Sally as a character that’s worth rooting for."

What happens in GYLT is that despite searching for Emily for a majority of the story’s runtime before it all prematurely concludes with a simple resolution to that central conflict, ultimately leaving a sour taste in your mouth. There are also no interesting NPCs except for that one old stranger who makes an appearance at several points throughout the story. Nothing eventful really happens for a solid chunk of the runtime. Those who want more out of the narrative can check out the text logs scattered throughout the environments, but that isn’t a replacement for a story that’s just weak in its bones.

Thankfully, GYLT fares better when it comes to the gameplay which involves sneaking through dark environments while avoiding the many enemies that lie in your path. The stealth mechanics are pretty basic in their scope, but it works well within the context of the game itself. The enemies have a rather rudimentary AI which makes sneaking past them and exploiting them a really easy task. You will be using bits and pieces of cover to circle around the enemies, but you can also use certain items like cans to distract an enemy and clear a path to your objective.

Later on, your character will soon obtain a flashlight that’s not only used to illuminate the dark environments but also serves the purpose of a central offensive weapon for combat encounters. You can focus a beam of light onto several weak points on an enemy’s body, and once all those points have been dealt with, the shadowy beast will vanish into thin air. Of course, using your flashlight consumes power which has to be recharged by collecting batteries scattered throughout the environment. So, you might need to toggle between sneaking and aggressively attacking enemies depending on your resources. But in my experience, battery resources and inhalers that replenish your health were always plentiful which made clearing rooms of monsters the more convenient option than slowly tiptoeing past them.

"But in my experience, battery resources and inhalers that replenish your health were always plentiful which made clearing rooms of monsters the more convenient option than slowly tiptoeing past them."

GYLT has a simple combat loop, but it does a mostly good job of shaking things up by introducing new enemy types that force you to get creative with your tactics. For instance, the Mannequins are resistant to light while the crows can teleport over large distances and deal massive amounts of damage to the player. However, the issue is that the primitive enemy AI and plentiful resources just aren’t enough to create challenging combat scenarios – which is precisely why GYLT robs you of all your tools during its finale when the mechanics have run their course.

GYLT also brands itself as a survival horror game, and while the atmosphere is definitely unsettling to a degree with levels being based around familiar places like a school gym or a theater, the jumpscares that lie within don’t quite hit the mark to really catch you off guard. There are a few instances where something might raise an eyebrow or cause you to tighten your grip on the controller, but that’s more of an exception than the norm.

When you’re not fighting shadow monsters, you will be solving puzzles where you have to use a handful of tools to clear out obstacles in the environment or try to find the keys to a locked door that’s halting your progress. These puzzles are rarely brain-tickling, and a lot of that can be blamed on the level design which is largely linear. Most of the time you will be railroaded down a certain path, so you can be sure that the solution to a particular puzzle lies within this very room, which ultimately makes getting through these obstacles a cakewalk for the most part.

"Most of the time you will be railroaded down a certain path, so you can be sure that the solution to a particular puzzle lies within this very room, which ultimately makes getting through these obstacles a cakewalk for the most part."

That said, there are moments when GYLT allows you to explore the surroundings by going off the beaten path. But even those detours will just lead you to one of the many collectibles like crystals or canaries which don’t have much of an impact on the gameplay. There are no skills or upgrades to unlock in GYLT, and all the tools can be procured by just sticking to the critical path. As such, there isn’t much incentive to replay the game once you’ve finished it except for seeing an alternate ending or going back in for the leftover collectibles scattered around the environment.

Visually, GYLT doesn’t really look anything special which is to be expected from a game with a middling budget, not to mention that it is almost 4 years old at this point. This multiplatform re-release would have been the perfect opportunity to update the visuals in some manner – but what we got is pretty much the same thing that was released on Stadia with little to no improvements in terms of visuals. That said, I didn’t experience any bugs or glitches during my time with the game and the framerate was solid through and through.

Despite its many shortcomings, GYLT is a passable adventure that managed to retain my interest for the entirety of its campaign. Sure, the mechanics aren’t anything new or particularly innovative – but they serve their purposes for the relatively short runtime of around six hours. The story also has an interesting premise, but it falters in the face of a barebones structure and poor pacing. GYLT might be worth a try if you find any of this interesting, but it’s totally passable if you aren’t particularly piqued by anything that’s on offer.

Released back in November 2019, according to developer Tequila Works, Gylt is quite inspired by classic survival horror game Silent Hill, and indie horror side-scroller Inside. Featuring a cartoonish aesthetic, Gylt puts players in the shoes of a young girl as she traverses an eerie town in Maine.

Gameplay in Gylt revolves around exploration as you try and avoid strange creatures, and puzzle solving. Players can also figure out other ways to deal with the creatures, with the idea of facing your own fears being a strong thematic throughline for the title.

The PC requirements for Gylt are relatively modest. You can check out the full list of minimum and recommended specs below.

Minimum specs:

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• Processor: i7-2600K
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: GTX 1070
• Storage: 6 GB available space

Recommended specs:

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• Processor: i7-4790K
• Memory: 32 GB RAM
• Graphics: GTX 2070

Google Stadia has been out for a few months and, well… it’s hard to say it’s been all that impressive so far. There’s lots of promises being made for its future (lots and lots of promises), but who knows where this thing will be when it is all said and done. At least for those who are all in on the service already, there’s free games to enjoy.

Next month’s free games are GYLT and Metro Exodus. GYLT is a stylized horror game and is the first (and to date only) exclusive title to the service. Metro Exodus is the second free title, and the third one in the Metro franchise. It’s also slated to have some DLC in the near future, which you can read about through here.

GYLT and Metro Exodus will be free to download for Pro users starting on February 1st. Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration and Samurai Shodown can be claimed up until the end of this month.

Not surprisingly, Stadia’s launch hasn’t been nearly as smooth as Google probably would have been hoping it will be, and while there’s still plenty of time to improve the service – which is something Google seems to be committed to doing – as things stand right now, there’s plenty of room for improvement.

However, as per Raul Rubio, CEO of Tequila Works – whose puzzle adventure title Gylt launched on Stadia as a timed exclusive last year – is confident that things are going to get better for Google’s cloud service. Speaking to GamesIndustry, Rubio compared Stadia’s launch to the early days of Steam, saying that not too far off in the future, people will be wondering why anyone ever doubted if Stadia – and streaming as a whole – would ever take off.

“This is my personal opinion, but this is like the early days of Steam in a sense that this is when people were complaining that it took too long to download, and then the download would stop and people were [complaining] the price was exactly the same as a boxed game,” said Rubio. “It’s going to get better. In fact, one day when we look back, people will wonder why people were questioning streaming at all. I’m not talking about Stadia specifically. I’m talking about streaming in general.”

Rubio went on to say that he knows of several features coming to Stadia that haven’t yet been revealed that will “blow people’s minds”, and that though people are right to be “wary” of any new technology, Google is committed to making Stadia better.

“My view is subjective of course, it cannot be objective because I have been inside, and I know there are many features that are super cool that are not active yet,” he said. “So let’s have this conversation in one year I guess.”

“People are totally right to be wary,” Rubio continued. “It’s a new technology; historically streaming solutions didn’t work. I think it’s the time, in a sense, in that the technology is there and the audience is there, and to be honest the content wars are here… Google Stadia has a lot of potential, it hasn’t reached its full potential yet. I think that was never the idea with this small soft launch. I know that they are working to make it better every day. I know it’s going to get better, because there are a few features that are going to blow people’s minds.”

Just recently, Google confirmed that they had over 10 timed exclusives primed to launch on Stadia in the first half of 2020, while they were tracking over 120 games in total currently planned to launch for the service. Read more on that through here.

Earlier we finally got the full launch and line up deals for Google’s Stadia release next week. The frank truth is that it lead to some degree of disappointment, since it only featured 12 titles and many of which have been available for quite some time. But one shining gem may end up being Gylt, and it got a nice and spooky launch trailer.

The trailer shows of the game’s interesting and unique contrast of its cartoony artstyle and fairly creepy environments and enemies as you must search for a missing girl. You can clearly see the game’s inspirations that the developers broke down before, and it definitely looks like the game has the potential to be a bit of an indie darling of sorts to put itself away from the crowd.

Gylt will release November 19th for the launch of Google Stadia and, as of now, will be exclusive to the platform.

https://youtu.be/inxIiG8lNRI

Google has announced all of the titles that Stadia, its game streaming platform, will launch with. A total of 12 games will be available with 14 more titles coming by 2019 end. The list includes big names like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Destiny 2: Collection, Mortal Kombat 11 and Red Dead Redemption 2.

Check out the full launch line-up below:

• Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (Ubisoft)
• Destiny 2: The Collection (Bungie)
• GYLT (TequilaWorks)
• Just Dance 2020 (Ubisoft)
• Kine (Gwen Frey)
• Mortal Kombat 11 (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
• Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar Games)
• Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration (Square Enix)
• Samurai Shodown (SNK)
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition (Square Enix)
• Thumper (Drool)
• Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition (Square Enix)

Titles that are slated to arrive for the service before the year is out include:

• Attack on Titan 2: Final Battle (Koei Tecmo)
• Borderlands 3 (2K Games)
• Darksiders Genesis (THQ Nordic)
• Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 (Bandai Namco)
• Farming Simulator 19 (Focus Home Interactive)
• Final Fantasy 15 (Square Enix)
• Football Manager 2020 (Sega)
• Ghost Recon: Breakpoint (Ubisoft)
• GRID (Codemasters)
• Metro Exodus (Deep Silver)
• NBA 2K20 (2K Games)
• RAGE 2 (Bethesda Softworks)
• Trials Rising (Ubisoft)
• Wolfenstein: Youngblood (Bethesda Softworks)

It’s worth noting that those who purchased the Founder’s Edition of Google Stadia will receive a three month subscription to Stadia Pro. This enables playing Destiny 2: Collection, which includes the latest expansion Shadowkeep, at no additional cost. Though free games will be added to the service overtime, customers will still need to buy games to play them.

Releasing on November 19th, Stadia’s main selling point is the lack of any dedicated hardware and the ability to play games anywhere. Google also promises that games on Stadia will feel faster and more responsive than they would on local hardware in the coming years. Head here for 12 things you need to know about the service before picking it up at launch.

Google Stadia is almost upon us. It’s an interesting time in the industry as this could be the beginning of an entirely new era in gaming, or the beginning of what will be one of the most infamous flops the industry will ever see. Whichever that will be, only time can really tell. But either way, we’ll have our eyes on the games, and the what will be the first Stadia exclusive is an interesting game called Gylt, and today we got a developer diary about the game’s influences.

Despite its cartoonish look, the game is actually a full blown survival horror game where a young girl named Sally must traverse an eerie Maine town through both twisted indoor and outdoor settings. The developers took a lot of inspiration from Silent Hill, the classic survival horror series that focused more on physiological horror and terrifying monsters over guns and guts, and Inside, the recent indie title that had a vague and unsettling story and setting that set an unforgettable mood. Check it out below.

Gylt will launch with Google’s Stadia service sometime in November. As it stands now, the game is exclusive to the service and hence will be the first exclusive title to be part of Stadia. No word yet on if it’ll launch on other platforms at a later date.

The wait is over, and Google Stadia’s prices have finally been revealed. You can pay $129.99 for a Founder’s Edition that includes Chromecast Ultra, a limited edition controller, Destiny 2: The Collection, and a three month subscription to Stadia Pro. Stadia Pro on its own will cost $9.99 per month, and while free games will be added overtime, you still need to purchase new titles at regular retail price. And yes, it seems that all games will be playable on any Google device with Chrome (as opposed to requiring Chromecast).

About 21 publishers have pledged support for Google Stadia with 31 games thus far. Check out the current list below.

• Bandai Namco – Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2
• Bethesda – DOOM Eternal, DOOM, RAGE 2, The Elder Scrolls Online, Wolfenstein: Youngblood
• Bungie – Destiny 2
• Capcom – TBA
• Coatsink – Get Packed
• Codemasters – GRID
• Deep Silver – Metro Exodus
• Drool – Thumper
• Electronic Arts – TBA
• Giants Software – Farming Simulator 19
• Larian Studios – Baldur’s Gate 3
• nWay Games – Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid
• Rockstar Games – TBD
• Sega – Football Manager
• SNK – Samurai Shodown
• Square Enix – Final Fantasy 15, Tomb Raider Definitive Edition, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• 2K Games – NBA 2K, Borderlands 3
• Tequila Works – Gylt
• Warner Bros. – Mortal Kombat 11
• THQ – Darksiders Genesis
• Ubisoft – Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Just Dance, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, Trials Rising, The Crew 2

Games like Coatsink’s Get Packed and Tequila Works’ Gylt will be exclusive to Google Stadia. Google’s director of games, Jack Buser, also told The Verge that Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3 will release simultaneously for PC and Stadia. The title is out next year though, so get comfy.

It’s also worth noting that this isn’t the full list of games, as per Google. More will be announced at E3 2019 and before Stadia’s launch in November. In terms of subscription value, Google Stadia isn’t looking like the video game equivalent to Netflix – much less Xbox Game Pass (which is coming to PC) – as we had envisioned, but it’s still early yet. Stadia is out in November for 14 different regions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk3Qp_npjxE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUUCpdc9-6I