No Son of Mine (Shovel to the Head Unwanted Child Horror)
I apologize to the dev for sitting on this one for so long but I was swamped. Ugh. Anyway, it never ceases to amaze me how often indie horror games smash the big names into the ground like so many unwanted children with shovels. If you haven’t figured out yet that’s going to be a running gag of this review, apologies will not be given. Currently the only title of the obscure Pleasantly Friendly Games, No Son of Mine touches the heart, rips it out, and makes horror out of reality far better than the supernatural can ever accomplish. Of course there is going to be at least one shovel involved.
Playing an indeterminate character, No Son of Mine places you into the world of “the boy,” a red-eyed, ghostly child with revenge on his dead mind, and most certainly you’ll be finding out why. The game mechanics revolve around the CB9000, a device that both detects and temporarily eliminates the boy as you traverse three main scenarios, all linked, to determine why he returned from the grave. Various clues put the story together until the final showdown. One of the high points of No Son of Mine is how it creates such fine tension out of so little. The boy can appear randomly, especially in dark places, twitching and phases out of existence, ruining your one shot before you have to run. There are points where you can upgrade your gear to make it easier, but by the final boss when it’s just you against the boy all your skills need to come together to find the truth. And man does it hurt like a shovel to the soul. If there’s anything that’s a universal truth, it’s that reality is often worse than fiction. Drawing from concepts of rejection, isolation, eccentricity, and a need to be accepted, the end result will leave the player, even with a happy childhood, dejected and remorseful. Is it you who were ultimately at fault? No spoilers here, play it and find out. Get your shovel ready.
Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls
No Son of Mine
Pleasantly Friendly Games (developer and publisher)
4.5 / 5
