Help young investigator James uncover the dark truth behind the murder of the Smiths' and their missing daughter Ellen in this thrilling 2D pixel horror game.
Modeled estimate, not a reported figure. How we estimate →
About
Genres
Sums Steam only; PlayStation, Nintendo publish no volume signal, so the true total is higher by an unknown amount.
| Store | Price | Audience | Score | Chart | Est. revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SteamYou are here | $9.99 | 27reviews | 85% | — | $4.2K |
| $7.99 | 108ratings | 70% | — | not modelled | |
Engagement
Reviews
Ellen is a unique experience unlike anything I've played before (I haven't played many horror/psychological thriller games, let alone 8-Bit ones. So maybe this would be a true statement regardless). I found Ellen on an online gaming blog and figured I would give it a shot. Normally I don't play games like this, but I was actually really happy with the game and I'm glad I bought it! One of the things I love about the game is that it doesn't always teach you how to play it. You get a few pointers here and there, but eventually you get how the game works. Everything is self explanatory enough that you'll understand it without a tutorial every five minutes. A lot of modern games give you too many instructions to the point where you're not even playing a game, you're just performing commands given to you by on-screen text. Ellen NEVER has moments where you have to button-mash to get away from a monster. I hate being held hostage in a cutscene where your only hope of escaping is mashing the X key until the monster drops you. In Ellen, you have to hide or run to avoid the monsters. I'm sure this isn't that uncommon in games like this, but I appreciate that the developers introduced better mechanics than most of the button-mash horror games that come out these days. You have to time your moves so you can hide before you get spotted. When you fail, the animations are bloody and well done. You also get a sense of where to go and how to play the game as you progress, so you'll never feel too lost or confused despite the lack of directions. The reason this is so important is because the game works hard to establish a mood and it would be disturbed or ruined if you were constantly told where to go and what to pick up. It's easy to infer all of this. Since there's not much visual clutter, it's easier to feel as if you're actually in the game. Overall, Ellen is a very fun experience. But the gameplay isn't even the best part. I enjoyed collecting the notes, pictures, and artwork over the course of the game. You find out more about the story and the characters in it. I love the lore and it wouldn't be nearly as good if it weren't for the care and detail put into the notes of the characters. The developers of this game didn't make the story too complicated, but they gave enough information to establish who all of the characters were and it helped build suspense as you wondered how the game would end. The art is unique as well, with sleek character designs on humans and thicker, bolder designs for the monsters. The game was often visually impressive for an 8-Bit game. Considering the limitations of the medium, I was genuinely impressed with how they had captured the mood of each scene. It was very pretty. The glitchy colorful blur effects were also cool and paired well with the aesthetic of the game. I'm not going to spoil anything here, but this was a fun game with a great ending and it was definitely worth the price. There were a few problems. I spotted a grammatical error in one of the notes, the voice acting of the two male characters could've been a lot better, and overall I'm not sure if the game will have much replayability (I have yet to play it a second time) (to be fair, most games don't have much replayability). The opening felt slow because of the character's speed and this initially had discouraged me a little. I'm also a little upset there wasn't an autosave when you collected the axe and cut down the vines in the lighthouse scene. Lastly, climbing the hill in that same lighthouse scene was a little buggy and I didn't understand what to do at first, but it didn't take too long to figure out so I can forgive it. However, these flaws don't ruin the game and the experience of learning about the characters in the story, so I'm still recommending this game because the overall experience doesn't let its flaws hold it back. You will still feel immersed and invested. Love this game, 8/10
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Stats
All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Languages: English
| $2.39−70% |
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Matched by title — a reused name can pair the wrong games. * is a critic aggregate. Prices and positions are each store's United States storefront; Epic charts worldwide. Audience and Score too, except Steam's, which is worldwide.
Hours played at review time, across 27 reviews with recorded playtime.
Good sound design and graphical aesthetic. Lighting, shaders, and effects look really cool in my opinion! For the full price of $10, some mechanics and level design could use a bit of work. Examples: • Some bookshelves you hide behind, some you don't. • Plants and other objects repeating as you walk with the same descriptions (if it doesn't add to gameplay, atmosphere, or fun then it's just breaking immersion.) It's better to just leave some of these objects out or shorten the hallways instead of having a Flintstone's effect. • A lot of very slow backtracking through areas (run doesn’t seem to work early game at all) • Controller support is half working/broken currently and kind of needed considering how long you have to hold down a button to walk. • Case notes were a bit confusing at first as it wasn't completely clear that each line of ???????? was for a different case note. You might want to apply the same method you used for collecting visuals or have some delimiter to show they are selectible. • Goals / objective was not always apparent so I spent a bit of time walking back and forth trying to trigger the next scripted event. You might want to watch someone who hasn't played the game before and just observe how they interact. • Having quick slot items being the only way to use items was a bit wonky for me. I didn't understand why some items were usable in quickslot and others not. I kept wanting to use the lighter on the drum of oil / gasoline as the game hinted hard at that but it appears that wasn't designed that way early game. If I find more stuff I'll post them in forums. But recommending game solely on the fact that I want to see more from this developer.
A fantastic game. The art and sound design is phenomenal, and the atmosphere of the game keeps you on edge at all times. The story is engaging and the gameplay is immersive and enjoyable. I would highly recommend it to anyone who's a fan of horror or puzzle games.
Really loved the atmosphere in the game. The world is wierd and mysterious. Kind of reminds me of "Gone Home" mixed with some Lovecraftian Horror. Btw do yourself a favour and play it with headphones: the music and sound effects are great. :3
Pretty good, the usual side-scrolling horror game. Visually stunning, some effects and animations were very good, but that's about everything "[i]outstanding[/i]" this game has to offer. The story, music, and gameplay were okay, but nothing striking in my opinion. What I do dislike about the game is that it is unnecessarily slow. When you're injured, you're unbearably slow, and even if uninjured, the stamina runs out constantly and takes ages to refill. Which I still don't understand the use for, since there's hardly anything to escape from, excluding the scenes where you actually run from something and get infinite stamina. The autosave could be more generous in some places, considering the movement speed. Overall it's a fun experience, and I can see some hard work went into it.
Beta tested this game and through the sorting out of issues the game really came together to be a smooth experience. I myself am a jumpy guy when it comes to horror but still very much enjoyed Ellen with it's nicely unfolding story and it's mysteries. Definitely recommend for people who enjoy a good mystery unfolding before them while also being on the edge of the seat due to the horror aspect. Definitely play with headphones as it increases gameplay quality ten fold.
Nice horror atmosphere, intresting story, unusual puzzles,good looking pixelart, I definitely recommend try this if u r looking for good inde game^^
I've known about this game for a while now and although I haven't played it much on this account, I would totally recommend this game. Ellen brings a whole new level to the table of pixel games. This is a beautiful, well thought out game. This game is totally worth the money. If you want a game that will really "speak" to you, this is it. It's fun, challenging, and will keep you hooked.
The game was promising enough, but you can get stuck during one of the last puzzles (and I mean technically stuck, as pieces of the puzzle won't move for any reason and there seems not to be any fix for this bug) preventing you from finishing the game.
it was a good game but i do have some slight critizims 1 put more batteries in the house or make it more apparent that you only need the flashlight for EXTREMELY dark rooms, i had to restart the game because i couldn't progress without the light 2 consider putting in the warning that this game does contain mentions and depictions of s*icide even though it is a pixelated game. beyond that i bought this at a discount and thought it was worth the price, the atmosphere is spooky and disconserning as hell and the story was great. would love a sequel
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