Absence

About

Absence is a single player action adventure game. It was developed by Samuel Sprague and was released on February 11, 2016. It received negative reviews from players.

Absence will have you checking over your shoulders and double looking at everything from the moment you get swept up in it. You've awakened in a bathroom, only knowing that someone has left to the main office to get you help. What were you doing there? Where is there? There is a strange sense of something missing around you.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

32%

Audience ScoreBased on 22 reviews

atmosphere3 positive mentions

graphics3 negative mentions

The game offers easy achievements, making it accessible for completionists.
Some players found the jump scares effective and enjoyed the atmosphere.
It's a low-cost indie game that can provide a brief, albeit flawed, horror experience.

The gameplay is clunky and lacks direction, leading to a frustrating experience.
Sprinting can lead to instant death due to a poorly designed stamina system.
The game suffers from low-quality graphics, bugs, and feels like a collection of pre-purchased assets.

gameplay
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
24%
38%
The gameplay is characterized as a simplistic walking simulator with minimal interaction, featuring poor controls and repetitive mechanics. Players experience a lack of engaging content, with some noting a unique health mechanic where sprinting can lead to death, but overall, the gameplay is deemed uninspired and lacking depth.
- “The stand-out mechanic here is that sprinting will eventually kill you.”
- “The health mechanic took a second for me to get used to; it seems this girl can scare herself to death, literally.”
- “About an hour of gameplay.”
- “Gameplay - a walking simulator where you can interact with very few things: keys, generators, a flashlight.”
- “Extremely poorly designed game with bad controls, no gameplay whatsoever, just run forward.”
- “Uninspired gameplay.”
graphics
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
20%
60%
The graphics have received mixed reviews, with some users noting that while certain elements like woods and lighting effects look good, overall, they are considered dated and reminiscent of PS1-era visuals. Many describe the graphics as cookie-cutter and lacking innovation.
- “The graphics, by the way, look good in the woods, with lanterns and steam clouds.”
- “The writing is terrible, the controls are not remappable, and the graphics are very dated.”
- “PS1 graphics.”
- “Cookie-cutter graphics.”
story
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's story is criticized for being somewhat disjointed and difficult to piece together, contributing to an overall feeling of brevity. While it may not excel in storytelling, it is not entirely lacking in substance.
- “The game was a little short and the story is a bit hard to put together.”
- “Absence surely doesn't shine in story writing, in gameplay, or in the tech field, but it's not that bad.”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is criticized for being buggy and unpolished, with some users noting unfair difficulty spikes. While it is not the worst in its genre, it suffers from a lack of cohesion and reliance on pre-purchased assets, contributing to an overall feeling of dullness and disarray.
- “A bit buggy and unpolished, with unfair difficulty at some points, but I liked it after all.”
- “It's far from the worst horror title out there, but it shares many traits with them: it's dull, sparsely plotted, ugly, buggy, and cobbled together with pre-purchased assets to the point where there are copies of 'The Daily News' lying around proclaiming that 'Unity magic is here to stay!!!'.”
atmosphere
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
The atmosphere of "Absence" is characterized as immersive and haunting, drawing comparisons to "Cry of Fear" in its effective use of horror elements and exploration. Players appreciate the game's ability to create a tense and eerie environment that enhances the overall experience.
- “Absence is an atmospheric horror exploration game reminiscent of 'Cry of Fear'.”
- “The game's atmosphere is hauntingly immersive, drawing players into its eerie world.”
- “Every sound and visual detail contributes to a chilling atmosphere that keeps you on edge.”
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users find the humor in the game to be highly entertaining and enjoyable, often eliciting genuine laughter.
music
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
The music in the game is inconsistent, with pursuit themes occasionally playing during chases but often absent, leading to a lack of immersive tension in critical moments.
- “Sometimes the pursuit music would play when it was following me, but more often than not it wouldn't.”
- “The soundtrack feels repetitive and lacks variety, making it hard to stay engaged.”
- “The music doesn't match the game's atmosphere, which detracts from the overall experience.”