Horror Tales: The Wine is the first of the Horror Tales saga, with each game following its own first-person narrative story. The Wine truly is a gorgeous game, prettier than most horror games I have played, but its horror and puzzle elements leave far more to be desired.

Pros

• Stunning visuals with a photo mode option.
  
• Cat photo collectables.
  
• Immersive environment and tension-building scenes.
  
• Excellent level design promoting exploration.

Cons

• Awful memory "puzzle" sections.
  
• Uninspired, repeated chase scenes.

The Wine is a standalone narrative in the Horror Tales saga. Each title will focus on its own specific horror story, unrelated to each other. Whilst the story is lacking character depth and development, it did manage to pique my interest on numerous occasions.

Set in a post-pandemic fictional Mediterranean island, players set out to find a "cure" for a sickness, aptly named the Devil's Fevers. The beautiful scenery is plagued with death from the pandemic, with constant reminders of the terrors the inhabitants encountered. The story is told mostly through text-notes and articles found scattered around the island. The notes are not voiced and are written rather plainly, giving only a small insight into what took place. Many of the notes are orders from The Capital that demand the town to lockdown and isolate (such a familiar concept nowadays).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2567365602

Devil's Fevers causes delirium, fevers and ultimately, death. The pandemic decimated the island and left no one alive, with some turning to cannibalism in their attempts to survive. Quarantine failed and the blame was put on poorer areas of the town, with immigrants and the poor taking the heat of the blame. Rumours began circulating that a luxurious red wine holds the cure to the sickness, resulting in people storming the winery for some sort of reprieve. The protagonist wanders through this abandoned village, in search of the wine to cure his family, but he must venture deep into the capital to figure out the truth. The pandemic seems to have proved fatal for almost everyone on the island, but one soul remains who seems hellbent on relentlessly chasing you.


Featuring large areas to explore, excellent level design and collectables to unearth, it is unfortunate that its uninspired puzzles and chase scenes really take centre stage. Gameplay consists of exploring the area, picking up notes (optional) that divulge the story whilst encountering a plethora of memory puzzles along the way. Personally, I actually think this game would have been more atmospheric and "scary" if it was changed into a total walking simulator, as opposed to including any sort of enemy threat.

There is also an extremely detailed photo mode option that is sure to appease screenshot lovers. It has many options to fiddle with to create the best shot. Yet, it was only available after completing the game which was a bit irritating. Especially considering the photo mode function is needed to access some of the cat photo collectables.

The enemy & chase scenes
What is my number one element that I hate in horror games? Never-ending chase scenes while you are trying to find your way or complete puzzles. Not only is it NOT scary, but it is also boring and completely eliminates any spooky atmosphere or immersion previously created. Unfortunately, these scenes occur throughout the game where a headless man with his arms waving in the air will incessantly chase and hunt you. You cannot fight so you must run around aimlessly and dodge him. The most dangerous part is actually the environment as I got stuck on everything and could not escape. This reached its peak of frustration in the finale section where you must run around and remember symbols to complete a puzzle while he is chasing you in the dark and the lantern is dying, so you cannot see. Nothing about this is scary, it is annoying, and I do think the game would be much better off if these cheap "scares" were not in it, or at least not so bountiful.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2569472056


What was done fantastically is the atmosphere and tension building. The random loud noises or seeing the enemies shadow pop up around corners was hair raising. There is a second enemy that can shoot long range so players must dodge his bullets by hiding behind objects. This was a much better alternative to the random popups of the headless man chases

Memory puzzles
I quite enjoy puzzles, especially in these types of atmospheric, narrative games. Unfortunately, The Wine chooses to focus only on memory puzzles. There are countless areas where symbols are drawn on the wall and players must run around to find them (and remember them) to then enter the correct combinations to open a door. To make things worse, sometimes the headless man will be chasing you while you're trying to memorise the symbols. It is not necessarily hard (although I did use photos to help me remember) but it is tiresome, feels pointless and is a poor excuse for a puzzle idea.

Overall impressions
Whilst I do feel quite disappointed with the enemy and puzzles design, the gorgeous scenery, excellent atmospheric design and interesting story was enough to make me enjoy my time in The Wine. I do not regret playing it and had fun going back to retrieve the collectables. This was enough to turn my recommendation into a positive one but please note, it is quite borderline, and the aforementioned issues should definitely be considered.


By far, the standout feature is the stunning visuals. Right from the beginning I was blown away with just how beautiful the scenery is. I almost thought I had launched the wrong title. Surely this is not the appearance of a horror game? I loved how different the design was, the focus on bright, open natural environments was a great contrast to the dark, more sinister scenes and areas. I quite enjoyed this different approach, and the addition of the photo mode showcases the games beauty well.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2567365186

Sound design was also quite immersive and was reminiscent of a decent horror game, unlike its other features. Hearing the loud bangs as your back is turned or even the noisy, accidental crushing of barrels were enough to make me feel on edge. There is also a deafening crescendo that plays when you're being chased. This made me feel anxious the first time I heard it but as mentioned in the gameplay section, it became dull quickly... but the sound design was not to blame.

This game was played with the following PC specs, and I experienced no issues:
Intel i5-9400 2.9 GHz
16GB RAM
GeForce RTX 2060 6GB
2560x1440 resolution
HDD
Windows 10

Horror Tales: The Wine is impressive visually but fails in its horror elements and poor puzzle design. Its story is interesting with excellent level design and tension-building elements. Whilst I enjoyed my experience overall, the aforementioned hindrances should be considered prior to purchase, and I recommend this at a heavy sale.

This review copy was provided to the Devils in the Detail curator.

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Decent physiological horror game with great atmosphere-building moments, unpredictable jump scares, platforming segments, and beautiful looking vistas. Gameplay consist of unlocking gates by matching symbols found in the level, platforming to find a way to the next area and avoiding a monster that lurks around. The lore of the world is mostly obtained through simple text documents scattered throughout the level. The game does an excellent job in making you feel that something could happen at any moment especially with the stalker observing you from afar. Photo-mode is a welcomed feature and hopefully more developers add this to there games even if it has only a handful of options to modify screenshots. There are several collectibles hidden including some only attainable by using the free roam in photo-mode which in my opinion was not necessary. One main negative is having the same single creature chase you as this losses the feeling of dread after several encounters. The game is rather short and can be completed within 3-5 hours depending on your play style. HORROR TALES was created by one person which is an impressive achievement and I can not wait for the other two games to be released. [7/10]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2562607445

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2563051760

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2563051317

Purpose of the game: explore without dying. Excellent graphics and possibility to choose which chapter to start from. For obvious reasons I started from the final chapter (I won't spoil the reason) and then dedicated myself to everything else. The only flaw is that unfortunately it doesn't have a translation into my language (Italian) but all in all I didn't find it a limiting element. Price balanced with the longevity of the game. overall rating 7/10

HORROR TALES: The Wine is an incredibly impressive and immersive labour of love from developer Carlos Coronado that tells the tale of Martí Vermelló and his perilous journey across a beautiful Mediterranean island in search of the titular wine which, if rumours are to be believed, may be the key to curing a deadly pandemic plaguing Martí's hometown.

Roughly three hours in length, The Wine is a study of desperation and human nature cloaked in the guise of a humble horror game that clearly seeks to do nothing but entertain the audience first and foremost- and this point of praise is also why I must condemn this game in the budding HORROR TALES anthology. The Wine simply has no idea what it wants to be, and falls apart in the third and final act because of this. What starts as an adventure becomes a mystery, which then becomes an enthralling odyssey into the human psyche that ultimately blindsides and betrays the audience by reminding them this is a cheap video-game full of frustrating cliche garbage.

The final act is a video-game, nothing more. What starts as effortless art ends as a parody of itself: An assault on the senses consisting of flashing lights, loud noises, pitch-black environments you are expected to navigate with a lantern with a ten second crank battery, "puzzles" which are nothing more than tedious exercises in frustration while being chased by an antagonist that started menacing and ended as a Scooby-Doo monster of the week. None of this is scary. It is tedious and embarrassing. I cannot stress enough that I started this game expecting schlock, instead received high art, and then had the rug pulled out from under me for daring to appreciate what was (up until the third act) one of the best games I have played in recent memory. I must note that the brief five minute epilogue is a return to form, but it is too little too late. And yet I feel compelled to recommend this game.

God bless you, Carlos Coronado. Your game is both a visual and technical beauty that oozes atmosphere, never chugging or glitching once through the entire experience. You are an auteur whose latent talent and soul bleeds through every pixel, and your story was the work of a master craftsman up until a certain point. Why then did you choose the path of least resistance? Was it cowardice? A lack of confidence? Did you feel your game would not sell on its own merits without being YouTuber jumpscare bait? Did you feel it necessary to ensure your game was longer than two hours for fear of people refunding it? Did one of your playtesters get into your ear and convince you the final act needed to be padded out? I will never know why you butchered your own creation the way you did, but I do know one thing: If this game is even the slightest indication of what you have to offer as a creator then you are going to be remembered as one of the greatest video game directors of all time, and HORROR TALES will (no pun intended) age like fine wine that will be relevant for generations to come. A product of a humble, talented mind that deserves to rest in horror history across the aisle from the otherwise incomparable Hammer Horror films.

I am a nobody. But your game has touched this nobody in a way that I have not felt in a long time. You've pulled me from the depths of bitter cynicism after years of being subjected to soulless haunted houses that masquerade as entertainment and made an ardent patron of me. I believe in you. Believe in yourself.

Played it fully on the deck, game runs wonderfully on it. 60FPS only turned down shadows to low.

The game is really good but short, aesthetics are on point for a mediterranean village with some fantasy on top, the story is really good, and kinda matches old times on some spanish villages that were fully dependant on wine making, won't spoil more of the story though. The game has some easter eggs some spaniards will probably get.

Totally recommend giving it a try, it's not that scary in case you have problems with scary games, its more like an interactive art piece with story telling through notes and some gameplay puzzles, the game also has accesibility options in case you struggle with some stuff (The chase during the puzzles can be shortened or stopped on some of them so you have your time after a short chase to explore at your own pace and resolve the puzzle, font size, and some other settings).

https://youtu.be/1yPIDzO_lsA

Horror Tales: The Wine is a first-person horror experience set on a mediterranean archipelago. It's one of the most beautiful horror games I've played, with some vibrant, colourful environments and breathtaking vistas. Don't let the beauty of the sun-kissed levels fool you though, when this game wants to be scary, it very much is.
As you explore the buildings around town looking for a very special bottle of wine, you'll find you're not alone. You'll be chased, hunted and made to panic as you try and escape with your life. There's a fair amount of puzzles to solve and background lore for you to sink your teeth into as well.

If I had to name a few flaws, I'd say that occasionally the audio feels a little lacking, plus if you want to fully understand the story, there's a lot of reading you'll need to do.

Great visuals, fantastic audio, superb atmosphere and some really impactful spooks too. It'll probably last you around 3 hours to complete.
I don't think you'll regret buying this one. I'm now looking forward to the next in the Horror Tales series.

Horror Tales: The Wine centres around an all too intimate scenario; a raging pandemic, nicknamed the Devil's Fever, of which the side effects include fever, delirium, hallucinations, and death. Set inside the capital of a Mediterranean island, you play as Martí Vermelló, a man whose family are infected with the deadly plague. Your sole purpose is to find just one unopened bottle of the illustrious red wine that's made in the city, which is said to be the only known cure for the disease. Of course, fulfilling your task won't come easy, as there's a mysterious rifle-wielding man roaming the unfamiliar streets... and it almost seems as though he's hunting you down, all the while casually whistling an unsettling tune.

The gameplay is characterized by a mix, and sometimes a combination of, puzzles and chase sequences. First and foremost Horror Tales: The Wine is a puzzle game, the developer put the horror elements on the backburner here. Although that's not a total breaking point as the chase scenes can be quite anxiety-provoking and there are some jumpscares here and there, but the addition of an eerie ambience to the background could've gone a long way in promoting a more tense experience. That said, this is also a title that's done well in making its campaign completely unpredictable in terms of what comes next. However, the puzzles are in need of more variation and the developer should consider increasing their complexity in future releases; they almost solely consist of testing your memory by matching symbols together and then pulling a lever to open a door.

Even though the gameplay is hit-and-miss, where this release really stands out is its story. Without going into spoiler territory, suffice it to say that the ending is completely unexpected yet it doesn't make the player feel as though they've been cheated or lied to all along. The graphics are also very well done, and they have a very 'Dishonored' vibe to them; the optimization is equally on-point, and the game runs at a stable 60 FPS even on older hardware such as mine (i7-6700k / GTX 1080) at a 1080p resolution with all settings maxed out. It should also be noted that the developer went out of their way to put in a good chunk of accessibility options, including a mode that removes the chase sequences after about a minute for those who suffer from bad anxiety.

Overall, Horror Tales: The Wine is a great freshman entry into what seems to be a trilogy at this point. The plot, though only told in stagnant "cutscenes" (this term is used very loosely here), letters, and notices, is this game's primary selling point. If the ending had been anything other than what it was, it wouldn't be nearly as brilliant of a tale. Hopefully the future releases in this series do not suffer from the same stale puzzles that are revisited over and over again, and that at least some form of background ambience is added to increase the horror value of the game. If you're looking for a worthwhile way to spend 3-4 hours, then consider grabbing this gem this Halloween.

The Horror Network Curator | Group Click for Gore

The developer provided a free copy of this game for review, through The Horror Network's Curation page.

Really great game. Even though the name of the game makes you think it's a horror game, this is just one of it's genres. Because it's basically a mix of horror, puzzle, platformer and adventure, and horror being the smallest part imo.

-great graphics, levels have high variety
-same as the gameplay bc of the genremix
-progressing through the game is just extremly fun, solving the rather easy but satisfying puzzles and enjoying the beautiful surroundings
-enemies can be a bit annoying sometimes, especially near the end where you have to solve puzzles while an enemy is chasing you, BUT you can also disable enemies in the options menu if you don't like them
-story is all right, sadly no voice over at all, all story is told through notes you find or some text of the start of a level
-game length about 3 hours
-you have to enable photo mode in the menu before starting the game to be able to find most of the secrets

⚖️ Grade = B. Worth a buy, if you enjoy path unlocking adventure. However, if you're looking for exciting scenario, it doesn't have

✔️ Proceed without any guide or map
✔️ Run away from Hostile
✔️ Simple horror (no head man)
✔️ Physic Puzzle
✔️ Short reading
❌ Stay alive with limited equipment
❌ New pickups location for replay value
❌ Horror art & creepy music
❌ Horror death
❌ Cinematic Cutscene
❌ Sneak Pass Enemies


🗯 Disagree + Criticize ➜ Write here

🕘 2021: Game released, thanks Dev for the free gift 😄
🕘 5 min gameplay later: Beautiful Mediterranean island
🕘 1 hour gameplay later: Horror or holiday?
🕘 3 hours gameplay later: Clueless & no hints available...

🔊 Silent protagonist
🔊 Require read the memo to understand the story
🔊 Require memorize the symbols to unlock doors
🔊 Require interact / climb objects to discover the next step
🔊 Require complete the symbol puzzle while being chased by hostile
🔊 No immersive danger / reasonable scary moment
🔊 No difficulty option
🔊 No extra save slot

💎 6 Languages available
💎 Photo mode available
💎 Basic simple sound effect
💎 No background music
💎 Less scary

+ Good graphic
+ Physic Reaction
+ Auto healing
+ Chapter selection

- Basic simple menu interface
- Lack of horror design
- Often too quiet, and suddenly too loud = annoying
- Flash light is too bright at the middle and blinking too often
- No objective remark for the next step
- No notify it is a jammed / locked door, which door for the key??

❌ Story Gamer = Cutscene Viewer / Dialogue Reader
✔️ Newbie = No experience on this genre
❌ Veteran = Trained for this genre
❌ Try-Hard Gamer = Real Challenger
❌ Social Gamer = Seek for co-op players
✔️ Casual Gamer = Quick completion with less struggle
❌ Mature Audience = Immune addict into Adult Content
✔️ Controls Handling: Simple / Variety / Complex
❌ Opponent: Human / Bot / Friend's PB Record / Self PB / Global Average PB
❌ Ally: Human / NPC companion
❌ Playground Available: Host Private / Public / Splitscreen Multiplayer

Approximate File Size = 4.37 GB
Average Completion Hours = 5h - 10h
Check out the current player population = https://steamcharts.com/app/1340640/
Check price history = https://steamdb.info/app/1340640/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1340640/

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"Horror Tales: The Wine" is a short (about 4 hours) first-person horror adventure with a creepy atmosphere, decent story, several simple puzzles, and a few okay-ish chase scenes.

You play a father who visits the capital of his country after a devastating pandemic that killed almost all of the population. Your children have been infected too, and your task is to obtain the last bottle of the city's famous red wine, which is said to cure the plague.

The city seems devoid of any life. By reading public notices, newspaper articles, and journal entries, you learn more about its fate. The backstory does not shy away from serious topics like the exploitation of immigrants, who worked under terrible conditions in the wine industry that was the country's main source of revenue. The described events get very dark as different parts of society try to save themselves from the pandemic.

While the backstory is fairly elaborate, there is barely any plot to the game. You just explore the abandoned city, looking for an exit from whatever set of rooms you're currently stuck in, and occasionally flee from a creature that keeps hunting you. That said, the end of the main character's story included two sinister twists that I absolutely did not see coming, and I appreciated the surprise.

Whether you'll enjoy the backstory as much as I did, will probably depend on two things: your appreciation for dark tales, and the strength of your own imagination. Some of the reports are terrifying and heartbreaking, but since most of the information is coming from public notices or newspapers, they are also a bit dry and lack a personal touch - and there are no recurring characters with whose stories you could identify. This might make the story feel a little superficial, but if you have an imaginative mind, you'll be able to see the terrible individual fates behind the reports.

Strangely enough, most of the game felt like a long sequence of very simple escape rooms. Very often you drop into a room with no obvious exit, and then have to look for the way out, which could be obscured in darkness or behind furniture. Sometimes you'll have to solve a small environmental puzzle to e.g. build a bridge. At other times you have to enter a code, the elements of which are usually depicted on scattered notes in the vicinity. Most of the time there is only one way out, but some areas consist of multiple rooms that provide some space for exploration.

I really liked the level design, it regularly made me think "Wait, am I stuck here?", before further investigation revealed an exit. The player's path also sometimes cycles back to previously visited areas, which I liked - progression through the game is actually completely linear, but revisiting previous areas made it feel more organic.

The game's other two notable mechanics are jump scares and chase scenes. The scares are fairly mild, usually just some unexpected noises - but since they also feel pretty random, they don't contribute much to the atmosphere. They neither scared nor annoyed me, so I'd give them a "meh" rating.

The chase scenes are a mixed bag as well. The creature that is hunting you was appropriately scary (for me), and I could pass through most chases in two or three attempts. There were still some annoying elements though, e.g. barriers suddenly appearing without any in-game reason, or the chasing creature apparently teleporting to the corner in front of me.

There are two scenes where you have to solve a puzzle while being chased. The developer provided an option to make the creature disappear after a few minutes - two thumbs up for giving players the option to skip something that they may not find enjoyable! Unfortunately though, this feature did not work for me on the second scene. It wasn't too difficult to get through that scene, but unnecessarily tedious, especially since the creature can easily corner or stun-lock you in a way that you have no chance of getting away - and when you die, the entire puzzle gets reset, including objects that you already applied and doors that you already opened.

But all that said, I have seen way worse chase scenes in other indie games, and even though I did not particularly like the ones in "The Wine", they weren't overly detrimental to my experience either.

On a side note, the game trolled me pretty badly when it came to collectibles. It's pretty easy to spot them, but sometimes I did not find a way to get to them, despite spending more than 2 hours and trying everything I could think of. This included fairly involved procedures of collecting wooden boxes and barrels from all over the map to veeeery carefully try and build a stairway (not easy because for some reason, they blast into pieces as soon as they touch anything) - and then successfully climbing the stairway and finding an invisible barrier on top of the barricade that I was trying to overcome. After finishing the game, it told me that it had now enabled "photo mode", and in that mode, you can smash certain barriers by flying the camera through them. This makes no sense whatsoever and I really wish the game had divulged that information earlier - there was ample opportunity to do so on the loading screens, which instead wasted space with cringeworthy non-jokes like "Don't trust this advice!".

In hindsight, it would have been a better choice to simply ignore the collectibles altogether. They don't even add anything to the story - arguably, their "cat appreciation" theme even works against the dark atmosphere that the game is trying to create, and unnecessarily takes the player out of the setting. Collectibles that actually contributed to the backstory would have been a much better choice in my opinion.

"The Wine" uses the Unreal engine to good effect with its high-resolution textures, beautiful lighting, excellent water surfaces, and smooth framerates. The game looks amazingly good for what seems to have been mostly a one-person project (using assets made by properly credited third parties). The sound effects fit the respective events and are pretty well-done as well.

There is almost no music in the game, and I felt that this actually contributed to the atmosphere and enhanced the feeling of being a lonesome survivor exploring abandoned places. There is no voice-acting either (unless you count a character whistling) - while some scenes would have benefited from a good voice-over, I did not really miss it, and I generally prefer reading text with my "inner voice" over mediocre voice-acting.

"The Wine" provides settings for standard elements like texture quality, AA, gamma, shadow quality, view distance, and also an FPS limiter. The audio volume for effects and music can be set separately. All keys are fully rebindable, and the "run" and "crouch" actions can be switched between "hold" and "toggle" modes. Either mouse axis can be inverted separately.

The game deserves extra praise for implementing many accessibility options. You can adjust the text size and style, change the crosshair, remove the camera shake and/or flashing lights, and more. On the other hand, if you want to play in a "cinematic" mode without subtitles and without a UI, you can do that as well. Many triple-A studios could really learn a lesson about proper accessibility options from this single developer.

The game saves automatically and fairly frequently. Manual saves are not possible, but I did not miss them outside of one puzzle-and-chase scene. A "chapter select" menu lets you replay specific parts of the game, which is handy for hunting collectibles. I did not run into any bugs, the game generally feels very polished.

While "The Wine" has its flaws, I can recommend it to fans of dark, creepy settings and first-person adventure games with mild puzzles.