Cape Hideous is a gorgeous passion project entirely made by Jake Clover. It is the first walking sim I’ve ever played and it quickly transported me into its world just as quickly spitting me out without ever bothering to explain itself. All I know is that I was a pirate, I smoked 3 pipes simultaneously, and had more in my pocket in case I wanted to share or someone nonverbally hinted at wanting me to. My waist-length hair blew in the wind like the flags I so carefully cared for, I tied it back while balancing on the matrix of our ship’s masts. My dagger levitated towards me from the hands of our cutler, who sharpened its edge without me needing to express its dullness. The ship was alive and I was a part of what kept it breathing. I moved fallen yards off its main deck and was rewarded with the psychedelic blood of a squid-god in its bulkhead. My crew-mates moved in ways unique to each one of them, and every scene felt meticulously illustrated by the creators of MS Paint themselves.
Cape Hideous is extremely art-forward. There were no puzzles for me to solve, no characters clearly designated for me to talk to, no dialogue at all actually. The game can be entirely described through its visuals, soundtrack, and use of arrow-keys. These components make up a curious liminal space between video game and interactive art installation. It boldly rejects conventional gameplay elements, offering instead a hypnotic journey through deliberately crude yet strangely beautiful digital seascapes. The experience defies traditional narrative structures, instead offering glimpses into a surreal pirate existence. Characters drift in and out without introduction or explanation, time seems to fold in on itself, with moments of frantic activity juxtaposed against meditative stillness and quiet.
Cape Hideous gave me a strangely meditative hour of media consumption that nevertheless still felt like play, lingering in my mind long after the screen went dark. It was refreshing, inspiring, and so very, very strange. There’s not much more I can really ask for.
