Paradise Falls rushes onto Steam

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Retro-styled point-and-click psychological thriller available now for Windows PC

A setting called Paradise Falls sounds like an idyllic locale of beauty and serenity, a place to go to get away from all your troubles. But for the tormented star of L Goat's newly released point-and-click adventure by that name, nothing could be further from the truth. 

Years ago, a man named Dennis experienced an "unbearable tragedy" when a visit to the titular falls resulted in his daughter suddenly disappearing. Ever since, he's been "pushed to the very edge by his own mind," obsessed by the question of whether he was to blame. Now he is consumed by "dark, intrusive thoughts; his nightmares and visions haunt his every waking moment, and his violent urges seem beyond his control." He longs only for peace, but the knife he carries is "a constant, gruesome reminder of his torment; no matter how vigorously he washes it, the unsettling presence of blood never seems to fade." When his daughter's drawings mysteriously become "defaced with frantic writing demanding his return to the falls to save her," Dennis heads back to the source of his misery, ready to "face the nightmares that plague this flooded, desolate town." But while he soon discovers that its "ghosts and shadows no longer hold power over him," he is still left to confront the greatest danger of all: the "darkness lurking within his own fractured mind."

Paradise Falls is a retro-styled, point-and-click pixel art adventure created using the Adventure Game Studio engine. Perhaps it's just as well that its graphics aren't hyper-realistic, because this can be a bloody, violent game. And yet the gore isn't just for shock factor, but rather a terrifying reflection of Dennis's own internal psychological trauma and unstable mental health. As an "unreliable protagonist wrestling with agonizing guilt," his grasp on reality is tenuous at best, and indeed the player's own "perceptions will fragment as the mystery deepens." Against a backdrop of "moody 2D environments where shadow, rain, and a muted color palette amplify a desperate, claustrophobic atmosphere," you will begin witnessing "extended periods of isolation, environmental decay, and unnerving supernatural or alien imagery" that will have you questioning everything as you struggle to solve the puzzles that "push Dennis closer to confronting the truth of his past." As you resign yourself to the fact that "uncovering the town’s buried mystery comes at a terrifying personal price," it'll be up to you to ultimately "choose a path toward redemption – or the final, irreversible collapse of Dennis's sanity."

If you think you have the will (and the stomach) to face the perils of Paradise Falls, then dive right in as the game is available now on Steam for Windows PC.