Eleven horrors and tediums
Very rarely does a game come along that makes me say, “well I haven’t seen that before” yet here we are. Saborus is a unique take on the horror genre in that it involves a chicken attempting to escape a slaughterhouse full of employees that are simply there to turn you into McNuggets. Sure, it might not sound scary to some, and the game does fall into some of the standard tropes of the genre, it is a unique take on the idea. So, I was interested to see just how it panned out.
The name may seem weird, but it is actually the name of the processing plant you are trying to escape. The premise is simple and even contains the evil corporation tropes that feel ripped directly out of a cartoon. If you told me PETA was behind this venture, I would believe you. The idea is to escape by any means necessary from the clutches of the evil factory workers.
MSRP: $14.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $9.99
Anyone familiar with standard horror fare knows the drill here. The chicken in the game has no way of traditionally fighting back. Instead, it has to run, hide, and find clever ways to outsmart all the obstacles throughout the game. The game opens up with immediate frustration as it involves a chase sequence that is trial and error. There is no explanation of the controls at first so unless you are experimenting with button pushing, you might not know you can run. These sequences are also less about reaction and more about memorization, and each death sets you back to a checkpoint, which as the game goes on can be up to 20 mins.
So, first impressions are not ideal, and it doesn’t get much better from here. Most situations involve the chicken finding ways to move objects from one place to another in order to open up new places to go. This is tedious at times, and I found myself breathing a sigh of relief after each one instead of a sense of accomplishment.
The biggest issue is that interactions are limited. You are a chicken afterall. As mentioned, the chicken can move items from one place to another, but it can also use its talons to break fuse boxes, and there is a “hacking” mechanic which involves randomly mashing buttons on a computer. None of these are all that interesting in practice. Instead, the game devolves into tedium far too early. There is no flight available which means you also take fall damage, and that gets annoying fast.
The ideas are sound, but their execution is flawed and while the game isn’t long, it feels longer than it should have been. I was done with the experience long before it was done with me. There are some bright spots in the experience including a section using light that was neat, but then I was greeted with a section of mazes that was just not fun to play. The back half of the game is at least more horror themed, which is nice.
Visually, the game is fine. It has some good lighting and texture work, and the performance is fine on modern consoles. The music is one note, literally. There is like one track that drones on and on, but thankfully it is fitting. Not much else to talk about here, as if you see the screenshots, you pretty much know what to expect. There is little reason to revisit this game upon beating it either, which is fine as I said I was done before it was anyways.
Saborus is a unique concept that simply fails in its execution. This could have been a gem but instead remains forgettable. I wanted to love it more than I did, but it kept fighting me the entire way through. While the novelty is there, I cannot recommend this game outside of a curiosity on something like Game Pass.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
