So this is the story nobody wants to tell, introducing Paper Cut Mansion

Paper Cut Mansion is a horror roguelite game, with a defined art style like no other, But What are Roguelites?. Roguelites are a relatively new and growing genre of games. These games use the old idea of retro gaming in another way. Each time you die the game, you restart the game but with a random elements added. This was the same idea of retro gaming as machines and what so ever. Paper Cut Mansion here is a roguelite with a cardboard art style graphics and great fun. Hi my name is Joey, and this is Paper Cut Mansion.

One day in the Nintendo office in japan, they wanted to make something new. Thinking and thinking, they came with the idea of a paper cut super mario game. The first installment got released in 2000 and the sequel continues till this day. Nintendo recently released a new paper mario game in 2020 for the switch.

You were talking about Paper Cut Mansion, not mario!!. You are right, this was a history to the paper cut art style in gaming. Paper Cut Mansion added a lot of flavors to the simple paper cut graphics. Space Lizard Studios, the devs of Paper Cut Mansion, had a very brilliant ideas for the paper cut art style. They made a roguelite, like Hades and Dead Cells, with horror elements into a paper cut game. If you take a minute to think about it's brilliant.

The first thing that caught my eyes when I played the demo is the interactive menu. This thing got me going nuts as I moved through it. It feels alive and good with the camera move and what so ever. I can't emphasize much how simple things as interactive menus get the gamers hooked to the game. After getting into a new game, you get to share in the story of a blocked road, and you walk for a bit with some horror actions. You get to follow that green butterfly, which is your compass and move through a mansion. Once you reach it, you get the most amazing intro I have seen in 2023 so far, at least for me. A song that tells the story of what happened to you after. You get entrapped in the subconscious mind of yours with its rooms and areas. You don't know what happened but you get to discover and interact with people. You keep moving and searching furniture for clues and answers for puzzles. In the next room, There was a dimension gate that leads to your limbic system of the brain. At first, I didn't know where were I or anything. Once I read a dimension gate for the limbic system, I knew I was in the subconscious mind. The Limbic system in the brain aids you to behave and feel. Along with that, you get dimensions to other areas of the brain, and you get to know that you were in the Neocortex. The Neocortex is part of the brain responsible fort the logical thinking.

For me, the idea of getting trapped in the subconscious is great. As a physiotherapist, It felt great to make people explore the brain in the view of the game. Onto the gameplay. The gameplay is great. You have many rooms to explore and jump scares to face. You search furniture lying everywhere around looking for keys to open locked rooms. Those locked rooms have access cards into more rooms in the story and so on. I liked the idea of using more than one dimension to solve puzzles. It was challenging and I liked it. When you look around furniture the controls are smooth and not so much of bugs or anything bad was a deal breaker. The environments in the game were extremely detailed and fun. I had to spend minutes in each room looking at the paintings and furniture. It was a funny experience for me. I even took a deep look at the furniture, it looks great, modeled well and good paper cut textures gave it the spices. Shout out for Space Lizard Studios, for making a rare gem. I wish new game developers utilize the paper cut shaders/graphics a lot more.

Randomly, you will get attacked by ghosts. They follow you and attack you. I didn't have a weapon at that time, so I used my unquestionable dodging skills to dodge it, and it hit me. It was fun though. One room I entered, I suddenly got punched by a clock tower furniture. Other room suddenly a piano fell from the roof. The Jump scares were real and good. You can get a gun too, to kill monsters and other stuff that run behind you. One of the most things that gave the game a good feel, was the dialogues with NPCs. It was organic and readable. Great stories were told by NPCs, that may help you get through the story and what so ever.

The Verdict

Paper Cut Mansion, developed by Space Lizard Studios is a great game. I liked it, I will keep playing the demo. A Roguelite with horror elements in a paper cut look. This is the perfect mix for a great game. and It definitely inspires others indie developers to keep the effort at what they are doing.