G4TV

The adventure genre is a dying breed on the PC, and if titles like Scratches are the best it has to offer, then the sooner the funeral, the better. While Scratches succeeds in creating a super-creepy atmosphere and does a good job giving you loads of story to read and absorb, it trips over the same old genre shortcomings again and again, eventually destroying the atmosphere it’s created and making you wonder why you’re even bothering to play at all.

Searching for Inspiration

Scratches starts well enough. You enter your new house – a run down Victorian mansion – searching for the inspiration you need to write your next novel. The dingy old place is complete with the belongings of past residents, and has no running water or electricity.

As you explore the house from top to bottom, you start to learn what happened to past residents of the old house. It seems they all went insane. After reading page after page of old journals, you start to wonder just exactly what happened to these men, and could the same thing happen to you? What are these mysterious noises they speak of?

Shocking Revelations

You’ll start to ask yourself another question, as well. When the heck is anything actually going to happen? While the dream sequences a few other instances add a few heart-pounding moments to Scratches, the game itself is generally way too subtle. It endlessly builds tension by having you wander aimlessly through your house, performing mundane tasks and trying to figure out one boring puzzle after the other.

Time to Renovate

Much like the house in this game, Scratches is nothing but an overpriced fixer-upper. What starts out as a fantastic concept -- even though you have to slog through endless diaries to figure out what the heck is going on – never gathers steam. The wasted potential here is so disappointing, and another example of how stale this genre has become.