Abandoned and marked for demolition, but its infamous legacy refuses to be buried.
Title: 96 Mill | Developer: Ethereal Darkness Interactive | Publisher: Strategy First| Release Date: 2017 | Genre: Horror Adventure | Style: Point & Click | Platform: PC (Steam) | Rating: Unstarred | Source: Self-Purchased
96 Mill Review
For the love of all that’s holy please, please put a “Road” at the end of 96 Mill. It would look so much better and make more sense.
96 Mill is a short game. I beat it in about three to four hours including all ten endings. Ignore my Steam profile’s stated time of 5 hours, I have a bad habit of leaving games running. 96 Mill is a point and click horror game with static locations. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I’ve never had any issue with them, myself, as long as they’re done well.
96 Mills locations were interesting and fit the building but, at the same time, felt varied enough to be interesting. I particularly liked the metal room. The only thing I didn’t like was the filter over it. It would have been nicer for it to be clean images instead of static-y and fuzzed looking. It wasn’t bad enough to hurt the eyes but it would have been better.
I did like the notes and recordings that you find to give you a bit of backstory to the mill you’re supposed to be demolishing. They were really interesting and well done. The puzzles were engaging and felt natural. The voice work was very good as was the sound design. It definitely had you creeped out at times just with the sound alone.
There were minimal jump scares but a lot of subtly creepy things happening. Some were sound cues that let you know where to go (for example, a window breaking and a figure to let you know you had to start making your way there). The Boss’ voice was done well. His voice accompanies you through the building giving you a bit of history on the room you’re in or letting you know what you have to do and adding to your objective list.
The inventory was easy to access and use. The map had fast travel, which is always appreciated to minimize clicks between locations.
There were a few things, though, that could have been improved that kept it from being a starred review for me. The inventory could have been stackable with the explosives to make it a little easier. I also found one item that I couldn’t figure out what to do with it (the guitar pick) or if it even did anything.
The story could have used some work as well. It had a really good set up but no real resolution or ending or even really a clue as to what was going on. With ten different endings a couple could have been devoted to finishing up the story.
Speaking of the endings they are easy enough to get but some are pretty much the same with slight variations. I did appreciate that you could save just before instead of being forced to play through the entire game just for a slightly different ending. I would have liked some achievements,as well.
In short, it’s on Steam for $5.99 (at the time of this writing) but I’d suggest waiting for a sale. However, $5.99 is not an unreasonable price point for it, either. It’s a solid game for the price. Mildly recommended.
GracieKat was the first co-host of Sci-Fi & Scary, Lilyn’s partner-in-crime, and sub-head of the Kali Krew. She reviews horror books, movies, and games for the site. She also does a weekly Focus on the Frightful feature, and is the site list-maker. She is also in control of the Sci-Fi & Scary podcast which will relaunch soon.
