Close Your Eyes: Redux is a freeware puzzle horror game created by Aesthetic Gamer
. Originally created as a shorter game simply titled as Close Your Eyes for Ludum Dare 29, the Redux edition added new content to the game. The game opens with a game show-esque host simply called The Host, who is introducing a "contestant" (the main character) who is about to be hanged. As the platform is released, the rope breaks and the main character, called Marshmallow Monk, flees from their execution into a surreal world. The game uses mostly symbolism and vague implications to hint at what is going on.
Close Your Eyes: Redux can be downloaded here
An even more improved edition of the game, titled Close Your Eyes: Redux Final Expansion was released on Steam, Gamejolt and RPGMaker.net for free on August 31, 2015. It's stated to be over twice as long as the original game, with new locations, new scenes, new scares, and such. However, it was not truly the "Final" expansion, as Close Your Eyes -Anniversary Remake- was released through Steam on the game's fifth anniversary in 2018. This version of the game is not freeware, but in addition to even more content, the Anniversary Remake has various unlockable "bonus modes", including a built-in version of its predecessor, Girl's Graveyard.
In 2020, a semi-sequel/spin-off was released, titled Feast Your Eyes.
Tropes found in this game:
- All Just a Dream: In the "Stay" route, we again see the dialogue from the beginning of the game. This time, however, the rope doesn't break and we see an image of the MC hanging, implying that the events of the game had been a hallucination or dream while the MC was slowly dying.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Marshmallow Monk has a pure white skin and The Host has a pale green skin. The Girl is also shown to have deep purple hair.
- Ambiguous Situation: What exactly is going on in the game is never made clear, aside from the fact that Marshmallow Monk is a murderer, and he used to live with a girl. The rest is totally unexplained, leaving it up to the player to come to their own conclusions.
- Arc Words: "Close your eyes" and "Don't leave me."
- Art Shift: Goes from the sprite work to more detailed art work when the Girl and the Host are around.
- But Thou Must!: The first choice you are able to make in the game is when the Host asks you if you feel that you are a murderer. This is also your only option.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?:
- The Host does this multiple times in reference to The Girl. After the hanging puzzle, we get this fun little line: "She was asking for it. You were just giving her what she wanted. It's not your fault, it's hers."
- Later, on the "Leave" route, we get this: "Feel right inside of her. Do it. You're enjoying it. Relish it. It doesn't help that it's accompanied by some squishing sounds as well.
- Eldritch Location: Wherever Marshmallow Monk spends the entire of the game, it's this.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Marshmallow Monk looks like a marshmallow and wears monk's robes.
- Evil Sounds Deep: The Host's voice becomes more warped and deeper than it usually is when he's displeased with the protagonist's answers.
- False Friend: The Girl is implied to be this.
- Game Show Host: The Host; the "game show" in question revolves around Marshmallow Monk.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: On the "Leave" route, if you start walking on a path that the Girl is on, a popup will appear on your computer saying Don't Leave Me. This is warning that you are heading the wrong way.
- The Hero Dies: In the "Stay" route, when it's revealed that the entire game was a Dying Dream.
- Heroic Mime: Marshmallow Monk, but he sings in the cut musical number part.
- Madness Mantra: Uttered by the Host. whywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhy
- Minimalist Cast: There are only three recurring characters: the MC, the Girl, and the Host. There are also the murder victims, though they appear only a few times.
- Missing Mom: The Girl and (potentially) the MC's mother, who passed away before the events of the game.
- Mood Whiplash: Right after the MC murders several of the party goers, we are treated to an almost heartwarming flashback of a girl who talks to the main character about the right way to make pancakes and treating others with tenderness.
- Mr. Exposition: The Host tends to play this role, though considering the type of game, their exposition is vague at best, and completely indecipherable at worst.
- Mysterious Past: Marshmallow Monk has one. All we know about it is that he lived with the Girl at one point, and she may or may not have convinced him to begin murdering in order to resurrect the mother.
- Nothing Is Scarier: The majority of the game is silent and contains no scares, contributing more to the player's heightened nerves.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: The MC has red eyes, and they are also a murderer.
- Seeks Another's Resurrection: The Girl wants to resurrect her dead mother, and is using Marshmallow Monk to fulfill the necessary sacrifices to do so.
- Sensory Abuse: The game's darkest moments feature some very loud distorted noises to drive your eardrums to suicide.
- Ooh-la-la... Ooh-la-Ooh-La-OOH-LA-OOOOOH-LA-OOOOH&%#(*@&%#%)*(&%#&^%$(@*#%(&@#%*(!!!!!!! *LOUD DISTORTED STATIC NOISE*
- Sinister Subway: A significant portion of the game takes place in one of these, and it's also the most easily identifiable area in comparison to the other settings in the game.
- Stylistic Suck: The game's visual is very crudely drawn. Some objects look like a kid's doodles and there's very little detail. This is (probably) intentional.
- Suddenly Voiced: The Girl, and only when she says two phrases: "Don't leave me" and "Forever."
- Whole-Plot Reference: If the player gets obtains the "Stay" ending, the game becomes one to An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, as Marshmallow Monk and the player spend the entirety of the game believing that he is alive, only for the route to end with him being executed for good.
- World of Symbolism: The entirety of the game's setting is this; one particularly notable puzzle requires the player to hang a criminal, much in the same way that Marshmallow Monk was being hung.
