Maid of Sker

During the summer, most people head outdoors and are determined to soak up the sun’s rays. Then there are people like me. They sit inside with the doors shut and the curtains closed, trying to play horror games in the darkest environment they can create during the longest daylight hours of the year. The latest survival horror title from Wales Interactive almost requires players to put on the headphones and hang up a “do not disturb” sign as they make their way through the ramshackle Hotel Sker.

Maid of Sker is an adaptation of influential Welsh folklore and brings its own voice to the survival horror genre. That is once it gets over stage fright.

Any self-respecting survival horror game needs to feature certain elements. An isolated and hard to reach location. A bone-chilling mystery. Mysterious creatures with otherwordly strength. Limited resources. Death always breathing down the player's neck. Maid of Sker checks all these boxes to present an enjoyable yet not exactly revolutionary experience that builds upon survival-horror staples without never truly challenging them.

Maid of Sker is a great addition to the survival horror genre and offers a wonderfully intimate and local threat that takes its influences from Welsh folktales. Eschewing the combat and weaponry of many entries into the genre, its gameplay loop of sneaking and hiding proves compelling and successfully manages to keep you feeling in danger at all times. When you add in some excellent sound design and atmosphere you have a Victorian horror that deserves a rousing reception. There may not be a welcome in these valleys but this is one vacation that genre fans should have no reservations about taki...

I disembark the train. Now, I rest on a desolate island filled to the brim with overgrown forestry. Birds fly by. Trees whisper as the wind passes through. An old, 18th century hotel stands lays ahead of me. A siren song plays, beckoning me closer. I couldn’t be more eerily invited to Wales Interactive’s Maid of Sker. Rest assured, quite the venture awaits.

Maid of Sker is certainly a better game now than it was a year ago, no matter what format you play it on. It’s still doesn’t quite achieve its potential though, and while there are some clear improvements on PS5, there are unfortunately more disappointments. While it’s nice to finally be able to play the game with a silky smooth frame rate and responsive controls on console, it’s a shame that to achieve that you have to opt for visuals that don’t really impress. In you’re in the mood for an atmospheric horror you’ll probably eke some enjoyment out of this improved Maid of Sker, but you’ll soon...

Maid of Sker carries a proper tune in its story and setting, but faulty AI leaves much of this horror story feeling flat.

Wales doesn’t get a lot of attention in the media. I know I’m speaking for a lot of Welsh people when I say that it still comes as a shock when people outside the UK recognize Wales as a country. I wouldn’t say I’m particularly proud of any part of my ancestry, Welsh or otherwise, (although my English Great Grandmother Eileen was being bullied by Margaret Thatcher in school and knocked her out, so there’s that) but I do consider myself primarily Welsh, and get a flutter of excitement to see my country portrayed in a movie or game.

Maid of Sker's grand reopening should be delayed indefinitely.

Maid Of Sker has a creepy story and great music, but in trying too hard to be scary, it ends up less so.

The designs of Elizabeth’s family aren’t so much foreshadowed as foreshouted, and the plot soon wavers off-key and winds up shipwrecked. But something about it hangs around, like the hum of an unsettling tune.

Maid of Sker has very strong visuals and the hotel itself is well designed. But everything else, from its gameplay systems to its progression and foes, is so weak and ill-considered that I can't imagine most people enjoying what little it has to offer.