It took me far too long to get around to playing Detention. Ever since its release in 2017, I was struck by its visual aesthetic, particularly its ties to Taiwanese culture and mythology, and its unique historical setting. Seeing all the praise for it made me want it even more. Despite my strong fascination for the title, I just kept putting it off. New games came out and stole my attention. Life got in the way. Nevertheless, I kept looking at Detention with hungry eyes from time to time, especially when it went on sale. It’s funny that it was the release of Red Candle Games’ second game, Devotion, that finally got me to pull the trigger. I ended up buying both games at full price and played through them in one night, hooked from beginning to end. While Detention’s gameplay is by far the more plain of the two, its believable, horrifying tale stuck with me in a way I wasn’t expecting.
Detention takes place in the 1960s during a period of actual Taiwanese history called the White Terror. This was a time of martial law in the country where the acting government heavily and brutally cracked down on any potential “political dissidents” for a number of reasons. It stands as one of the most important events in Taiwan’s modern history and provides a perfectly compelling backdrop for the game’s story. You play as two high school students, Wei and Fang. During an incoming typhoon, the two are somehow the only remaining people at their school, with everyone else mysteriously absent. It doesn’t take long for things to get worse as the bridge to their village floods and strange creatures begin to roam the facility. As they try to escape, you learn more about them and their troubles, slowly piecing together the mysteries of the bizarre events befalling them.
I was shocked at how affecting the story was for me. It’s hard to go into detail as to why without spoiling the main reveals of the game, but I will say it deftly weaves a personal tale set in a frightening period of Taiwanese history alongside its supernatural elements to create a shockingly elegant narrative. It all meshes together in a way that feels entirely believable, even despite its supernatural elements. I think it needed both of these elements to work, too. The personal tale on its own is somewhat predictable and generic, but since the consequences of the characters’ actions have the potential to be much more perilous due to the country’s political climate, its relatively standard story is told through an uniquely intriguing lens, giving it far more impact that it otherwise would have had.
More importantly, nothing feels unsaid or undone when it’s over. Each of the game’s two endings provide different, but equally important, details on what actually happened. When I was done, all of my questions had been answered. This might be just why I like it so much, as too many horror games shroud the actual events of their story in mystery and subtext instead of just giving you the story. I didn’t need to go look up a wiki or replay the game to see events in a new light in order to understand the writer’s vision. For some, this may be a negative, but I was fully satisfied by the story in a way that few games, especially horror games, manage to accomplish.
Detention is, like many horror games, an adventure game. You explore environments, find items, and solve puzzles to progress further, with snippets of story littered about in cutscenes and collectible documents. Many of these puzzles simply require using the right item in the right place, but there are a few more complex ones to be found as well. There are enemies from time to time, but, as you may expect from the genre, you cannot fight them. Instead, you hold your breath and let them pass, as they are unable to see or hear you if you do so. They are quite rare, however, and disappear from the game entirely about ⅔ of the way through, leaving you to again perform basic adventure game fare.
The gameplay is ultimately rather straightforward but still satisfying nonetheless. For the most part, the puzzles are easy enough to solve and I rarely got stuck. On a few occasions, I missed an item due to its small size or strange location and had to backtrack. There were also two major puzzles that stumped me to frustration, one music-based (playing a particular tune back on a piano) and another using an interesting time-loop mechanic, which didn’t fully explain itself and caused me to miss a key element of how to progress. As for the enemies, they are so easily dodged and infrequent that I wonder why they were included at all, as if the developers didn’t think a basic adventure game was enough on its own. All in all, however, I enjoyed myself well enough that I didn’t mind the breaks in the story for the gameplay, especially as they were paced nicely throughout.
Considering the heaps of praise for Detention, I can’t really say I was surprised that I enjoyed it. I was stricken by the strength of its narrative though, especially in how the developer paid homage to their history and culture while also telling an affecting tale all its own. I won’t say that the gameplay is anything special--and I might even say it’s a bit too standard and even frustrating at times--but it did little to harm my overall impressions of the game. It’s easily one of the most memorable horror stories I’ve experienced in years and will likely stick with me for quite some time. Despite some missteps, Detention is an incredible debut game from Red Candle Games, one that is only surpassed by the studio’s follow-up.