Greta Sees Ghosts is a puzzle game about a lighthouse keeper named Greta who, of course, sees ghosts. The demo only covers about 20 minutes of content, so you only get to see how things work by helping two ghosts: one near the lighthouse and one on an entirely different island.
When Greta comes into contact with ghosts, she has to kind of summon them by way of a little mini-game. What I didn’t realize at the time, but understand in hindsight, is that the minigame correlates to the death of the person in some way. You’re given shapes like swim trunks or mushrooms that you have to swivel around until highlighted points are connected. It’s almost like connect the dots where you’ll have to fit the shapes over the glowing spots and connect them with the shapes.
Once you’ve successfully connected everything, your ghost is summoned and stored in an oil lamp where you can communicate with them.
In the first level, it’s very A-B on what you’re supposed to do. You walk over to the cliff, you summon the ghost, and then you do whatever will help them move on. On the island, it’s a larger stretch of land and there’s very little in the way of guidance. I walked around for 30 minutes trying to find where I was meant to go and ended up finding all manner of ghosts that I couldn’t interact with.
Watch the trailer for Greta Sees Ghosts!
I found three ghosts not available in the demo and two that said I needed to “find them”. The only indications we get of ghosts being around are the ghost rifts — blue portals that only pop up when you get near enough. There’s nothing on the map to point the way, and I didn’t realize that I needed to pay attention to the photographs in the journal.
You’ll get vague hints in the pictures that try to guide you in the right direction, like seeing certain mushrooms or a campfire. It’s meant to be a “you’ll know it when you see it” situation, but I didn’t know I was looking for it. Again, in hindsight, I can connect the dots and figure out what I was supposed to be doing, but in the moment, I was very lost.
Honestly, if it had been the full game, I likely wouldn’t have noticed because I would have had several other ghosts to talk with. But since this was a demo, I had to be on the path of one very specific ghost.
All in all, I can see where Greta Sees Ghosts would be an interesting playthrough. I just wish there’d been a bit more guidance on the map or a more detailed tutorial with the first ghost that set the blueprint of how gameplay should go.
If you want to try out Greta Sees Ghosts, you can download the demo now. While you’re there, go ahead and wishlist the game if it seems like something you’d like to keep on your radar as that really helps the developers out.
