Dread Delusion

Not gonna lie, played a Demo from the Haunted PS1 disc a while back and decided right there to buy this game when it releases, just because of the music and that star in the sky. It didn't disappoint. The Music, Atmosphere and Visuals (if you're into the PS1 style) are 10/10. Exploring this world never felt boring to me. Story is also good. A lot of dialogue is surprisingly deep with some tough choices to make. Basically, you feel like an as$hole either way. Combat is okay, can't review it properly since I didn't use spells, only Greatsword heavy attacks. Why complicate stuff when big sword does big damage. The World is not that big, and it doesn't need to be, I much prefer a medium-sized world full of stuff to see, than a huge one that is half empty or very repetitive. Game is good.

This game is definitely one of my favourites. There's no way to describe the world and story as anything other than enchanting. It is weird, whimsical, horrific, wonderful, and melancholic. The gameplay is definitely subpar though and will bore you to death if you hate walking simulators. The combat is basic and would work in a shorter game but unfortunately I found it repetitive in the ~20 hours it took me to do most of the content. I highly recommend getting the spell that massively boosts your speed so it's a bit less of a slog. You can find it at [spoiler]Hallow Town in a shop called the Emporium[/spoiler]. However mediocre the gameplay is, the fact that I went through 20 hours of it and still find myself wanting more of it is a tribute to the amazing world the devs have built. It's utterly fascinating and I would love to see other places within it explored - whether that's through video games or another medium.

The vibe this game exudes is unlike any other I've played. I finished it months ago now, but part of me won't let go of the atmosphere this game creates. Haunting, yet comfortable. Desolate, yet hopeful. Alien, yet familiar. It's elevated by a subdued soundscape which places its evocative soundtrack in the spotlight. It is a shame that the combat is not particularly engaging, but every other aspect (and I MEAN every) are nothing less than inspired. The dialogue, the worldbuilding, the game mechanics, the decisions you make, the RPG mechanics, the level design, all fantastic. Much of this game evokes aspects of the PS1 era, but it's not just a nostalgic imitation of those games; it's like the developers knew that the feeling they wished to impart could never be captured by mere graphics and that my imagination is the only thing that could come close. Maybe I should say that the rough, wobbly-ness of the graphics almost feel like an impressionist's painting, just there to clue your brain in on what it's supposed to be seeing. I could say more, but more than anything I can't forget how this game made me feel.

Great little game. After a long time, I got that feeling of wanting to explore so much that I'd lose track of time. Combat takes a backseat (at least on normal difficulty) in favor of narrative and exploration. A real gem. And the artstyle is pretty crazy. I expected a love letter to Morrowind, but got so much more.

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This is a low-budget game that punches way above its weight. Given the games industry's current crisis, I imagine we're going to see more titles like this one in the future, which is a good thing, because playing it was a breath of fresh air in an otherwise fairly stale genre. The art style here doesn't even try to even approach realism, and instead goes into full weirdness mode with a dash of cosmic horror. What you get as a result is a dark fantasy setting where half of the stuff looks or sounds like you wouldn't want to touch it with a stick, but in return you don't get any elves, dwarves, orcs, ogres etc. and the zombies that you do get don't eat humans (anymore). Mechanics are super, super simple, especially compared to other open-world games, to the point where I would call this game less of an RPG and more of an immersive sim. But that's a good thing, as simplicity grants focus. For instance, this game doesn't do inventory junk. You find a sword once and you keep it for the rest of the game (though you can upgrade it, and there are actually three variants of your melee weapon, three ranged weapons, two offensive spells etc. etc. etc. it all does add up). The world is indeed open, but also about as small as you could expect from a small team like this one, so for once it leans heavily toward making every nook and cranny count. I don't think I've seen such a dense open world since the original Gothic. You basically don't get any fillers here, because the game tries hard not to repeat itself. Anywhere you go, you see something you can remember and later recall, because there's exactly one of it in the entire game. It takes a while before you even get the map, and by then you've already learned to orient yourself by landmarks. This feels very liberating! In this respect "Dread Delusion" actually surpasses Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Horizon and other modern traveller's games in my opinion. One minor caveat is this would work better if production values were a bit higher, because there's only so much visual uniqueness you can squeeze out of the same few dozen 3D models per biome. Story-wise, the game also aims for simplicity, but this is the part where the experience is a bit uneven. The narrative does a very good job at introducing the player into the setting that is, let's face it, a bit of a hellscape, so it takes effort to not make it feel off-putting. But then, once you enter the first proper biome, the story sort of dilutes itself into a series of generic quests that don't really bring much to the table. For a long time I thought I was going to complain about the story, because in some cases it dives into conveniently engineered trolley problems. It seemed like the game was going to try and make everything feel miserable for the sake of The Vibes, which is something I personally consider a cheap trick. It is only in the later stage of the game when you reach one of the four biomes that very clearly stands out from the rest, in that the story gets more detailed, more sophisticated, and better thought-out. This is also where the game's main theme becomes clear: yes, the world is messed up and full of people who have messed up, but that doesn't mean they're always going to mess up or that you're doomed to mess up. You can choose dread, or you can choose hope. (weirdly enough, the one biome I'm alluding to is very obviously inspired by Soviet Russia, and in more than one way at that, whereas the generic ones don't seem to draw any obvious parallels to our reality; it does feel like this part was either written at a different time, or by a different person) The authors have written themselves into a corner a little bit, because the ending more or less rules out a sequel. But I think that's a blessing in disguise, because this game was essentially a test run. The next one will be the one where the team establishes its voice. This shouldn't discourage you from diving into this one, though, since it's a solid, compact experience that revives a somewhat fossilised convention and makes some very smart choices.

Really neat world. Looks great. Plays terrible. Boring all the way through. Game takes too long to give you the fun stuff. Weapon other than the starting sword? Finish the first third of the game first. Magic variety? Got the stealth spell in the last forty minutes of the game. Enemies just aren't a threat. "Hard" mode would, assumedly, just be average difficulty, since I never died during my normal playthrough, even neglecting the strength stats and not bothering to change into armor for combat. Everything, essentially, can be defeated by walking to its left relatively quickly while swinging at it. The economy is a bit munted. I noticed at one point I was able to sell potions for two coins each and buy them for one coin each. Not that it mattered with how many throwing knives the game gives you to sell for mounds of cash. Reputation system similarly half-baked and doesn't really matter. Moral Dilemmas are often just Mr. Meanie vs. Cpt. Castration. Crime system? None. Everything feels terribly shallow. Ultimately not worth the time. Certainly not worth $20.