Developer: Artem Popov
Publisher: Artem Popov
Platforms: PC
Review Key Provided: Yes
Release Date: Out Now
In this horror game from developer Artem Popov, the player’s wife has disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Your search leads you to a gloomy mountain settlement that acts as a hub for several other areas. Each location ends with a boss you must defeat to get one step closer to finding your missus.
Today, we’d call Horrorvania and Metroidvania (as its name suggests), but back in the Nineties, it’d be called hub-based, like the famous Hexen series. Those games worked well because they had a consistent scenario throughout. Horrorvania suffers from the random nature of its levels: Resident Evil-style underground facility, sewers, medieval castle. It all feels disconnected, with no consistent theme throughout.
It’s a tough game to love, too, at least early on. Weapons are rare, enemies leap upon the player in seconds, and your movement is turgid. Worse, even when you do acquire the weedy pistol, there are no sights—realistic, maybe, but this is a videogame, not real life, and I constantly found myself wasting valuable ammunition as I fired into thin air. And I dislike invisible enemies with a passion.
That said, Horrorvania has some likeable elements. The levels are generally stitched together well, albeit on the bare side. Working your way through each segment, gathering ammo and health packs while devising the best method for progression is mildly compelling, hampered only by a clumsy UI in which you can only switch items (including weapons) via the inventory menu system. The unique bosses are fun, however, and if you’re a hardened gamer who likes a bit of blood and gore, you could well get a decent amount of enjoyment from Horrorvania.
Positives: fun bosses, varied levels, challenging gameplay.
Negatives: frustrating gameplay early on, cheap (and invisible) pop-up enemies, no strong story or visual theme, clunky UI and inventory.
CONCLUSION
Another average horror FPS that some might enjoy, but narrative-focused gamers should avoid.
