Self-described as psychological horror, this is a free prologue to a
Kickstarter would be game that offers enough point and click promise to
hope the full length version sees the light of day.
As described on the Steam page, you play two characters, Benedek and
Nikolay, as they seek to unravel the mysterious events that precede a
series of gruesome murders, allegedly related to devil worship and
witchcraft, in the small rural town of Sveti Kotar. Viktoria is missing,
sister to one and wife of the other. Two hours or so of gameplay leaves
you with way more questions than answers, and a whole lot of strange.
I liked the look and the sound, which did its best to set up an
unsettling canvas, but Benedek needs to take things down a notch.
Clearly he is stressed and confused, anxious and apprehensive, but a big
deep breath would do him a world of good. His demeanour detracted rather
than added to the atmosphere, much too histrionic too much of the time.
By comparison Nikolay is positively zen, but it’s a comparative thing.
At least thus far.
The character that did it for me was the young woman I met at the end
of the prologue. She had a lot to say, most of it suggestive of a
macabreness to come. It isn’t yet psychological horror but perhaps it
might be.
God and the devil are prominent, emphasised through the character of
Benedek. At least thus far.
All the dialogue is voiced, and subtitles are available. Multiple
languages are available. You can choose to be able to reveal all
hotspots, and can play in “classic horror” mode, which when I
fiddled seemed to amount to a black and white palette. At times you
might be able to switch between the playable characters, but I generally
played them as I found them.
As mentioned, its point and click, hotspots and icons helping to
explore the world. A little satchel bottom left functions as your
inventory. Save at will and pick up where you left off. No action, no
dying, and inventory based puzzling. At least thus far.
I played on:
OS: Windows 10, 64 Bit
Processor: Intel i7-9700k 3.7 GHz
