Dread Delusion

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The game has a certain something that reminds me of Arx Fatalis (without being an actual immersive sim), perhaps it's the oneiric nature of its architecture (especially in the Clockwork Kingdom) and its worldbuilding. If you liked Arx Fatalis, this one has a similar atmosphere. I love the late 90s-early 00s style graphics, they make the experience all the more dreamlike. The soundtrack creates a great mysterious atmosphere. The normal difficulty mode is a bit too easy, if you are a seasoned player you might want to try hard mode from the get go.

The gameplay itself is rather basic but the world building is top notch. It's got some very interesting dilemmas and stories that were mostly in the gray area which I loved. The aesthetic and the setting meshes well together that they both feel inseparable. Minor criticisms is that the spells are somewhat basic. The best spell in the game is the athleticism spell since it speeds you up and prevents death by gravity which gave some traversal depth. Other than that spell, most spells didn't feel as useful. Overall this was a very fun game with my playtime at 25 hours trying to do everything in the game in a single playthrough. I only skipped one quest which required me to activate 10 of the green skulls with a time limit, it would've been cool if it didn't have the time limit as finding the skulls were already a challenge let alone remembering and activating them all within a certain time period.

An incredibly moving tale set in a fascinating world. Each region's distinctive, with its own bizarre problems and compelling characters. The writing will occasionally tie you to the tracks in front of the feels train, when it isn't throwing existential trolley problems at you. I wanted to know more about virtually every person I met. Its weaknesses lie in gameplay, graphics, and replayability. Hard mode isn't that hard, though the spells are fun to experiment with. It makes the most of the retro-pixelated style, but you'll see the same faces repeated. There isn't that much reactivity for the Confessor's different origins. If you're looking for a mindless hack and slash, or stealth, or crafting, or the Skyrim experience in general, you'll find this lukewarm at best. But if you value immersion over gameplay, I can't recommend Dread Delusion enough. It deserved triple A funding far more than any title I've played from major studios in the last several years. I'd pursue Vela through every circle of hell.

Pretty darn neat.

goated

Great game, really unique