Developer panstasz released their terror-filled mystery game World of Horror to the world on October 19th just in time for Halloween. The game is a hodgepodge of old-school concepts mixed with turn-based adventure and a large dose of horror only those who adore The Grudge could truly appreciate. The combination of all these genres and a creepy dose of unsettling imagery makes for a perfect Halloween experience.
Does it all work? Well, it mostly does. While the menu system distracts the eyes, and the choices are not always clear for the gamer, the mere ambiance of the experience makes it worth a go.
Let’s talk about this horror show right now.
Devilish and delightful gameplay
A few gameplay elements drew me to World of Horror a while ago, but the amount of thick narrative-driven horror and how it was presented was the immediate hook. The narrative should be the driving point of any good game. If you have read any of my game reviews, you’ll know this gameplay element is my go-to when it comes to enjoying a game and remembering it.
Back to World of Horror, the game is designed with small pockets of horror experiences. When you start, your character exists within the setup of a small town that is experiencing end-of-the-world events. Within that larger picture, you’re given scenarios to choose from and sent on your way to investigate that ‘thing’ that you have chosen to start within the narrative. For example, the first story I started with in World of Horror was uncovering and getting rid of a woman who brandished scissors and was terrorizing a local high school. The gameplay had me investigating the high school, collecting clues and items I would use in case of trouble, and then slowly, somewhat linearly heading towards a fight with the creature that the story was driven by. The intriguing portion of this process was the story, which paints a horror-filled picture of this terrible creature doing awful things to students. The ambiance is packed with unsettling moments of uneasiness that lead to grotesque surprises. Again, the narrative drives it all and is the reason why you want to play this game. If you’re a horror fan, then you’re going to be happy with the results of the stories pushed in this game.
Now, once you complete a narrative, you’re allowed to move on and play another part in the town’s problems. For example, the next go around with World of Horror had me playing as an athlete, who had been given five separate scenarios to investigate. Once one is complete, another begins. The gameplay keeps moving forward, as does the overall story, until you piece everything together to uncover what the heck is going on with your small coastal town, or you die and must start over. Hey! It’s a roguelite. What do you expect? Anyway, this is simple adventure gaming at its finest wrapped in the guise of a horror show, which makes it interesting and engaging.
As for the gameplay, it’s mostly harkening back to a mid-80s adventure game style. While horror is what keeps you going, as you want to see the ante upped in your horror-show narrative progression, the 80s adventure style makes the delivery simple. For example, you read prompts on screen that dictate what gameplay efforts you’re making and what actions you can take. For example, in the scissors story, you must find a candle and the right demonic symbol to abolish the scissor woman from the high school. Without these things, you are dead in the water. You must cast a spell to get rid of her. You must go around and investigate the school, discover new areas, and try to pilfer what you can to meet the goals of the story. It is a search, collect, use, and complete gameplay design.
Along the way, you will happen upon battles in the game, which will be turn-based, where you must equip and use items, such as a baseball bat in this instance, to fight off whatever might be attacking you. This portion of the game is straight-up RPG turn-based, where you choose an item, make a choice with how you’re going to use the item, and then select attack or defend (with various other options available). Understanding how this works isn’t too difficult, though the on-screen display can get overwhelming at times (we will talk about that in a second). The game on a base level is made up of exploring, fighting, and resolving. There is some upgrading to your character stats as you move along, and equipping offensive and defensive items as well, but ultimately, it’s all quite easy to pick up on. This is pure 80s simplicity, and it doesn’t stop there.
While you’re being fed the story, and moving your character to resolve whatever conflict you might be facing, you will also happen upon a ‘choose your own adventure’ set of gameplay choices that could mean that you’re doing okay. The game is going to give you an easy path to take, or you’ve made a mistake and nothing is going to be easy from here on out. While the multiple paths given in the narrative don’t have a huge overall effect on the gameplay outcome, the choices do impact if you are going to have an easy time or a more difficult one. That’s a beautiful branching narrative design that isn’t as extensive as what you would find in other similar adventure titles. Regardless, it’s an added element of gameplay design that works perfectly in tandem with the turn-based action and narrative.
Ultimately, all of this is akin to 80s gameplay design. The games that come immediately to memory that are like this are the old Questprobe Marvel Comic games I used to play on my family’s Commodore 64. You’re given visual prompts on screen, fed a story and details of your surroundings, and then asked to choose how to proceed. Almost every adventure game back in the 80s contained the structure of what World of Horror was driven by. Quite frankly, it works well enough that you can just simply sit back and enjoy without too much fuss and complication. If you want a more recent and relevant example of this type of gameplay then you should look at Hideo Kojima’s post-NES Metal Gear Solid CD-ROM titled Snatcher. While that game doesn’t have a branching narrative, it does have this sort of choice-making style.
Overall, the narrative, action, adventuring, and ‘choose your own adventure’ type of gameplay of World of Horror works well for this game. The devs at panstasz knew what they wanted to do, and they juggled all these gameplay design elements quite beautifully. The gameplay design is a true horror show most positively.
Side horror show of sorts
While I’m a fan of high-sensation value material, the visuals presented in this game are too much for even my always-active noggin to grasp. Before we dive into this, I highly recommend going through the tutorial of the game before starting it. You will need the game to explain to you where your eyes should be focused and break down how the gameplay design works when you’re investigating horrors. Without going through the tutorial, you stand a fantastic chance of feeling like there’s too much information on the screen and might tire quickly from trying to sort it all out. The first time I played this game, I was so lost, and I didn’t fully grasp what the heck my real choices were and what on-screen indicators were there just for show. There are so many buttons and so much text, most of which are there to read and not to use. The comforting part of the frames should never be the unsettling visuals of horrors and characters.
Anyway, the game wants to confuse and panic you through its menus, at least that is the presumed intention, and giving you too much to worry about during fights and narrative choices seems like a separate horror show of its own. Maybe that is intentional or maybe it’s just an accident that the devs didn’t realize. Regardless of the reason, World of Horror throws a lot of choices at you that might overwhelm some players. Your eyes will want to scan everything, and that large amount of information intake is merely a disruption to the interactive experience. The choice of hurting the ambiance of the game and the epic presentation of a replicated 80s adventure game might be a danger if they simplified the screen, but I wouldn’t mind it. I think they could have made the on-screen display a bit friendlier and less overwhelming to the eyes.
This is the worst part of the game and it’s the part that is easily remedied by going through the game’s tutorial. Seriously, hit that tutorial hard. The gameplay is quite good, and you don’t want to miss it because you feel lost in the menu system.
On that note, let’s wrap this up.
Conclusion
World of Horror from developer panstasz is a wonderful 80s-inspired horror adventure game that brings a roguelite backbone, a turn-based component with a sprinkle of RPG, and plenty of horror that might make you wonder what the heck inspired the devs to create such unsettling tales. The only place the game falls short is in its overwhelming menu system, which is far simpler than it looks once you go through the tutorial.
