Cordyceps-infested gardeners have attacked me, Faceless dream salesmen have tried to eat me, and I’ve been transported to a frozen plane of existence filled with pyramids. World of Horror lives up to the title by providing a consistently eerie environment and characters. Panstasz the developer took 1 bit graphics, and a chiptune soundtrack, and fused them to summon a cosmic horror experience.
World of Horror is a point-and-click, RPG, rougelite, survival horror game that is inspired by Junji Ito and H.P. Lovecraft. The Old Gods are coming back to life and the world is deteriorating because of it. There is a list of characters to choose from, each having their strengths and weaknesses. Because this game is an RPG filled with stats, skill checks, and an interesting combat system that I have yet to master.
World of Horror Has Roguelite and RPG Mechanics
So far in my short time playing I have used two of the 5 available starter characters. But there are 16 other characters I have yet to unlock. Alongside 13 unlockable backstories that can have a effect on your playthrough. Before you can begin each playthrough you have to select the Old God that will be summoned. Each one has a different negative effect on your playthrough. For example, if you choose to go The Spider God route, the eternal web status makes it so you cannot run away from combat.
Now World of Horror makes it clear that it is a survival horror game from the beginning. There are three stats that you must manage to progress through the game. Doom, reason, and stamina. If the Doom meter measured in a small image of the town being shrouded in darkness and percentages, reaches 100% game over. If your stamina reaches zero it’s game over. Or if your reason reaches zero it’s game over. Now to add to a whole new level of difficulty, a large amount of what you do in the game whether it rest in your home after a tough fight or go inside the police station to lower the enemy threat level in a certain part of town. All these actions increase the Doom meter. Then, skill check failures can lower your stamina, reason, or both.
World of Horror has no problem punishing you. So much so, that when you solve a mystery or beat a boss. You’re rewarded with XP sometimes items, but the Old Gods stir and cause the world to fall apart faster. And a random town debuff kicks in like “Contaminated Water” which makes it so that you don’t automatically heal after solving a mystery anymore. The town you are investigating becomes more dangerous by the day. On top of that casting a spell can cost reason or in the case of a healing spell lowers your max stamina each time you use it.
Your Success Will Be Punished By The Old Gods
Seriously the world is against you in World of Horror. But even though I have failed to save reality multiple times, I still want to immediately start a new game. Part of that is the engaging combat system. Combat uses a combat sequence bar that is filled up by how long an action takes. For example, attacking with a random weapon such as a branch takes 69 of the available 200 combat sequence bar. You can mix and match different moves and abilities. I would often use my camera flash to lower the accuracy of the enemy. Then use a special attack with a branch for double damage.
The success of your attacks and abilities are based on your stats, usually Strength or Dexterity. There is also this cool quality-of-life feature that allows you to save a sequence and load it during combat. If you find a successful sequence of attacks you won’t have to constantly select them each turn.
At this point, I have not had a successful run in World of Horror. I’ve gotten close to completing 5 investigations but ended up losing because the Doom meter reached 100%. But if you are an RPG or horror fan especially since it’s October World of Horror is worth checking out. World of Horror is currently available for $19.99 on PC via Steam and will be on the Switch and PlayStation 4 and 5 at a later date. Thank you again to the publisher for providing LV1 Gaming with a copy of the game. Get all of your news from LV1 Gaming.
World of Horror Early Impression
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