1st View: The Gameplay
I would describe World of Horror as a rogue-like text adventure game with a focus on resource management, player knowledge acquisition, and cultivating a user experience that can be both oppressive and gruesome.
The core challenge of the game comes from managing various resources (aka “ticking clocks”): will you have enough stamina / sanity to make it through a given event or battle? Do you have the funds to purchase a desired item, or will you have to take your build in a different direction? Will you be able to make it to the end of a run without maxing out your “DOOM,” (an instant fail-state for the game)? As you play, you unlock ever more ways to maintain and exchange these resources, but also more ways to lose them. It definitely adds to both the replayability of the game, as well as the challenge.
As far as knowledge acquisition is concerned, the game rewards close inspection in a variety of ways. The rewards include everything from different endings to the game’s various “mysteries” (or levels) to encountering different variations of a given encounter or boss. This knowledge goes from useful to essential in harder difficulties and more complex character backstories (i.e. run modifiers). One backstory, for example, “ill-fated,” causes the player to fail every skill check the game rolls for. To an inexperienced player, this would be a death sentence. To an experienced player, this is just another obstacle to play around (e.g. by picking event options that don’t cause a roll).
Finally, with regards to the gruesome and oppressive atmosphere: the game has no shortage of disturbing imagery. Some of the enemies are off-putting in subtle ways; most embrace body horror to stomach-turning effect. The game’s music is also suitably unnerving. With that said, it is somewhat limited in breadth, and thus, fails to continue to scare over a long enough exposure time. (I suppose you could argue this about the creature design as well, but that’s much more varied.)
What Worked For Me
- The game gave me nightmares. If that doesn’t live up to the “World of Horror” moniker, I don’t know what will.
- The game’s individual mysteries, though self-contained, are all interesting.
- The game regularly offers new unlocks via its achievements, from new playable characters and items to new character backgrounds and “statuses” (for example: curses that lower max stamina, etc).
- The game offers multiple difficulty levels, from easy (Initiate) to very difficult (Harbinger of Doom). This gives the player room to decide how deeply they want to engage with the game’s systems as harder difficulties require more mechanical expertise. The game also offers a number of character-specific challenges to up the ante for players who want an even more difficult experience.
- The game may have a very lo-fi (“1-bit”) art style, but it can still offer up bone-chilling visuals. If anything, the 1-bit art style makes the visuals more potent because it invites the player to fill in the missing detail with their own imaginations.
- The rogue-like nature of the game means it has tremendous replay value (though, admittedly, I found the game’s scare factor reduced considerably as I continued my exposure and increased my mastery over its systems). I say this with about 26 hours into the game and about 70% of the achievements unlocked.
What Didn’t Work For Me
- I like the game’s music, but I wish there was more of it. It failed to surprise, delight, or shock after the first few play-throughs. With that being said, I never found the musical selection grating, and it’s not like some games of the 8-bit era whose soundtrack consisted of a single 2-4 measure phrase on repeat.
- The RNG*-based achievements were annoying as hell. I’m not against them on principle, especially if they highlight a play-style or strategy that is either not immediately obvious or counterintuitive. I also understand that, by their nature, RNG events may occur as you spend time with a game. Some of the achievements in this game, however, do neither. “Junior Librarian (discard 3 books in 1 playthrough)” and “Onyx Medallion (gather five curses)” come to mind, as neither action offers an explicit gameplay benefit (both** are to the player character’s detriment), and neither triggered during my first 20 hours of play. I had to specifically hunt for them, which really drained the “magic” out of the experience.
- *RNG = random number generator
- **Addendum (and minor mechanical spoiler): there is an unlockable character that gets a stat boost based on the number of curses they have. Though this softens my critique, I still don’t love RNG-based achievements.
- Some of the art is a little wonky, especially hands and wrists. To be clear, it’s also not wonky in a “this is meant to scare you way.” It’s wonky in a “this could have used another pass,” way. It certainly isn’t a deal-breaker and is really more of a nit-pick, but I noticed so I’m mentioning it here.
Conclusion:
I am trying to move away from the idea that a game’s value can be determined by the number of hours you can play it. After years (or even decades) of “skinner box” mechanics and games’ size and play time being artificially inflated for the sole purpose of capturing as much of the player’s time, attention, and money as possible, I am much more interested in whether a game can provide me with a unique, interesting, or evocative experience. I don’t begrudge anyone who uses that metric, though. For those folks: I got over 20 hours of play out of the game. Given that the game costs $20 USD on Steam at full price, it’s far to say the game represents a good value, especially for those who like rogue-likes and want to explore every nook and cranny of a game.
With that being said, I would be remiss to not mention that the game’s replayability works to its detriment with regards to its storytelling and narrative impact. Also, if you are expecting a cohesive, overarching story you’re probably going to be disappointed. For more information on the story of the game, see “The Lore,” below. Ultimately, I want art (and games are art) that moves me. The game gave me nightmares, so I’d say it delivered on that front. Are there things I wish the game did differently? Sure! It’s not a perfect game, but if its genre and tone (rogue-like horror) speak to you, this is definitely worth a look.
2nd View: The Lore
The premise can be described as 1980s Japan meets cosmic horror. The work owes a debt of gratitude to the greats of manga horror (e.g. Junji Ito) and is crammed full of references to all forms of horror media (anime, manga, movies, etc). It also includes monsters that are pulled from or directly reference Japanese mythology and yokai (e.g. Aka Manto, Tenaga-Jin / Jelly Arms, and Kuchisake-onna / Scissor Woman). There are so many references, and they are so varied, in fact, that the Steam community page has a guide that catalogues dozens of them (and I’d bet it’s not exhaustive!).
Zeroing in on the story: the game doesn’t provide an in-universe explanation for the numerous “runs” the player goes on, but it’s not hard to imagine one. Perhaps each represents a separate universe in which an “Old God” has decided to invade. I don’t mind that this isn’t addressed or even lamp-shaded; I’m happy to accept that it’s an affordance required by the game type (a rogue-like that is repeatedly replayed) and leave it at that.
With that said, I didn’t get the sense that there was a broader meta-narrative to be taken away from “World of Horror.” In my mind, the game was more interested in being a pastiche of various horror media in the form of a video game rather than offering social commentary or making some broader point. It is left to the player to speculate on why anyone would try to summon an old god (though the game does specify that humans do summon them). As near as I can tell, the enemies don’t have a unifying theme either, especially since they are all meant to slot together regardless of the chosen player character or mysteries.
This is quite different from the approach taken by certified classic Silent Hill 2. In that game, each of the enemies are an exploration of the player character’s (James Sunderland) psyche. Neither approach is inherently superior, but it’s safe to say that the latter encourages analysis, engagement, and deeper thinking about the game. Silent Hill 2 has remained a staple topic for video essays for decades for a reason! With that said, I don’t think World of Horror falters or flinches in comparison to Silent Hill 2; they are very different games! They may share superficial similarities (genre, having multiple endings), but really they are two very different games with regards to their visuals, mechanics, and approach to horror.
How does all of this impact the experience of playing the game? I think the interchangeability of the game’s “mysteries” and player characters ends up being both a strength and a weakness. It’s a strength in that there are a relatively wide breadth of stories, from bathroom stall ghosts to missing persons cases that are more complex than they seem. This interchangeability also means that the “mysteries” aren’t specific to any given player character, and thus, are less meaningful to them. As I wrote above, it’s less of a coherent narrative and more of a pastiche. That’s okay, though! Not everything has to be a deep dive into the human psyche or an exploration of grief. Sometimes, a good spook or two is more than enough.
3rd View: What I Learned as a Creative
One of my goals in the new year is to do more critical analysis of the media I consume. This means I’ll continue to write reviews, of course! It also means asking a simple question: “what can I learn from this media as a creative?” I took a number of lessons from World of Horror; I will now break these into two broad categories: lessons about game design and lessons about writing.
Lessons About Game Design
- This is far from the first time I’ve thought of this, but it’s important and bears repeating: the most realistic / high-tech graphics are not necessary to make an impact. World of Horror manages this with “1-bit” graphics (i.e. using only black and white pixels). I can immediately conjure a number of the game’s enemies in my mind’s eye because they are so striking (e.g. Sotomura in the “Violent Vigil” mystery).
- This is another “well duh” level take, but audio design can play a critical role in how a game is perceived and interacted with. It sets the tone for the experience, and should be treated with care!
- I discussed this in the “things that didn’t work for me” portion of the review, but RNG achievements are awful. It’s one thing if these achievements are likely to be collected over the course of normal gameplay or they highlight a novel strategy or counterintuitive way to play. The achievements I have in mind as I write this didn’t fall into either of those camps, though. Neither the “Junior Librarian” or “Onyx Medallion” achievements occurred over my first 20ish hours of the game. It took me about 2 hours to unlock both, and this was with a guide handy. In the end, unlocking these achievements felt like a relief only insofar as I no longer had to deal with them.
- I could imagine some arguing that this randomness is a part of World of Horror’s ethos as a horror game, or its charm. To this I say: achievements like this feel like a chore, and I play games for entertainment and engagement, not to do my metaphorical laundry. Oof.
- I haven’t delved into it, but apparently World of Horror has a modding community! Neat! I can’t speak to the quality or specifics of any of the mods because I haven’t played them myself, but it’s cool that they’re out there. While I don’t plan to dive into the game’s mods until I’ve completed my time with the base game, I think it says something good about a game when it inspires players to modify it. Perhaps the modders just want more of the game, or they see potential that hasn’t been fully realized. What’s more, at least one of the game’s modders described it as “easy to mod.” How cool is that?
Lessons About Writing
- Anything, no matter how horrifying, can become monotonous with repeated exposure.
- Humor and horror can go hand in hand; both benefit from the element of surprise.
- Combining influences (in this case, Japanese mythology and cosmic horror) can lead to more potent results!
- I originally (and erroneously!) thought World of Horror was a “solo dev” game. Whoops! Let my mistake highlight the importance of research and getting your facts straight!
- As I was thinking about World of Horror, I originally came to the conclusion that “horror media is most potent when it draws from contemporary fears. The game’s appeal to nostalgia (1980s Japan, text adventures, etc) is neat, but not as scary as a result. After some reflection, however, I discarded this conclusion.
- First, I don’t think a work is precluded from addressing modern fears because of its setting or time period. The “Bulletin Board” mystery example seems prescient with the rise of social media, and there’s plenty of unrest to go around in 2026. It’s also completely possible to use a different setting as a lens to comment on the modern day (see: so much science fiction).
- Second, while the game speaks to some contemporary fears, I’m not sure that’s the “point” of the game. Instead, I think the creation of an engaging game and homage was prioritized over an overarching or cohesive social commentary. It seems that way to me (see: “The Lore” section).
- Finally, the game was certainly still scary and unnerving even without the aforementioned social commentary. What’s the point of this observation, then? While a visual scare can be potent, it may not have the same long-term impact as a scare that speaks to contemporary or deep-seated human fears. In other words, a jump scare can work for a while; exploring concepts like the inhumanity of man and coping with loss may well leave a much larger / longer lasting impression.
