Fancy studying Latin? Properly, you’re assured to be taught at the least one phrase within the classical language by taking part in Religion: The Unholy Trinity: Mortis, or “demise”, which flashes on display each time you succumb. Going through off towards legions of the damned armed with solely a wood crucifix and, properly, your religion, it’s a given you’ll be succumbing fairly a bit.
Dying loads comes with the worth of admission for developer Airdorf Video games’ 8-bit horror odyssey, one that really places the ‘cult’ in cult standing, which it has loved since releasing on Steam and itch.io between 2017 and 2022. Now on the Nintendo Swap, followers of retro horror are in for a completely distinctive entry within the style that appears, sounds, and seems like nothing else.
Some could baulk at Religion’s visible model and query whether or not a sport that appears as if it may run on a Commodore 64 may truly be scary. Lay that notion to relaxation, as a result of few titles nail ‘much less is extra’ as devilishly properly as this, leveraging desolate graphical minimalism with haunting rotoscoped cutscenes and distorted lo-fi sound design to chilling impact.
Religion unfolds amidst the ‘Satanic Panic’ of the Eighties, a interval in america marked by hysteria and media sensationalism over broadly debunked cult exercise. Gamers are put within the footwear of Father John Ward, a younger priest left traumatised within the violent aftermath of a botched exorcism of Amy Martin, a demon-possessed 17-year-old lady.
The episodic trilogy runs for 5 to 6 hours and tracks Ward’s descent right into a world of occult horror as he grapples with private guilt and uncovers the true agenda of nefarious forces at play. Although aesthetically and mechanically constant all through, the chapters turn out to be notably lengthier and extra subtle in design as the sport progresses.
At its core, Religion is a sport of exploration and survival. Father Ward is armed solely with a cross, which serves each as a weapon and a device for exorcising cursed objects. Gamers traverse haunted woods, deserted houses, dirty sewers, and extra, uncovering largely text-based lore, fixing puzzles, and confronting an array of hostile supernatural entities.
Boss fights all through the trilogy could be significantly difficult, with little room for error given the truth that most enemies can kill Ward in a single hit, forcing a restart on the final checkpoint or the start of a fight encounter. Enemy assault patterns are realized via trial and error, which may give method to irritating repetition that briefly suspends the concern issue.
Fight consists of dodging and exactly positioning oneself to inflict harm. The rub is that Ward is much slower than his enemies and might neither transfer nor pivot directionally whereas holding up the cross to deal harm. Such restrained controls led to deaths that felt low-cost, however the sheer power of Religion’s ambiance and storytelling have been motivation to push via.
A selected spotlight is the standard of the sport’s writing as offered in numerous notes, letters, and newspaper clippings which can be a reward for exploration or hidden inside haunted objects you discover. These notes add context and improve Ward’s harm output. Whereas we cannot spoil particular story components, belief us after we say the satan is within the particulars.
In a single standout sequence, a seemingly typical newspaper article seems to be something however, leading to a spectacular segue into one of many sport’s many evocative cutscenes made utilizing rotoscoping, a way whereby live-action footage is traced frame-by-frame, leading to fluid and lifelike actions imbued with uncanny realism.
Normally lasting no various seconds, these cutscenes pair significantly properly with the restricted color palette and blocky sprites of Religion’s retro-inspired visuals, that are evocative regardless of their simplicity. The presentation is masterfully tied collectively by chilly synth loops, distorted bleeps, and computerised vox, together with bouts of unnerving silence.
Puzzle-solving provides one other wrinkle to the gameplay, often paired with cryptic riddles and intelligent environmental hints. Every of the three episodes has a number of endings, a few of which require fixing extra hidden puzzles, discovering secret areas, and defeating elective bosses which can be a lot more durable than the primary story’s bosses.
So simply how scary is it? Whereas we’ve performed video games which can be extra prone to elicit soar scares or have our heartbeats racing with pressure, Religion totally succeeds in what it units out to be. Whereas there are a couple of moments which will jolt you and a beneficiant quantity of physique horror and blood, it excels in making a foreboding ambiance.
Because the Unholy Trinity has been accessible elsewhere for a while, there are detailed walkthroughs on-line for completionists. The Swap model of the sport contains extras to unlock, together with backgrounds and extra sport modes, although the varied achievements current on the Steam model usually are not constructed into this port.
Religion runs flawlessly on Nintendo’s hybrid, although we did initially encounter a progression-halting bug in Chapter 3 that has since been patched in Model 1.5.0. Rumble help is used to nice impact all through the sport to ramp up the strain, and we suggest headphones for full immersion. We made some extent of solely taking part in it at night time with the lights off.
Conclusion
Among the many slate of retro horror choices, Religion: The Unholy Trinity units itself aside with its distinct visible model and masterful presentation. Whereas boss encounters could be gruelling and result in frustration, that by no means diminished our want to progress the story to its conclusion. With an abundance of lore to gather and a number of endings for every of its three chapters, all of the replayability on provide makes it an ideal sport to fireplace up round Halloween.