Impious it’s a indie horror in the first person this comes to us from Duality gamesdistributed by Digital Brothers Yes HOOK. With a focus on story and puzzles, with some combat, we are talking about a title released just over a year ago on PC. However, it is now arriving on the Xbox Series X|S and PS5 consoles.
Ready to read this terrifying analysis so close to the Halloween holiday?
The story of a murdered son
In Impious we embody Dorothy, a mother impatient to find her murdered young son,Gabriel. His soul was trapped in the The Eternal City, a dark and gloomy place where most of the adventure will take place. However, really We will travel several times between the real world and this Eternal City alternative. The real world is where new plot details will be revealed, gathering certain objects necessary to perform a ritual that will return us to this alternate reality.
Even if the story will not surprise us too much, it is nevertheless of interest. who can keep us at least attentive during 7-9 hours how long the adventure will last, thanks to the intrigue and suspense it involves. In addition, we are faced with a rather dark plot which adds an element religious and ritual this reinforces the feeling of terror and darkness.
Unholy offers original mechanics and puzzles
Not only riddles discover a horror title. Sometimes this also includes a combat systemand in this case Impious Not only does it have it, but it presents certain mechanics that I consider original to say the least. Our only weapon will be a slingshot whose ammunition will be based on four types: Desire, Fury, Sadness and Fear.. Each will apply different effects to the enemies we encounter (which can only be eliminated by detonating explosive barrels by shooting them). Likewise, to solve certain puzzles (generally quite simple) we will need a type of ammunition.
But, even though we have this curious combat system, we can also use stealth go unnoticed by enemies. However, it is worth mentioning that it may not be the most effective in most altercations, due to the irregular artificial intelligence of the enemywho sometimes will discover us without really knowing how, and on other occasions it will be very difficult for him to see us. We also have at our disposal several hiding places in the form of lockers distributed throughout each stage where you can take shelter for a moment. This will sometimes prove essential, due to the relentlessness of the monsters who will want to hunt us down at all costs. Some are sort of mindless undead, so they act instinctively, and others will be mean, bigoted humans who react more intelligently to our presence.
Last but not least, we have the masks. These masks are not just cosmetic items, but each (up to 3 maximum) will give us specific power. These powers can be, for example, and to avoid too much spoiler, see objects highlighted with which we can interact through the walls. The power of the masks can be turned on or off at any time by simply pressing the directional button on the controller. Then, after obtaining the first mask, we will have a series of skills we can unlock on specific altars in search of collectibles.
An interesting proposition weighed down by somewhat mediocre optimization
Unfortunately, it’s not all pretty Impious. And that’s it, although the technical part is completely compliant For a low budget title, the truth is that optimization does you more harm than good. We are faced with a game that suffers from problems such as burst or total freezing of the character on isolated occasions, but very annoying since, in the case of the latter problem, it will force us to load the last established checkpoint.
The dubbing is of a very good level, as well as the technical invoice in general and the soundtrackvery well chosen and which adds even more tension to Dorothea’s odyssey to find her son, but it must be emphasized that the optimization problems mentioned above hinder an experience which could have been better if these types of problems were not had not been included. I understand this is a standalone proposition, but it shouldn’t imply a worse gaming experience.
Unholy conclusions
In short, we can conclude that Impious It’s an interesting indie horror proposition. With an intriguing story, original mechanics and a very correct technical part, we end up with a good experience which seems somewhat weighed down by a optimization could be improved. This issue doesn’t make the game unplayable, no, but it’s something that could have been worked on better.
Duality Games has taken a big step in this genreand I am sure that their future projects will be of even greater quality, thanks to what they have learned from this terrifying cult title.
Impious It is available for Xbox Series X|S, PS5 and PC. Remember that in Xbox area, we cover all the video game news daily in the form of news, analyses, articles, podcasts, etc.
Pro.
- Good technical quality in general (dubbing, graphics, etc.) with a small budget
- Very successful atmosphere
- Interesting story
- Original mechanics
Contra.
- The character sometimes gets stuck without any explanation
- Fairly irregular optimization with some technical issues
- Stealth works a little strangely
I’ve been playing video games for as long as I can remember, so it’s safe to say I enjoy talking about them a bit.
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