I’ve always found it interesting to see what games are released in different months of the year. It’s a necessity when you play as much as I do, so I can manage both my time and my wallet, although I generally don’t pay much attention to these requirements and buy whatever seems interesting to me as soon as the market hits . However, Withering Rooms has flown completely under my radar, even though it has been available in early access since the end of 2022 and is due to be fully released in just a few days. In this game, without knowing what kind of experience awaited me, I ended up in a Victorian mansion called Mostyn House, where I took part in a captivating adventure.
The main character, Nightingale, wakes up trapped in a dream and must try to find a way out and solve the mysteries of the mansion. To be honest, I have to admit that the first impression was not very good, as this horror adventure offers elements that seem underdeveloped in many ways. Both the main character’s animations and the first dubbing I heard made a rather poor impression, but fortunately the atmosphere becomes more immersive and saves that first impression, or at least a little. At first I thought you just had to hide from the scary figures in the villa. Because you can hide behind, under or in various pieces of furniture or other objects and wait for them to walk by or look away. This is also a necessity from the start in order to survive, although Nightingale soon equips herself with various weapons, discovers the ability to create spells and can craft other tools to kill all sorts of monsters and other things that come her way come the way. Away. Killing becomes practically a chore as different types of body parts need to be collected for various reasons, both to craft items and to advance the slowly unfolding story. The game offers a very good selection of horrors to fight against, and it’s always fun to discover new enemies and see their peculiar designs.
You quickly realize that there is one dominant element to the game, which is that it has a roguelike (or dungeon crawler video game) feel to it. Every time you “die” and wake up, the mansion changes and you lose your artifacts, although there are ways around this. I really don’t know what to think about this particular aspect of this adventure. In general, features like this only frustrate me when it’s not a title where you do cl assic “dungeon” raids. In this case it is a “return to the starting point”, which is particularly annoying. However, this forces you to play more carefully and try not to die, which might not be as important to you otherwise. Over time, you can also choose different objects that you want to remember so that you have them when you wake up. So I think losing your artifacts and having to search for them again can work. Things get even worse when you add in the fact that the mansion is changing, because a lot of the charm that comes with exploring is learning about the place I’m in, but in In this case, this charm disappears when the locations change. . Additionally, while there is a useful map that you can open during gameplay, the layout of the mansion and its surroundings is a bit chaotic, as you can’t really see how rooms and other things are connected. There are lots of hidden passageways and stairs to other floors and it’s difficult to get a good overview of everything. Additionally, it’s mostly built on a long hallway that leads to several smaller rooms, requiring you to constantly go through doors as you explore.
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As you explore the mansion you will meet many strange characters and this is where I find one of the most captivating aspects of the game. The various rooms are quite small, which is a shame; I would have liked a more coherent layout to explore instead of having to constantly go in and out of small rooms. However, the design and atmosphere are good and it’s fun to explore every corner and discover everything there is. However, as I’ve already mentioned, I think it’s a shame that the rooms weren’t a little larger and the mansion felt more cohesive. The fact that it changes after each night also means that it doesn’t really take on the character that it could have. Once you’ve memorized the layout of the mansion only to change it soon after, it’s a little annoying to have to find certain rooms instead of simply learning where everything was in relation to the rest. I think it would have worked better if you updated the map with what you explored when you started a new dream.
I already mentioned that Nightingale can defend himself, and in addition to various weapons and spells, there is also a slightly easier role-playing system when leveling up, different types of equipment and tools that you can find that will help you against different things, such as poison . A fairly unique feature is a kind of curse that can affect you and change various things in the house as it grows stronger. It’s fun to add to the list of pretty unique things Withering Rooms has to offer, because while the game feels a bit simple in execution, it does offer some very nice things. Some puzzles are quite complicated and I really like the tension and atmosphere. On the other hand, there are a surprising number of locations to visit, and while Withering Rooms isn’t particularly frightening, its visual style and haunting soundtrack contribute to an eerie yet cozy atmosphere. Some elements feel like something out of a nightmare, but in the end it never really scares you. There are some pretty strange rooms and enemies, but the perspective and graphics make it a bit scary. However, I don’t think this is a particular disadvantage, as games like Little Nightmares also tend to have a cozy, mysterious feel, while it’s more due to the design of some characters that seem a bit nightmarish.
In short: Withering Rooms impresses with a good atmosphere, but behind it there are some elements that unfortunately seem a bit too simple. There’s a lot of back and forth between rooms with few enemies and items encountered, and the game’s best puzzles and tricks appear far too rarely. I also don’t really like that every time I unlock a large portion of the map and die, I have to revisit many rooms to find said items. Personally, I would have liked a better context to explore the mansion piece by piece instead of starting from the beginning. Despite these negative points, it is an adventure with some unique elements and if you are looking for something from the horror genre, even if it is much more atmospherically inviting than all the others, it certainly has some notable aspects that make it a try make worth it.
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