[Review] Pneumata wanted to be an ambitious horror title inspired by RE VII, but bugs and mediocre design ruin everything

Although Resident Evil VII was released seven and a half years ago, it is obviously the source of inspiration for Pneumata, a first-person horror game developed by one-man studio Deadbolt Interactive. Unfortunately, the similarities don’t go much further, as hardly any title is further apart in terms of quality. Pneumata is, frankly, a cosmic mess with confusing level design and frustrating bugs.

One day there is a parking lot in front of the protagonist’s house in a typical American suburb. When I go to see who it is, the car starts and drives away, leaving only a VHS tape at the front door. Similar to the aforementioned (absolutely wonderful) seventh part of the Resident Evil series, in Pneumata my girlfriend has apparently disappeared, and after a well-known accident with wild animals in the forest, my path leads me to a dark, supposedly abandoned trailer park called Milton.

It’s certainly not a groundbreaking start, but then again the genre is known for its kitsch and romanticization of B-movie conventions. Therefore, I initially forgive rough edges, such as the protagonist’s performance and various technical deficiencies. But this charmingly crude B-movie sheen doesn’t last long.

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Little by little I make my way through the dark alleys and streets of Milton and repeatedly come across countless fences and confusingly similar houses. The complicated flow structures of the best games in the genre with hidden passages, secrets and alternative routes are exchanged here for greater freedom of discovery, i.e. without a map and compass. The innovation is to be welcomed, of course, but that assumes that the quest logs don’t get messed up and are actually marked as I go, and that my journey is somewhat logical, with a gentle, invisible hand guiding me in the right direction. But here I am, going in circles and getting lost faster than the gang from The Blair Witch Project, and somehow I finally manage to move forward.

As I move forward, I encounter burning human-sized crosses, abandoned scraps of paper, and a massive church, all of which let me know that I am dealing with some sort of cult. To make matters worse, the malevolent men I encounter wear pig masks, and if anything screams BioShock-style religious fanaticism, this is it. However, the one thing that Pneumata inherited from a giant of the genre like BioShock is the feel of weapons.

The gradually creepy atmosphere, mysticism and rawness of models like Condemned, Outlast, Dead Space, Resident Evil and BioShock are gone in Pneumata. While it’s possible to get a glimpse of where Deadbolt Interactive is going, aside from a few effective scares at the start, it’s difficult to take the enemies seriously as they wait around the corner and immediately run away as soon as I appear in front of them them. While I have a few weapons to choose from and can both block and kick threats that are too close, it’s always easy enough to shoot them in the face a few times before they fall to the ground where, unless they just disappear, they die Enemies tend to respawn while remaining motionless in a T-Stance.

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Yes, Pneumata is full of errors, especially in the tone. The sound of dripping taps penetrates double walls, non-existent enemies scream, pigs grunt, doors open and close and book pages turn in the middle of the forest… but I’m not afraid, I just sigh and get used to all of this Craziness. The game is coming apart at the seams and there’s nothing particularly exciting or frightening to make up for it. Whether it’s the (too) dark forest, the incredibly difficult to navigate apartment complex, the underground sewage system or the psychiatric hospital or the shipyard, I obediently clear out one environment after another, experience annoying moments of trial and error and solve side quests , which fulfill them I’m going nowhere and wish it would end soon so that my torment would end.

After seven hours and a silly, laugh-out-loud finale, the cosmic mystery horror remains largely a mess of unfinished mazes and game design. The horror and adventure genre is too saturated to make room for Pneumata and I think we’ll soon forget about this game and wish Deadbolt Interactive good luck next time.