A first-person RPG beginning with your character being tasked with tracking down known sausage Vela Callose (aka - the most wanted person in the Apostatic Union.), your task soon branches out into various side and main quests over the various ‘skylands’ before you.
Presented in a PS1 visual style with a surprising amount of options as to just how PS1 you want your experience to be – you’ll soon find yourself traipsing around the world of Dread Delusion, accompanied by a beautiful, keening (if slightly repetitive) soundtrack, sparse visuals, and tightly-funnelled game design that feels like a lesson in world-building without waste.
I completely fell in love with Dread Delusion very quickly. Whilst the combat feels a bit one-note, the music – whilst being minimalist to the point of bafflement – sets the tone for your adventure, which is one of contemplation and discovery.
A huge part of the fun is getting to grips with the denizens of this truly alien place, and delving into the myriad side quests and questionable choices that lay before you – and deciding how you’ll let it all play out.
This isn’t kids play, mind you. Every choice is swathed in darkness, and you really do dig in to the sense that this is a very possibly doomed world that has you passing through it as a voyeur possibly incapable of changing it as opposed to the tried and true ‘agent of change and heroism’, and the game plays all the stronger for it, as you encounter so many broken individuals and towns pulled apart by idol/ideal/ god-worshipping/fearing citizens as well as those of a more militirical bent, and weaving your way through this ever-flexing world is a huge part of it.
SUMMARY
In games such as this, loose combat, stripped-back and repetitive (if effective) audio, are minor niggles when compared to what is truly offered here, which is a wonderfully realised RPG that celebrates the auteurism of James Wragg’s deeply realised world, a world that needs to be discovered, as enchanting and evocative as it is.
SUMMARY
In games such as this, loose combat, stripped-back and repetitive (if effective) audio, are minor niggles when compared to what is truly offered here, which is a wonderfully realised RPG that celebrates the auteurism of James Wragg’s deeply realised world, a world that needs to be discovered, as enchanting and evocative as it is.
An instant GOTY for me, and I prepare myself for what this brilliant developer cooks up next.
9/10
🧊🆒ICE COOL🧊🆒
(also available on PC, PS4/4, Xbox ONE, Xbox Series S, Switch 2)
Developer – Lovely Hellplace
Publisher – DreadXP
No comments:
Post a Comment
Like what you see in the Games Freezer?
Why not tell us what you think with a few well-chosen comments? :)