Forgive Me Father

Review

Forgive Me Father is a horror first-person shooter that follows the trails of blood left by Doom, Heretic and Hexen, while being heavily inspired by Lovecraft’s works and showing a very distinct comic book art style. At the beginning of the game you can choose to play either as a priest or a journalist, each one sharing the same story, but with a different set of abilities. After answering the call for help from a mysterious town, you lose your senses and wake up alone, only to realize that the entire population has turned into hordes of zombies and other dark creatures. Determined to uncover the truth, you progress through multiple levels shooting every monstrosity. For being inspired by Lovecraft, the narrative isn’t particularly refreshing and becomes secondary soon after the prologue, when you are left with only some documents to read. There are a few short interludes between acts, but overall this isn’t an engaging form of storytelling, especially in a game like this where you need to constantly move, shoot and keep the adrenaline up, but then you are forced to stop and read documents found on the ground if you want to know more about the story.

The game features a classic old-school gameplay which basically consists in shooting anything that moves while also dodging enemies’ attacks. Many times you will need to find some colored keys so you can open doors and progress further through the levels. Shooting feels great, but it’s much smoother with a mouse and keyboard than with a controller. There is a decent arsenal of weapons and you will find new ones every now and then, which encourages swapping and experimenting with them against different type of enemies. The game also features some basic RPG progression, like leveling up and unlocking abilities on a skill tree. This way you can upgrade weapons, increase the amount of ammo carried, improve your attributes and more. Overall, there is a great variety of enemies: cultists, ghouls, mutants and many other abominations inspired by Lovecraft’s myths, as well unique bosses who are regularly placed at the end of each act and offer a great challenge.

Despite the gameplay being greatly challenging and satisfying, levels look rather simple and I don’t mean it aesthetically, but for how they limit your movements instead of enhancing them. There are many arenas, but overall the level design looks flat, with only one way of progressing, no verticality or anything that makes shooting and moving around more exciting. While being part of the old-school experience, the fact that you will often need keys to progress further also creates some sort of repetition that could have been avoided with better design choices. Another small but bothersome issue is that you will have to manually save your game by talking to a drunken homeless person, but sometimes his position can be far away from the previous one, forcing you to replay longer sections in case of death.

Graphically the game looks awesome, with a comic book art style that resembles the one from XIII, while 2D cardboard enemies move through 3D backgrounds splatting blood everywhere when dying. The soundtrack ranges from ambient to metal and contributes to build some of the most intense fighting moments. Completing the story should take less than 10 hours, depending on your skills and desire to explore the levels in search of secrets. If you still want more after that, you can try the “endless mode”, which is basically a survivor mode against multiple waves of enemies of increasing difficulty.

With its fast-paced gunplay, banging soundtrack and beautiful art style, Forgive Me Father proves to be a solid old-school experience. While certainly not original, the gameplay is greatly challenging and is only detracted by some questionable level design choices (particularly towards the end). Lovecraft fans and those who are looking for a simple Doom alternative will certainly enjoy this game.  

Review written by Sonic Punk for Zeepond.com

Forgive Me Father Steam Store Page