Old Gods Rising

Review

Old Gods Rising, an adventure first-person game that focuses on Lovecraftian genre. Named after American author H. P. Lovecraft, Lovecraftian brings a great sub-genre of horror to the table. Lovecraftian focuses on comic horror characteristics of the unknown, gore or other elements of shock.

The game Old Gods Rising got the Lovecraftian genre just right. It’s all smooth sailing in a peaceful first-person adventure game, until things start to get complicated and mysterious.

Our main protagonist is Professor Tom Winston, an expert in the field of Ancient History. Tom’s recent success on his TV show, ‘Finding Britain’, attracts the attention of maverick film director, Maz Kayfer.

Maz Kayfer invites Tom to be his consultant for the new film: Old Gods Rising.

Convinced that Kayfer’s project needs a consultant on Ancient History, Tom arrives at the Ashgate University. The moment Tom set his foot in the university parking area, he knows something is wrong; the University seems empty.

Tom goes in search of the director, and instead finds a wireless where Kayfer alerts Tom about his little situation. Kayfer requests that Tom look into some Ancient landmarks and Store structures.

Heading out alone in an empty and ominous university campus, Tom finds both local and foreign stone structures; some are dated BC and others are AD.

Surprised to find this many ancient stone structures in one university ground, and not knowing Kayfer’s intensions, Tom alerts Kayfer about every event and discovery.

At first, you don’t expect anything out of the ordinary. Ashgate University seems like an ideal place for Kayfer’s project. But as you go through one discovery to another, the truth starts to unfold.

You start to question Kayfer’s intentions, so you use a payphone to call your better half, Lex, who starts to research Kayfer’s past misdeeds.

Now aware of Kayfer’s ill intensions, Tom investigates the university grounds while keeping Kayfer in the loop with minor details.

Kayfer alerts Tom that he has film crews in the university area, but you can’t seem to find anyone at all until you hear a loud call for help. You look behind you and realise that it’s coming from the sewer.

Responding to the cries for help, you hear the voice of a girl, a member of Kayfer’s crew. The sewer is dark and narrow; by the time you come back with a light, the poor girl’s call for help is gone. Tom is greeted by an ominous silence, followed by a loud, terrifying roar.

Upset with the events that are taking place, Tom sets off on a journey of intense investigation to find answers and try to uncover Kayfer’s misdeeds and ill intentions.

As you move forward, you start to realize that Kayfer is trying to raise the old Gods, and you find yourself in a struggle to stop Kayfer’s plan.

Let me start by staying Old Gods Rising is bringing a unique genre of storytelling to the table, creating a really strong, well-detailed, and very well scripted game.

I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed my time playing this game, if only because of its impressive voice acting and dialogue. The voice acting for the main protagonist and antagonist was very strong and well-executed.

The character progression of Tom Winston was slow and subtle.

Sound effects were well executed, too; at times the game was outright terrifying because of its well-placed and effective sound effects. The Monster sounds in the dark caves and alleyways were horrifying.

Although the game presents a unique player experience with its incredible story, strong characters, and voice acting, it has its fair share of shortcomings.

Conversations between Tom and Lex were annoying and repetitive due to the audio levels dropping so low at times that I could not figure out what Lex was saying, which in turn lead to a lot of confusion.

Although I have a lot of good things to say about this game, good performance isn’t one of them. Among the many issues, the most noticeable were: random frame drops, stutter, lag, 20 – 30 frames dropped consistently while walking on the footpath in the parking, and the map/playable area loads very slowly.

I had to wait outside rooms and alleyways for the game to finish loading the next section of the map.

I must say the game brings some originality to the table when it comes to puzzles; they were unique and fairly easy to complete.

By far the best part about this game is its attention to detail; though nowhere near perfect, for an indie creator to bring this level of detailing to a game is very impressive. There were multiple structures in place which were very well detailed, including large rooms and alleyways, caves, and ancient sites.

Although well detailed for a university of this size and caliber, the world/map seemed empty.

Review written by BiteMexD for Zeepond.com!