Homicifer begins with a very uncomplicated premise: I’m alone in a recent place, I’ve lost my bag, and I find myself in a rusty elderly hallway with flickering lights and a hunched, menacing figure called Mr. Crawling. I keep running, only to come face to face with Mr. Hood, a Grim Reaper-style specter. Fortunately, Mr. Hood is much nicer than his friend and we take part in a tiny impromptu language lesson. He teaches me a few basic words like “I” and “you” before I stumble down the next hallway.
In terms of gameplay, Homicifer is very uncomplicated. I click on the paths I want to explore, hoping I don’t get murdered. I am not Leon S. Kennedy or even James Sunderland; if I approach the nasty monster in the obscure, I’ll likely be murdered and sent back to the final checkpoint. I also need to make a solid attempt to communicate wherever I can. Only through dialogue, contextual clues, and trust can I begin to understand the blunt, rugged language of this recent world.
Every time I encounter a recent word, I can open my journal and guess what it means. This log will be saved and the next time a sentence appears in the dialogue, my English note will be highlighted above it. At one point I approached the red-lit door and Mr. Crawling hissed a tiny sentence. Thanks to strenuous linguistic study, I knew exactly what he meant: “you shouldn’t open the door.” Thanks for the tip, buddy – that’s one brutal murder I need to avoid!
You may notice that Mr. Crawling started out as an antagonist but developed into a protective character of sorts. Homicifer it plays with the visual tropes of monstrous, attractive men, but the language barrier makes everything more intricate and intriguing. Some of these strange characters are patient and take the time to teach the hero a few key words. Others are impatient; If I smile at the wrong moment in a conversation or refuse to take some advice, it could be a death sentence.
Ultimately, it’s a low-stress horror movie, which I appreciate – it’s scary, but laid back in a way. Each jump scare or death sequence brings me back to an earlier stage of exploration, and I can regularly stop to check the chat log and see if I can guess any other vocabulary. This is a very intriguing trick that I haven’t seen in a horror movie before, and it adds a whole recent dimension of exploration that I really enjoyed. All the sexy monster boys are just a sinister addition.
Homicifer released on Steam on November 1 and available for $15.99.
