I do not think that this year I was starving the game just like Holstin. This horror of survival immediately caught my attention with the great art of pixels, the gameplay changing perspectives and an amazing Polish scenery.
So I felt very cheerful that I could deal with a completely novel, two -hour PC demo, cut from the ominous beginnings of Holstin. While the previous Demo Steam captured Holstin’s “Feel” through ridiculed puzzles and tutorial of a firing weapon, this novel compilation connects all this with a fleshy (intended puns).
My friends, you must keep an eye on Holstin – here are some reasons.
#1: “disgusting” never looked so good
This is the first thing you notice-Holstin is really, very handsome, from a sudden drop to the ruined railway station a strange, pulsating yellow substance overgrown. The art looks great on the screenshots, but you have to see and feel Holstin in motion to really understand what achievement these graphics are. Even the title screen is amazing.
What looks like 2D top -down pixel art becomes a really impressive 3D when you learn that you can move the camera with smoother, trouble -free transitions to eight different pages. Even if you know it before you start playing, swinging for the first time, he is honestly one of Holstin’s most surprising moments – yes, just at the enemy’s meetings!
(By the way, top -down traffic in Holstin is really well suited for a double stick action on the controller, but also plays on mice and keyboard.)
While most players do not necessarily choose Holstin because of his technical proficiency, it really makes this aesthetic work. There is a reason why such graphics are not diverse in the industry-is based on non-standard internal studio technology, which means that it can be mentioned by Holstin as a graphic game.
#2: stunning perspectives
Okay, so you can turn off this personal, top-down camera and watch the world at many angles-but it’s not just an amazing trick. These angles go hand in hand with Holstin environmental puzzles. If you do not look at the boxes or check the turns to find alleys, you can – and probably – miss things that will assist you find your path in the strange world of Holstin.
But wait! There is more!
There are aggressive mutated people everywhere. This means you have to shoot them. But unlike other double shooters, you will not stay in this sight of a fixed camera to prepare your views. The introduction of AIM mode takes you to the sight of the third person in the back, releasing the camera to allow precise precision for head shots.
These two very different views really escalate the tension-on an example, in top view, you can miss the enemy lurking quietly around the corner. I was still guarding myself, changing between both points of view even from the fight. “
Holstin also plays with other camera prospects, although more because of the atmosphere than for the reasons for the game. Think: God’s view in an incredibly quiet, unpainted area. Your cursor disappears, suddenly removing the main sense of defense. You may not switch here to AIM, but you will certainly feel that some sinister force is observing every move of your move.
#3: meat, tentacles and lots of gore
Survival Horror Fans will want to know how strange the environment can be, but don’t worry – Squelchy Caidsys of the Spenre are definitely represented in Holstin. After all, the general purpose of this demo is to find a way to the slaughterhouse.
Dissolving the city to a kind of unearthly world appears in the form of a “plasmodium”, the mentioned yellow substance. At the beginning it seems that someone went crazy with foam spray – but when you approach, the tentacles will grow and move to you. Will they say hello or mock? Either way, it is properly disgusting and adds a penetrating sense of anxiety.
And then there are mutated enemies. Imagine that glowing orange balls take over your body and their mustache take the place of tendons. Imagine the same bullets buried in Plasmodium, which are slowly spreading along the streets and parks like an aggressive, dangerous mushroom.
Something that I also considered disturbing was implied bloody. Although you do not see a real slaughter in this demo, you will learn how in the sense of stories for through conversational dialogue and scribbled scattered by the world. Something wicked is happening here and you know that it will not be nice when you finally get there.
#4: Puzzle Gaming Adventure that is not sucking
As a player who grew up with classic points and click adventures, I was impressed by Holstin’s approach to his puzzles. I may be old and old, but in recent years I have been disappointed with how linear riddles have become in adventure games. Receive the target, come up with how to solve the goal, and then receive the next goal.
Although Holstin is strongly based on narrative, it never seems to be a linear story with different puzzles hit upstairs. In fact, I almost forgot how difficult a well -designed puzzle can be. In Holstin you will not achieve goals in the order in which they are mentioned. You can work on many goals at the same time, and the determination that can be solved at the moment is almost the puzzle in itself. Maybe you will have to repeat your steps, which seems realistic (like searching the house in search of car keys three times).
And as for the puzzles themselves – they make sense (well, if something can make sense in this crazy world). All Survival horror fans are familiar with one of the most inert challenges of the genre – from the terrifying sliding puzzle to the need for intimate knowledge of Shakespeare to the correct postponement of books in order to obtain the door code (*cough*Silent Hill*cough*).
None of this nonsense here. Holstin asks about you simple: How do you intend to open this trap? What turning path through the city will you need to reach the playground? How you solve these problems seems organic and really encourages you to discover your surroundings thoroughly.
#5: 90. Poland is a journey
The Polish setting creates a fairly specific and unique narrative. This is not a great tourist advertisement for Poland, but even covered with a strange Mack Plasmoda, the city of Jeziorne-Kolonia still seems clearly a foreign experience compared to other games in more unclear locations.
This demo only has a Polish teacher, and as an English speaker I discovered that this increased the credibility and atmosphere – like watching a foreign movie. Although I do not have the context of the Polish language structure, voting was dead.
There is a suicide woman, her voice was filled with failure when she gives you a weapon. A large, childish man, squeaking, talking in puzzles and only one story turned away from complete loss. The cast of freaks here is much wider than the usual survival game-but their convincing terror does not harm tension. (I certainly regret that they won’t help me in the fight.)
And although Holstin began in the 90s, this is not exactly the teams of boys and geocities. For example, your recording checkpoints are looking for telephone cabins-and you need to find physical telephone cards to actually save (like true digging anachronism to change to make washing). Our hero Tomasz definitely does not have a mobile phone to track goals. Expect all the inconvenience in the era in front of the Internet-a good obstacle in your strange journey through this terrifying city.
To sum up, this demo honestly blew me up – and I say it very rarely from any game. If the rest of Holstin is so refined and carefully made, it will be considered a classic of survival in ten years. I am so impressed with what I saw and played from it so far.
