World of Horror Preview PAX West 2018
Lovecraft meets Junji Ito in single-man Polish developer Panstasz’s game World of Horror, shown by Ysbryd Games at PAX West 2018. The game has a retro feel as the player navigates a world best by eldritch horrors. The end of the world can’t be stopped, only delayed, but you, the player, struggle to do that much in a world that has turned against you. In the demo I played, the protagonist was a student investigating the disappearance of her best friend, who left behind a journal of notes about a high school-cleansing ritual. Oh, and there’s scissors-wielding-ghoul-demon lurking in the dark halls, ready to lash out. You just might want to keep an eye out for her: she’ll do the same for you.
The encounters in the haunting, black-and-white atmosphere change with each attempt (I died several times) at navigating the game, which generated bona-fide tension whenever something oozed or snapped its way towards me. The mechanics are based on the classic RPG format, with a drop-down menu for your inventory (which hopefully includes the items you need to stay alive) and has a variety of characters to play as and care about as you progress. The retro style to the game—all carefully crafted pixels and lovingly rendered characters—is appealing to begin with, but when coupled with the music, which is as oppressive and immersive as any good horror game should be, I found myself pressing every button with baited breath.
For fans of Lovecraft, there’s deep, dark monsters to be unearthed. For mystery seekers, secrets are practically the currency of the game, and anyone with a taste for a retro aesthetic will enjoy the monochrome color scheme and design.  For Junti Ito fanatics, the setting of a small, peaceful Japanese village evokes several of his different stories (and one in particular: it rhymes with Buzumaki and comes after Naruto). In fact, anyone who likes the general style of manga will likely enjoy the look of the game, with mimics traditional drawing techniques while maintaining the older look in World of Horror.
There were a few development issues (the game crashed once or twice while I was playing, and I had to give up playing the demo after the second, when it refused to restart), but overall I thoroughly enjoyed the world (of horror) that had been crafted by Panstasz’s small team, and it’s definitely worth remembering that it’s scheduled for release on PC, Switch, and PS4 in 2019.
