Forgive Me Father 2 Review – Lovecraft After Lockup

Forgive Me Father 2 Review

Let’s get this out of the way: I’d never even heard of Forgive Me Father. But when Forgive Me Father 2 slid across my desk, I was immediately captivated by its blisteringly unique visual style. So, I began researching the original.

It’s safe to say that Forgive Me Father 2 continues the legacy of its predecessor. It plunges players headfirst into a world saturated with Lovecraftian dread and rendered in a striking comic-book aesthetic. This sequel from Byte Barrel successfully doubles down on the core appeal of the first game: kinetic, high-impact FPS combat paired with an atmosphere thick with eldritch horror and black humor. Though Forgive Me Father 2 excels thematically and mechanically, its console port struggles to maintain the smooth experience necessary for its demanding action, resulting in a journey that is as frustratingly choppy as it is brilliantly unsettling.

On the surface, Forgive Me Father 2 is a triumphant follow-up. The narrative picks up with the Priest, now grappling with severe amnesia, fighting his way through hordes of increasingly gruesome aberrations. The story beats are delivered with a sardonic flair, counterbalancing the terror evoked by the environments and creature design. I’m not convinced that everyone will get behind a story that is mainly told through (missable) journal-like pickups. However, when the pieces are put together, it becomes engaging.

Retro Rampage

The true star of the show, however, remains the gameplay loop. Forgive Me Father 2 is an unapologetic retro-shooter. It demands constant movement, quick decision-making, and aggressive engagement. The fluidity of the movement system is excellent, enabling the Priest to dart around arenas and utilize the environment to gain tactical advantages.

The gunplay is intensely satisfying. Weapons feel weighty, and the sound design ensures that every shotgun blast or flamethrower spray is delivered with visceral oomph. Byte Barrel has refined the arsenal, offering a selection of creative and potent tools for dispatching the cultists and monstrosities that populate the stages. Need to dispatch foes quickly? A fish that doubles as an automatic pistol will do just that. Attacking from long range? The gobbler gun – an alien-like creature that fires homing lasers – is up to the task.

While the variety of weapons is solid, Forgive Me Father 2 undoubtedly suffers from balance issues. There are a handful of guns that are far and away above the rest. Once unlocked, I seldom found myself switching my loadout. As mentioned in my Ghost of Yotei review, I love it when a game can thoroughly utilize all of its tools throughout the experience, but Forgive Me Father 2 fails to do so.

So Much Madness

Crucially, the return of the ‘Madness’ mechanic elevates the combat from good to great. As the Priest faces overwhelming odds or takes damage, his Madness meter fills. This meter can be strategically unleashed to activate powerful, albeit temporary, altered states for weapons—turning a standard revolver into a rapid-fire death machine, or granting devastating elemental effects. Managing this encroaching insanity is key; wait too long and face debilitating visual and auditory effects, but activate it at the right moment and turn the tide of a desperate battle.

Visually, Forgive Me Father 2 is a masterpiece of stylized horror. The 2D-sprite-in-3D-world approach, executed through a stark, high-contrast comic-book filter, gives Forgive Me Father 2 an unmistakable identity. Environments look perpetually sketched and shaded, and the enemy sprites are fantastically detailed and disturbing. It’s an art style that perfectly captures the unsettling, claustrophobic nature of Lovecraft’s worlds, blending pulpy action with genuine cosmic dread.

However, the transition to console platforms has proven significantly detrimental to the experience.

Performance Woes

In a game that relies so heavily on high frame rates, precise aiming, and instantaneous reactions, the persistent performance issues on console are deeply disappointing. During larger engagements, particularly when the Madness meter is active and particle effects fill the screen, the frame rate frequently dips and stutters. These hitches break the immersion and, more critically, interrupt the flow of combat. Dying because the game momentarily freezes as a rampaging behemoth closes in isn’t fair. It’s a technical failure. And one that became increasingly difficult to stomach as time went on.

Forgive Me Father 2 is a solid, bloody, and genuinely creative retro-shooter. Its gameplay mechanics are expertly refined, its aesthetic is unmatched, and its atmosphere is perfectly pitched between grim horror and dark humor. But recommending the console version comes with a significant caveat. If you value a smooth, optimized experience above all else, you may find the technical hiccups frustratingly intrusive. If, however, you can tolerate the occasional frame rate dive to experience one of the most stylish and mechanically engaging Lovecraftian shooters released in years, then the Priest’s violent descent into madness is well worth undertaking—just be prepared for console stutters to pull you abruptly back to reality.

***An Xbox Series X code was provided for this review***