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We're lost in the Garden of Eden...

I do not know if you are aware, but SnowOwl made a game called Rust and Blood for the Halloween contest 2013. Since Halloween is approaching, what better period of the year to play this game? Here I am, ready for a real creepy adventure!

In this game we play as a little guy with luminous eyes and a cute hat, but do not worry, this is no cute story at all: our little friend suffers of a terminal disease, a deadly cancer that will kill him since no treatment worked, medicine or magical. So a priest tells him that his only hope is to look for the Garden of Eden and find the mythic Tree of Life that can grant eternal youth! Guess what? Life isn't easy, since Adam and Eve left the place and God abandoned it. So ti will be a bit rusty and bloody, there!


GOOD IDEA, I GUESS THERE ARE NO FAST FOOD CHAINS THERE!

This game is about exploration and resource management, because doors are locked and fences are blocked so you have to find the items you need to progress... BUT moving will increase your hunger meter (at 100 you can no longer run and at 150 you die, game over!) and the only way to survive is looking for food and plundering fridges. Some places will have low risk and high reward in terms of food, others instead the opposite (it's not fair I know, but it's life!), but soon you will find a useful device to make recipes combining two food items and stocking resources.
Too easy? Not at all, remember that you can only travel by day, and you have to reach the shelter before night falls. Also there are monsters lurking around, and looks like they are hungry too... of human flesh!

This is Rust and Blood, and I won't tell you more or spoil, it's a game of exploration and survival, and it's not too long but it's pretty original and interesting. For example look at the graphics: part of the resource used in this game comes from Silent Hill 2, and contribuites to create a dark industrial scary world. There is rust and there is blood in this dark, oppressive world, and the music enforces the sensation of dread and isolation. Feel anxious? Well this game made me feel uneasy, and I guess that as a horror game it succeeds. The game uses also some pictures that make the intro really evocative, and sets the tone of this desperate journey in a dark mythical forgotten place.

The story is really simple and minimalist, told by the thoughs of the protagonist, there are no other characters because it's the path of a lone man, but despite this lack of background and interactions, it's still ok as it is, delivering a solid experience of a solo explorer in a weird and alien world.


OH OH OH, SOMETHING IS SHINING OVER THERE! GRAB IT AND GO TO READ THE...

Final Verdict
Rust and Blood is not your usual horror game: it's a survival and resurce management one, that still includes chase scenes and a short but complete story that it is possible to complete in 35-50 minutes (yes it is short, but I think it would have been boring repeating the same features for more and more time, so I think that the lenght is perfect!). Oh and unlike the other horror games I recently played and complete, this horror adventure has just one ending. So yes, no need to reply it, anyway I encourage those who never played it to give it a try.
I admit I found very few flaws, maybe some are the difficulty of some areas (especially towards the ending) that make impossibly hard if you did not stocked enough food (again, it's necessary to go prepared!), or the fact that the hunger number overlaps the "hunger" word, anyway these are minimal complaints, I know!

This game in fact adds the survivalism aspect to the classical horror experience, presenting also simple but evocative maps and an immersive environment. In few words, this is a good survival horror, challenging and original.

Posts

Pages: 1
author=SnowOwl
Thanks for the review!


It is a great little game, original and hey... the use of some Silent Hill assets was a cool idea.
Pages: 1