FAITH: The Unholy Trinity is a hell of a bad time.
In a veritable sea of trite horror media, The FAITH trilogy stands head and shoulders above nearly all else. It doesn't even take 2min for the thick, unbearable atmosphere of religious horror to set in the first chapter, and it only gets worse from there as you thread across skeletal environments and face all manner of UNSPEAKABLE things.
It's impressive how much dread the devs were able to conjure up out of such simple graphics. Pair it with harsh soundtrack (a nightmarish industrial soundscape sculpted out of 8-bit bulding blocks) and you have a certified chiller. The rotoscoped cutscenes further help make this a deeply uncofortable, uncanny affair. The whole experience was immensely evocative - textbook example of the good old "less is more" adage. This retro presentation brings out a harshness to the levels that makes FAITH's world feel inhospitable at best and actively hostile at worst, and don't even get me started on the spatial anomalies...
The enemies themselves are unusually scary - just detailed enough to suggest something, but vague enough in their pixelated wretchedness that the visuals let your imagination fill in the blanksm and boy does this work wonders. The whole vibe ends up positively otherworldly and I was never taken out of it by some image that I perceived as corny or campy (not that the game is above some sparingly-used comedy, but it doesn't diminish the experience, it's very well done).
The simple gameplay keeps things from turning frustrating - point your cross, strafe, don't get hit. And yet the devs also manage to create a good variety of hair-raising encounters, and even the occasional boss battle! Along with it there are a fair share of puzzles, which are engaging for the most part, despite some head-scratching moments.
The narrative, weaved throughout the three games, is very adept at presenting the journey of a deeply traumatized young priest trying to achieve redemption as he finds himself facing against a crisis of faith and a far-reaching, demonic wickedness that may prove to be too much to bear. I say may because all three chapters have multiple endings, so keep an eye our for whatever choices you make, because they may come to bite you in the rear in a variety of unexpected ways.
Few games have replicated the pants-shitting anticipation I felt as I unlocked a door in the Spencer Mansion while playing the Resident Evil Remake. FAITH, however, does this with ease. Many of its environments and scenery, while not exactly original, but gain a twisted second life (or should I say SECOND DEATH?) through the game's stark aesthetics. To put it simply, in the average horror game, you tend to go "oh, right, hospital level, cool". In FAITH, you go "oh fuck I have to go inside this hospital? No way! fuck my life!".
A must play. Buy it as soon as you get the chance.
"GARY LOVES YOU"
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The oldest and strongest emotion of man is fear, and the oldest and strongest fear is fear of the unknown. Knowing this, Airdorf intentionally goes back in time to mine the generally unknown, and definitely underutilised, aesthetics of early 80s computer games like Atari and Commodore 64 to make one of the most potent video game horror experiences in years. The graphical simplicity definitely has a goofy charm to it too, but the scares come from being so minimalist that your mind does the work of filling in the blanks, getting your mind racing, being more thrilling than a big horror setpiece dense with detail would generally be. We have two Dead Space remakes coming out this year, but neither will match the flashlight section of Faith 2 or definitely not the camera flashbulb section of 3, one of the tightest, most nerve-wracking sections in horror ever. All this, with basic scanlines and maybe ten colours available.
Though the art design isn't just a gimmick, either; it's all in the service of a crazy exorcism storyline with major themes of perception, redemption, madness and descending sanity, and minor themes of economic displacement, satanic panic, power imbalances and a real throwback to 80s understandings of the AIDS epidemic and gang warfare. Airdorf, even with minimalist graphics, tap into a true sense of place that puts you right in rural and suburban America in the mid-80s. It's grungy, ugly, rough-and-tumble and you know you're stepping into some of the most unsanitary environments imaginable, just before you step into the unimaginable. The Jordan Mechner-like rotoscoped cutscenes, which look suitably uncanny, are just the icing on the cake of a greatly presented game...as long as you turn off the backgrounds.
The gameplay itself is ultimately nothing special, but they still manage to squeeze a lot out of a game that has, ostensibly, one button. Combat is simple and slow, but good audio-visual feedback and inspired demon design keep it engaging, and the puzzles are generally mind-bending without feeling cheap or lazy, though some sections drag and some extra sections for better endings can feel esoteric. The second game is probably where this collection is at its best, though the apartment complex in 3 might have been the best level if it had been a bit snappier. Still, the total playtime won't run more than six hours, which is just right for this kind of game. Inscryption still gets my vote for best new horror-ish indie game, but the Unholy Trinity sits right behind it.
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