Nightmare of Decay

A nice bite-sized slice of survival horror that features all the item management, puzzles and deadly enemies the genre's best moments are known for, at least in gameplay. The aesthetic value of Nightmare Of Decay is quite low, with a nice gritty PS1-esque aesthetic whose blocky shadows and grayscale color aberrations play well into some cool jumpscare moments, but with no real story to speak of and many setpieces recycled entirely from Resident Evil, especially 1Make. Also undercut by mostly boring monster designs and an insulting Monty Python reference for a boss fight. It does the job just fine, and includes some fun randomizer and horde modes for RE superfans who are into that sort of it, but even for an indie horror budget title, it's punching under its weight in terms of ideas.

Nighmare of Decay is a very low budget indie horror title that still managed to provide a very nice hommage to RE1 during its 2 hour runtime. It also takes a lot of influence from RE4 and Silent Hill, but it definitly feels closer to the survival horror of RE1.gameplaywise.

You play as a man trapped in a nightmare, and it of course it opens up with the mansion of RE1. It delivers the same blend of action horror and exploration that game did so well, with a surprising amount of secrets that require backtracking to unlock.

Its lofi poly style makes it look almost like a PS1, but that does make it feel more nostalgic and atmospheric. Its got good visual direction, and despite the rough animations everything is competent. I encountered no bugs during my playthrough. The only real annoying enemies were the gun wielding cultists, but thankfully their appearance is brief.

A very well made project, and for a 2 hour playtime it delivers exactly what i wanted out of it.