Astute readers may recall last year’s PAX South hands-on with World of Horror, a black-and-white horror game that harkens back to much earlier days of computer gaming. At the time, the game was expected to be released sometime in 2019, however, that schedule slipped into 2020. For PAX South this year, that meant that World of Horror was back at the Ysbryd booth, showcasing both the school story from last year, and a new story featuring a relative’s funeral at an old mansion.
Since last year, the interface has received some additional updates that clarify how things work, and developer Panstasz has been hard at work getting the game ready to launch. All that hard work showed off to great effect in the funeral scenario I played through.
In the new scenario, the player’s character receives an invitation to the funeral of an uncle he barely knew. He arrives at a mysterious house at nightfall and finds a crowd that unfamiliar people scattered throughout the house. As the night wears on, the player slowly uncovers the mysteries behind his uncle’s mansion, while also battling a series of increasingly awful enemies. Combat now requires a careful balancing of health and sanity. It’s possible to trade a bit of one for the other, but always at a small loss. As before, losing too much of one or the other will inevitably result in a bad ending.
Here’s where you’ll map out cases, and decide what to take next. Assuming you survive.
Navigation through the scenario also seemed to be improved from last year’s demo. Where wandering through the school halls felt totally random, in the mansion, I could easily return to rooms that I’d already searched. This became important later in the adventure when my character had to return to the room containing his uncle’s body at midnight. Once again, I ultimately came to a bad end without successfully revealing all the forces at work within the mansion. I’ll be looking forward to taking another shot at both this and the school scenario when the game comes out.
Spoiler alert: The noise in the bathroom is definitely not Moaning Myrtle. A straight razor may not be much of a weapon, but it’s better than a fist.
World of Horror is planned to hit Steam Early Access on February 20th. Per Ysbryd’s PR, the plan is to eventually bring the game to various console platforms once it gets through Early Access, however there’s no official ETA on that. Be sure to check out the official World of Horror website at http://www.wohgame.com/. We can’t wait for February 20th!
