Devotion is a dark and often disturbing game that doesn't throw punches in telling its narrative. It's a simple horror where you explore various points of history as you piece together a story involving a writer, a promising actress turned housewife and a misunderstood child. There's no difficulty and the game is short but the impression Devotion leaves is a haunting one rare horror games can accomplish.
Players take control of Feng Yu, an award-winning screenwriter who is suffering from stagnation in his career. However, we're not experiencing his story directly but from various points of history. With the player slowly piecing together what happened to his family. Exploring various time periods critical to what happened and solving puzzles that uncover new information.
The only threat is a grotesque monster that resembles Kayako Saeki from The Grudge or Lisa from P.T.. This creature follows the player throughout the adventure but doesn't serve as a threat until only 1 specific moment in the game. Instead, the main focus is the narrative and atmosphere of the journey. With not only direct information being fed to the player but environmental storytelling playing a huge role in painting the whole picture. There's no English VO option so you'll have to make do with subtitles, which wasn't a problem for me but maybe a dealbreaker for some.
In terms of gameplay, you'll solve basic puzzles by collecting key items and occasionally interacting with specific items. It's nothing too difficult and since there's no threat to deal with you have no pressure to hurry. Most of the time you just have to head from one location to the next and interact with the right item. This isn't hard to figure out as most interactive items are largely highlighted and most of the items play a practical role with the exception of a few. The game gives you enough clues to know where to go and what to based on information from cutscenes and the general environment.
Littered throughout are optional items that add to the story. These explain things about the character's past and what they were doing during the course of their time together. While these are optional most players will pick them up thinking they're paramount to progression.
The game's visual design and audio are fine. The lighting adds tension during specific situations and the overall visual design is done well. For a small team, it's impressive what they accomplished for the technical quality of the game considering more and more games are releasing with many crashing issues and massive bugs.
Devotion is a special game that tells a deeply disturbing story with many themes within its 2-hour journey. It's hard to discuss them without going into spoilers but the events that transpire paint a sad narrative with no happy ending. The gameplay is basic and the threat of death is nonexistent but learning about what happened to Feng Yu's family did offer enough interest that I played through the game twice to completely understand what transpired. Devotion will not appeal to horror fans looking for the thrill of being hunted or chased but those looking for a sinister story.
Adam Siddiqui,
Managing Editor, NoobFeed
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| Platform(s): | PC |
| Publisher(s): | Red Candle Games |
| Developer(s): | Red Candle Games |
| Genres: | Horror |
| Themes: | Horror |
| Release Date: | 2019-02-19 |
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