Happy about: Caput Mortum

Imagine the look of an early 2000s horror themed FPS mixed with elements of King’s Field and Penumbra, all wrapped in influences of Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, with a pinch of mood of Arx Fatalis and Clive Barker’s Undying. This is a lot of references, but the idea here is that Caput Mortum is a freshly released horror themed action adventure game, but it feels like it could come out back in 2003 and feel right at home there. I mean it in the best sense. And while the game is quite short, it uses its runtime exceptionally well.

The idea of Caput Mortum is quite simple – it’s a first person perspective game, with some combat and even more puzzle solving, where the main “gimmick” is that your main interaction element and also visual indicator is your right hand. It’s always on the screen, you can move it freely around the screen, it holds items that you pick up (you can only hold one key item at once), shows weapon equipped or healing herbs, depending on what buttons you press. And interaction with the world happens in the part of the screen where the hand is, not just based on where you look. It is a bit clunky, and a few combat encounters due to this feel poorly thought out (the torch one truly needs some rethinking), but also leads to some very creative puzzles and combat encounters.

As mentioned, the game is quite short, in my 3 hours I’ve finished it twice, as it does have a welcome New Game + unlockable and even a secret ending that’s extremely entertaining. But at the same time, it does use this time well and as you’re going from area to area you never know what to expect next. Several parts of the game felt extremely creepy in my favorite way – not via jumpscares with loud music, but via unexpected and unnerving design for enemies or puzzles. And apart from said torch encounter, only the last part also feels a bit too long and tense because of the checkpoints. The game only checkpoints as you enter a particular area and there are no mid-area checkpoints, which is well enough balanced in most of the game, but a couple spots could use some rebalancing.

Overall, while the game is a bit awkward in ways that go beyond the intended desire to make you feel helpless, it’s a fantastic and short experience that is probably not as potentially revolutionary as the Penumbra: Overture (or tech demo), but evokes similar feelings of – this is fantastic and fresh. It could use some polishing, especially in terms of combat and some of the hand positioning puzzles, but is otherwise a great title to play.