Classic survivor horror (you know, the actual one, not any horror themed game) has seen a revival in the past couple of years, which is great. I love the genre and am glad to see fresh attempts at it. Even if vast majority of them fail, just like they did during the genre heyday. Some, like Them and Us, are too ambitious for their own good. Some, like Alisa, are so focused on emulating the old style that they become more frustrating to control than the original Alone in the Dark. And some, like Tormented Souls, deliver and extremely solid enjoyable experience, even though they bring nothing special or interesting to the table. Nightmare of Decay tries to fall into the latter category for the most part, but more often than not fails miserably. But it is definitely curious.
This game is a first person survival horror (that is action adventure with a horror theme and focus on exploration and resource management) that tries to look and feel similarly to how the very first Resident Evil did. Which is especially interesting, given that one of the early ideas for that game was to have it in first person. Nonetheless, this game inherits the ideas that were brought by more recent RE titles, with the delayed aim focus and movement that isn’t entirely unlike RE7 or Village, though far more limiting.
To say that the game isn’t shy of its influences and references is to put it very mildly, as it so blatantly rips off the moments and character models from other titles that even Heaven Dust looks completely original in comparison. It’s not a bad thing on its own, of course, as long as the game has some ideas of its own. And it kinda does. Kinda, because it makes plenty of unexpected and utterly bizarre choices, yet all of them are also references to other things or ideas and mechanics from them. All of that is somewhat explainable by the whole “maybe it’s just a nightmare of a gamer” concept the game is going for (don’t even try to care about this “story”), but it almost feels like an excuse for the fact that the developers were using existing assets and were making things up as they went along.
Luckily, the first half of the game plays really well. There are strange concepts, like the limit for the sprint if there are any enemies in the room is so ridiculous, sprinting is often pointless. But overall, it’s a fun typical for the genre structure of interconnected rooms in a building that you explore and unlock, while solving puzzles and finding items an resources. And fighting enemies, which is mostly okay, apart from really trash boss designs.
There are also new modes that unlock after completing the game and it almost seems that those were the main idea behind the game in the first place, with the first playthrough being there to attract attention. Which is a shame, because the unlocked modes are roguelite, horde mode and randomizer, all of which I have zero interest in and if the game was just that, I wouldn’t have even bother playing it in the first place. It is especially sad, because among all of the bizarre influences and ideas, there are some that could be evolved into a fresh new take on the genre, like adding concepts from dungeon crawlers, which fits the whole first person view concept so well. But most of these things are there to be used once as a gimmick and are then discarded.
Did I enjoy Nightmare of Decay? The first half of the main game, mostly yes. The latter one was just annoying. And ultimately, the game just feels like wasted potential, unless you specifically like all those unlocked modes. I didn’t, hence why I don’t care about playing this more than once. Should you play it? For academic reasons, if you love the genre, sure. If you like those unlocked modes – yeah, you might like it. If you’re only vaguely familiar with the genre, I doubt you’ll find anything engaging here, though. And ultimately, it’s a question of – should you spend time on this game, when so many great survival horror classics are available? For me the answer is no.