Bless those developers out there who have a unique vision for an experience, and who seem to at least mostly have the ability to bring it together. While you could accuse Dread Delusion of coming up short in some areas, one of those would never be its world which feels wholly unique. Its colorful landscapes and odd enemies you’ll encounter, even if rendered in a pretty low-quality fashion, do at least help it have an identity of its own, something not all games can really claim in these days of people working to capitalize on the latest trend or hot look.

While the story beats were all a little much for me with their talk of Old Gods and conflicts that have had deep effects on the world, you starting out as a pretty nameless prisoner I can relate to. Once you’ve made a few key decisions that will shape your core abilities, you’ll set off into the world with the framework of a mission… but you’ll quickly be tempted to simply follow your inclinations wherever they lead instead most likely. While this doesn’t boast a massive open world like AAA players have come to expect, there’s still plenty of ground to cover, and secrets to discover, pretty well wherever your inclinations may lead. 

Unfortunately, that strength can also tend to be a weakness in a few areas. The first is that, on the whole, your journey doesn’t tend to feel very deep or difficult. Even if you may not choose to go with strength and fighting skill, honestly most of the game’s combat is flat and pretty basic, generally robbing your initial choices of their impact. I don’t doubt that one reason for this is to encourage players to wander more freely, it can also have the unintended consequence of making the adventure feel more aimless and lacking in satisfaction as you slowly improve your core skills and equipment, but can start to feel untethered from the bigger experience. Depending on the game you’re looking for, this could well be a good time, but the more you’re hoping for even a semi-traditional experience, the less appealing it could be.