While it’s always exciting to see what new concepts and looks developers are coming up with, this generation has also provided great opportunities to look back. Whether in the form of straight-up ports of older games, or titles that are committed to adopting old-school look and feel elements to make new ones, we’ve seen quite a lot of variety. The risk that developers take though, is obviously bringing on elements that may have even been problematic back then, absolutely creating some classic flavor, but perhaps at the expense of playability.

Plastomorphosis, which thoroughly embraces the OG looks and styles of the likes of Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and some others, absolutely hits the target in terms of visuals. If you long for the “good old days” of moving between areas with sometimes mismatched and odd camera angles, and a great deal of grainy murkiness, this should immediately make you feel at home. Given you’re even provided the option of using tank controls, there’s no question that the developer has worked to honor the full classic experience through and through… and there is an eerie and sometimes unsettling quality that look and feel brings to the table, which I can appreciate.

The tough part, though, is that at least in my experience, that classic look seriously stands in the way of playability at times. The visual murk was so convincing and complete that it made picking out critical details a challenge, sometimes even making it tough to tell where I could go or what I could possibly do in a given space. I don’t think the issue was so much the old-school graininess to everything, as much as there being too many dark areas in places, and since there was an abundance of those even in the first area it made for a rough start. Adjusting the setting in the options section did help greatly, but oddly there were still spots where it was tough to make out what felt like critical details. This problem extended at times to being able to be accurate when interacting with objects in the environment and puzzles, not always making things impossible, but certainly making them more aggravating than necessary.

All that said, if you’re able to get through some of the aggravations, and find yourself pining for that classic style of play with elements of horror and weirdness mixed in, you could likely find this to be a good fit. While it lacks the same quality of storytelling, overall polish, and epic moments of some of the titles it took inspiration from, it holds its own reasonably well for an indie offering.