Withering Rooms was an unexpected and gripping slice of dollhouse action-RPG horror. As such, I’ve been looking forward to Withering Realms, the standalone sequel of sorts, which launches into Early Access today.
The new game is set in the 1920s, after the First World War ended “prematurely” thanks to an occult catastrophe. You play as a ghost child, hanging on the shoulders of a living puppet. The puppet is a real fright, his body is full of springs and hinges, his face is a one-eyed grin: it reminds me of certain scenes from Phil Tippett’s stop motion masterpiece, Mad God, and also, Curly from Mouthwashing. You wouldn’t accept it if this thing offered you a piggyback ride. But that East quite handy in a fight.
The developers, Moonless Formless, sum up the exploration and combat as “top-down Zelda meets Bloodborne.” The game’s unlockable areas are a gothic stew of swamps, forests, caves, rancid estates, and dilapidated, flower-filled graveyards. They’re absolutely chocabloc with monsters, ranging from relatively bearable crazy maids to a sort of flat-screen TV made of eyeballs. The doll takes it all without problem. You can replace your servant’s right arm with arcane tools such as stones on chains and candlesticks that spit fireballs. You can also cast spells from the doll’s back.
If you’re tired of your valiant horse’s lipless smile and/or being cut to giblets by clumsy bogtrotters with huge heads, you can also ride on the shoulders of “bold independent investigator Althea Crossley.”
Althea isn’t very good at fighting, but she is good at sneaking around, picking locks, and interrogating people. She’s also your ticket to the town of Penwyll, the game’s central location, which is home to shops where you can buy new murder parts for the doll. The developers characterize the Althea side of the game as “a mix of 3/4 top-down viewpoints and classic fixed-camera survival horror.”
You can visit each location you unlock day or night. Things get nastier after dark, but there may also be plot secrets to uncover.
The early access version of Withering Realms already allows you to play from “start to credits”, with an estimated duration of 15 to 42 hours based on playtesting. It includes around 50 weapons, around 70 talismans, and over 110 monsters. During the early access period, the developers plan to add support for additional languages, more endgame items and game modes, and the usual fixes and tweaks. Learn more about Steam.
