I don’t often get hooked on the game right away and track its development in as much detail as possible, but that’s the effect Gloomwood (opens in new tab)I had it when the demo came to Steam in 2020. A good immersive sim only comes around once every few years, so I’ll take whatever I can get, but that short vertical slice convinced me that New Blood Interactive had something special. I’m Neo. -A Victorian stealth game with a Bloodborne vibe and the backstabs, shadow hopping, and constant vulnerability of Thief.
Released in Early Access, Gloomwood is shaping up to be great. New Blood really nails the basics. Its opening level is a spooky sprawling space with multiple solutions and looming security guards, and just the right amount of silly. I love the lethality of a pointed cane sword, the click of a revolver as you check for ammunition, and the satisfaction of walking past unsuspecting rogues in pitch black shadows.
What I don’t like is that there isn’t enough of it right now.
sneak king
Gloomwood starts by throwing you down a nasty hole. You are an obscure doctor (an “outsider” according to your captor) rotting in a prison of fish guts. A shadowy figure provides a means to quickly escape and grab gear. That, in essence, is all the direction the game offers.
There could have been some other interesting story bits shared by the chatty guards, but if so, I was almost certainly distracted by a tricky stealth encounter. It’s the rare stealth game that makes you happy when you step too far into a patch or jog when you’re supposed to be walking. It’s a wake-up call from modern stealth games like Dishonored, Watch Dogs, and Hitman, and it’s basically trained to be invisible as long as you crouch. Good thing Gloomwood includes a version of Thief’s light meter. This is a ring that is always visible on the Doctor’s hand and that glows according to how prominent you are.
Ring is a bit of immersive tech genius, but it’s just one of Gloomwood’s coolest diegetic design choices. Probably my favorite item in the game is the Doctor’s Briefcase, which holds a grid-based inventory system. It sounds a little silly to talk about the inventory grid so enthusiastically, but there’s more to it than that.
Nearly every object you can pick up is in your briefcase as a 3D model, not a scribble of text on a list. Doc needs enough space to put the case in the world (on the ground or on a table), even to check inventory. Time doesn’t stop while you’re fiddling with your pockets, so something as simple as injecting a health syringe requires tactical consideration.Space is limited by the grid size, but inventory is just how good he is at Tetris. It is also limited by At first, I tried to keep a tidy case with a corner for throwables, a column for guns, and a corner for healing items, but it got messy within hours (perfect for a real desk). reflection). Even better, you can literally drag items from the case into the world as if the mouse were your hand.
Thanks to Gloomwood for their attention to detail. The manual process of discarding objects one by one led to later guessing if the case really needed to carry another glass jar when he had already littered with three empty fish cans. Gloomwood shows little mercy when it comes to guns. The only way to see how much ammo you have in your revolver is to hold R to open the chamber and count bullets. This is pretty cool, except there were a few times when I tried to check my ammo and realized it was too dark to see the gun.
Appetizer
After the first playthrough, we still don’t know what’s going on in Gloomwood, but it makes sense when you realize that the three levels currently available are basically one big tutorial. The first fishing area is a perfect mix of multi-floor indoor spaces and outdoor exploration, but the caves and cliff side areas that follow are noticeably sparse with fewer alternative routes. I hope the later levels get more complicated.
During my playthrough of Gloomwood, I was often distracted by the future.There’s a lot of cool stuff in the first few hours, so it became annoying to be constantly reminded of the unfinished state. You will be greeted by a sealed door that says ‘inside’.
Difficulty options are too limited as well. Right now, there are normal and hard presets, but I would like to adjust the rules to my liking. The first thing I turn off is Gloomwood’s strict checkpoints that only allow saving in certain secure rooms. call me normal But no stealth game is complete without a quick save/load key.
It was already over when I started getting all the cool stuff like shotguns and multi-purpose Undertaker pistols. disappointing!
I think this is an inevitable pacing issue until there are more Groomwoods to play with.As is is fine, but unless you really need an immersive sim fix, it’s better to wait until it’s all sorted out. prize. New Blood estimates it will take “at least a year or two.” I think it will be worth the wait.
