New year, new spooky demos. I took two weeks off and did not think about games other than Wildfrost and Control. That was until I discovered Indie Game Twitter. A seemingly infinite space of people talking about the games they are making. One game caught my eye and surprise, it had a demo. This week investigate a Polish town and solve a mystery in Holstin.

Holstin is a survival horror/puzzle game from Sonka. The game is TBD.

According to the Steam profile. Holstin is set in a 1990s Polish town with a horror possessing the inhabitants. Interrogate the populace, decipher puzzles, and gun down freaks in attempts to solve the mystery surrounding Holstin.

Holstin is clever in its introduction to the main mechanics of its game. The puzzle section and the combat are separated into their own sections with their own explanations and their own specific environments.

The puzzle section is located in a home in a Polish town where rumors suggest an important blueprint is located. The puzzles really remind me of Resident Evil puzzles. You’ll need lots of keys, a lot of notes that reference a safe in the house, and one piece of code. You’ll pick up items, manage inventory space, and talk to people in the house to learn more about the town and what is happening.

The combat section takes a different turn, introducing the player to the sewer museum where the monsters live. The curator of the museum teaches the player how to use the environment to their advantage, staying concealed from the enemy and when caught, how to engage the monsters. The most surprising aspect of the combat is that the game is top-down but when the time comes to shoot some monsters, the game goes right into an over-the-shoulder. It takes some getting used to but the whole animation is snappy and it really just works.

The player is able to rotate the camera to find hidden objects within the world and it works wonders. The camera can rotate a full 180 degrees and the placement of certain objects really makes the player scan for every last detail.

A stamina bar is present and it depletes after dodging, shooting, and getting hit by the bad guys.

The way that the mechanics are introduced and implemented within each tutorial makes the game super fun and approachable.

We are here once again on the topic of Pixel graphics. Holstin is clever in its game design. The game is great looking when stationary, but the player can rotate the camera to find hidden paths, and items, or even to help solve puzzles. The game is dark but achieves a really good spooky atmosphere. Blood and gross tentacle shit trails on the player’s feet, the light pierces through the darkness but there is still an eerie sound and a form shifting behind the darkness is even spookier. Talking to characters brings up a portrait of them and man, the people are just gross-looking. Not in a badly design way, but that the story behind everything really brings it all together.

The game looks and sounds great the entire time

I don’t remember where I found information regarding Holstin (probably Twitter), but let me say how grateful I am to have stumbled upon it. Holstin already has so much love put into it. The museum combat tutorial alone is so much fun to play because of the interactions between the player and the “curator.” The game looks great and the atmosphere is where the game works really well. The game is quiet, and unknown, spooky sounds and tentacles litter the home and sewers and it really put me on edge and there was no real threat to my character.

I cannot wait to play more Holstin. That game demo is an absolute gem.