“Psychopomp GOLD” is a first-person psychological horror game by Finn Tanguay/Karbonic, published by his independent studio Fading Club. This new Oct. iteration expands on the first game released on Jan. 2024. The game is an intensely atmospheric experience of beautiful yet horrific domains, giving home to the many characters of the universe.
The story follows an unnamed protagonist who experiences a mental breakdown due to her intense desire to uncover all of the secrets kept far away from her. To achieve this, she arms herself with a hammer and a mind reading helmet she named Psychopomp and travels to the secret catacombs of government buildings to unearth any secrets.
When entering the game, the protagonist is equipped with four actions — look, touch, talk and use a hammer — to kill enemies. The first three levels include a school, a sewage treatment plant and a pediatric hospital, all familiar settings from the original game. Each location was updated, honing in on the eerieness and developing the story.
In each location, the protagonist tells the player about each area’s role in her life and her traumatic and outraged perspective. The deeper you go, the more confounding and provocative each character becomes. At every level, the player encounters grotesque enemies — some resembling mutated animals or flesh, while others are tall red humanoids with anime-girl faces.
A range of enemies and friendly non-player characters appear throughout each level. For example, the sewage plant’s underground level features the first instance of the recurring creature, the Thrait. The Thraits are goat-esque people living in a tribalistic society, but they suffer starvation and danger underground. The player can use the functions to interact with the Thraits and learn about the strange species.
A new feature is the home level, where the player moves a sprite of the protagonist around a room. However, some sections are locked off. The player must collect hidden keys from each level to open further sections of the home.
The game has issues, as some functions may complicate new players’ experiences. It bases much of its graphics on a simplistic and polygonal level design from the first PlayStation generation with redundant dark and damp textures, which can be overwhelming as the player often has to backtrack through the maps. Such backtracking can hinder the game’s pacing and prolong some shorter levels.
The game’s controls can be challenging to get used to: it does not use a traditional WASD control setup: To move, one must use the W and S keys, and to walk. The Q and E keys are for turning left and right; A and D for Strafing. Free-look is holding control and moving the mouse.
The control scheme is unique but wonky, which can end in a game-over when dealing with an enemy as the player attempts to scramble to navigate the camera controls.
However, there are many new achievements, a more fleshed-out impact of players’ actions on the story and new levels upon completing the first three. The post-introduction levels have new puzzles and bonus areas, spicing up the variety in design and setting.
The world of “Psychopomp GOLD” is wonderfully baffling, with a beauty of confusion. Players will enjoy the rich writing and the power of grasping the hammer for safety or attack.
Connor Moody is an Arts & Entertainment Staff Writer. He can be reached at cwmoody@uci.edu.
Edited by Alaina Retodo and Bianca Marroquin.
