I Hate This Place – New Isometric Survival Horror Releases January 29th
I Hate This Place is an indie survival horror game with a bold art style and isometric gameplay. You explore, fight, scavenge, and craft items in hopes of survival. The game releases on January 29, but there is a free demo that you can check out on Steam now. So, does the demo draw the player into the game? Let’s take a look at the demo and find out.
About I Hate This Place
Developed by Rock Square Thunder, I Hate This Place is based on an 80’s comic book series by Kyle Starks and Artyom Topilin. I’ve never read the comics, so I can’t say how faithful the game is to the source material, but I can say that the game’s art style is bold, colorful, and reminiscent of a comic book without distracting from the game’s creepy mood. There are small details, such as little sound effect words that pop up when you move too fast, that make you feel like you’re playing in a comic world.
The story starts out simple. Your friend goes missing when you’re trying an occult ritual, so now you have to find her. Of course, this will lead to you making horrific discoveries as you explore the isometric world. You have to maintain your health by eating, and you can’t always depend on finding food, so you have to conserve the food you do find. Making noise can also disturb the enemies, so sometimes you have to crouch walk so you won’t make noise.
The game also features a crafting system, which you have to use in order to survive. You have to investigate every trash can and table in case they have blueprints lying around. Blueprints let you craft items from the various debris you find. However, items can only be crafted at certain spots, meaning that you’d better take advantage of crafting opportunities when you have them, since backtracking can be deadly.
My Experience with the Demo
After the opening cutscene, I Hate This Place drops you into exploration mode without explaining the controls. As such, I looked at the menu for the control guide, only to find that it didn’t just tell me which keys did what. Instead, it showed a diagram of a keyboard with certain keys shaded in for different actions – and the keys weren’t labelled. It didn’t hinder my ability to figure out the controls, but it struck me as a weird design decision.
In addition, I found that the isometric controls took some getting used to with the WASD keys, especially when the game required me to enter tight corridors. Several times, I had difficulty aiming my character at the corridor. Still, it was a minor issue, and most of the time I was able to get where I wanted to go.
Obviously, since it’s a demo, I didn’t see a lot of the story, but from what I did see, I got interested in the game’s occult nature and creepy monsters that look like giant blood vessels creeping everywhere (make sure you crouch when you go past them, or else they’ll grab you and suck the health out of you). Is it the most gripping horror game I ever played? No, but I could see myself buying it during a Steam sale sometime.
Horror Adventure Fans Should Check Out I Hate This Place
Will I buy I Hate This Place? Well, I’ve got other games that are higher on my “to buy” list, but I might grab it on sale sometime. It’s got a sufficiently creepy atmosphere and a good sense of exploration. I enjoyed just wandering around and trying not to get killed. I Hate This Place releases on January 29th, and you can play the demo on Steam right now.
