Withering Rooms

When I first booted Withering Rooms, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Every frame I had seen of the game looked like a fever dream. Was it a Metroidvania? A survival horror game? Both? I am now pleased to report that Withering Rooms does its own thing – and it more than excels at doing that.

If you like games that force you to challenge yourself, changing the rules at every step of the way and being "unfair" from time to time, you'll love Withering Rooms. Of all the things I expected the game to be, "action roguelike" was very low on my list. Yet, there's something about the way the game approaches procedural generation that makes me keep coming back for more.

If you can look past the clunkiness and peer into the shadows engrossing Withering Rooms' Victorian manor, what you'll find is an addictive game that will haunt you for days.

A Unique Take on Horror

Withering Rooms takes inspiration from some of the most legendary survival horror franchises. It took me around five minutes before I started seeing enemies that would fit perfectly in Silent Hill 3, or even Shadows of the Damned. However, the gameplay is something that you wouldn't find anywhere else.

Remember when indie horror games were all about avoiding combat? Well, Withering Rooms does the exact opposite. Instead of being a walking simulator like Outlast, this game invites the player to beat up all of its terrifying creatures.

To do so, the Withering Rooms features Soulslike combat that's similar to Blasphemous, only in a 2.5D perspective. That's where things get a bit rough, unfortunately.

Clunky (But Satisfying)

I can't say in good faith that I loved the combat in Withering Rooms. Moving around Mostyn House feels slow and clunky, and fight animations are essentially the same. Even the enemies sometimes glitched out and stood in place as I dispatched them.

When you have games like Sifu showing how to do fluid combat that makes the player feel in control at all times, games like this suddenly feel downright archaic. What's more impressive is that I'm sure that was the developer's intention all along.

Though slow and clunky, the combat in this game reminded me of what we'd see in Silent Hill or the original Resident Evil 4. Those games, as impressive as they were for their atmosphere, featured slow-paced combat that continuously heightened the tension. That's what makes Withering Rooms so unique as a horror roguelite.

A Changing Mansion

As in every good roguelite, Withering Rooms features procedurally generated levels. Trying to memorize the layout of Mostyn House is useless: the map changes each night, offering new nightmares for our character in each run.

That's an even more aggressive randomization mechanic than even something like Rogue Legacy. For fans of randomly-generated content, Withering Rooms will offer a near-endless challenge – and one that's always a blast to tackle, too.

The game's outstanding atmosphere and level design turn Mostyn House into a horror wonderland filled with all the tropes and scary locations horror hounds love. To put it briefly, this is the haunted house simulator I've always wanted to play.

Pros

• Amazing horror atmosphere
• Horrifying enemy and world design
• Engaging roguelite elements keep you hooked

Cons

• It can get repetitive after a few runs
• The randomly generated maps sometimes feel unfair
• Can be frustrating for new players