This review contains spoilers
Forgive Me Father is a “Punch out your throat and s h i t down your neck” simulator/Retraux First Person Shooter developed by Byte Barrel and published by Fulqrum (who's taken to publishing other FPS throwbacks like Hyperviolent and Dread Templar). The origins of this game are unknown, like most Lovecraftian creatures (for those not in the know, Lovecraft’s schtick is the unnameable horrors that when you see them, you go mad. Look him up, really fun stuff.) but what I am able to find on the origins of this game involve the actual animation stuff (which I’ll put in graphics and art direction later) so I’m kind of unsure at the moment. What I can tell you is that anyone who knows me, knows I’m a HUGE sucker for H.P. Lovecraft and his horror, the idea that anything can drive you mad just by looking at it to me is the most visceral form that one could really deal with. While I appreciate the ideas behind it, sometimes I just wanna shoot s h i t as well, and this game was advertised…somewhere and it somehow got my attention enough to wishlist the hell out of it. If I were to make a guess, I’d say it would be AlphaBetaGamer again, because they usually find the good stuff that makes me wanna snort it up my nose and into my veins to get my video game indie fix. I had gotten this game myself from a buddy of mine, Bad Ghosts (link down below) for my birthday I believe during Early Access and so I went about giving it a try before waiting to finish the final game around April of 2022? I had recently just gave it a shot again with a buddy of mine to wrap up the achievements for Halloween and this is my review.
The graphics/Art direction for this game is astounding with its comic book inspired design along with the 2.5D perspective the actual gameplay takes place in. Most objects will do the thing where it rotates depending on the direction you look at it from while the actual environments in the background stay static where it is. I love it, but according to the developers it came with certain challenges like hand drawing the animations to fluidity (while lowering the amount of frames) and matching the lighting to fit the perspective while also keeping it 3D around the model (at least I think, I suck at Dev lingo sometimes). What I can say is by god, it’s amazing how many screenshots I could have and have taken in the time that I’ve played this game. The game looks beautiful from its artistic gothic streets all the way to the non-euclidianesque design of the final chapter. The lighting and color scheme of everything is different and varied from bright purple to murky light blue to even going black and white during the final boss. Speaking of, the creature and boss designs in the actual game itself (especially the Liquidators oooooh boy they look phenomenal) are freaky and intimidating and I love it. I love everything about this, they pulled these designs either straight from Lovecraft or mixed and matched their own vibes and while it’s ominous, with you and your weapons in your hand you it reeks of a good action horror experience. Speaking of the weapons, going to gameplay next but I’ll say that the weapon animations are also great for what they’re working with and the extra flair of the upgrades once you buy them add a sort of different aesthetic design that while is over the top and extra, doesn’t feel out of place for this game’s world. You’ll find your fair share of easter eggs out in the wild as well from references to The Shining, to Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, amongst others that you’ll experience. To finish off with audio stuff, The voice acting is pretty decent, you’ll only really hear voice lines from the Preacher and Journalist as well as the narrator and everyone does a solid job for the most part in the delivery of their lines. The environment sounds are amazing (the guns especially) and the soundtrack consists of banging metal riffs that get the job done in making you feel hyped.
The gameplay for the most part is simple fare: it’s a first person shooter. You’ll get guns that range from pistols, to Tommy Guns to Shotguns to whatever while ripping and tearing through enemies and collecting different colored keys for different colored doors. HOWEVER, it does SOME things that are different: mostly this has to do with the upgrade system as well as the two different characters in relation to their classes. As said before, you can upgrade your weapons in different ways that have different abilities (like having the Tommy Gun turn into a straight up laser cannon if I remember correctly as an example) and it allows for different variations and class choices in your run through the game. Either way, the weapons feel punchy as hell and amazing; so it doesn’t feel JUST like you're shooting a pea shooter even if it’s a weak weapon. The game also gives you reset skills as well after each act if you ever want to reset some of these skill trees to something different. You can also choose between the Priest and the Journalist, both of whom apparently have different skills according to the game? I can’t tell you about the Journalist except some guides say that she’s more of a crowd control person, I didn’t notice as my buddy played through it on Very Easy with cheats on for New Game Plus (which there is one if you want to play again with stuff unlocked) so I’ll post a guide but what I can say is that for the most part I didn’t really use the abilities? Half the time I even forgot what they did, but then again I played as the Priest like a year or two ago so I’m not too surprised in the slightest to be honest. The only other thing I can mention is that while I got confused sometimes, most of the levels were intuitive while the bosses can be a difficult HELL to get through and all require different strategies (I’m talking to you King in Yellow, and “Big Ugly Fish” you f u c kers) but feel satisfying to get through once it’s done.
The story is a simple one, either as the Priest or the Journalist you get a letter from your cousin Louis about strange happenings in the small town of Pestisville. However, once there the main character gets a VERY unfriendly welcome as you try to meet up with your cousin. An ambush happens with the undead and the main character gets rolling to shoot up the creatures of the unknown. That’s the most part of the story I could catch, there are documents scattered around that give flavor text but other than some references and vague stuff you don’t get much to go on. Between the boss battles you find Dr. Sullivan (Louis’s friend) who reveals a Cthulhu cult (later revealed to be led by the mayor of the town) and eventually you make your way to a ship and you hear a call from the Late Dreamer itself. After fighting your way through, you manage to kill Cthulhu…or did you? Was the whole game a figment of your imagination? Did you kill Louis? Is the cult keeping you trapped? Who knows but the ending fits the Lovecraftian tropes and I’m all for it and even though it's minimalist it does a good job conveying atmosphere.
So what’s the verdict? Do you need a small four to five hour retro FPS game to shoot s h i t for Halloween? My answer is yes, the game is worth your time and your money, if you want to get it on sale then that would probably be smart? My 10 ½ hours or so came from time in Early Access as well as my playthroughs with it but If I didn’t get it for my birthday, I would’ve gotten it on sale most likely. Either way, it’s a solid fun time and it’s sequel just got released on Early Access either today or yesterday so I’m a bit late but yeah, play the game it’s good!
Links:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2791989992
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/ForgiveMeFather
https://www.youtube.com/@BadGhosts
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2272250/Forgive_Me_Father_2/
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/
The graphics/Art direction for this game is astounding with its comic book inspired design along with the 2.5D perspective the actual gameplay takes place in. Most objects will do the thing where it rotates depending on the direction you look at it from while the actual environments in the background stay static where it is. I love it, but according to the developers it came with certain challenges like hand drawing the animations to fluidity (while lowering the amount of frames) and matching the lighting to fit the perspective while also keeping it 3D around the model (at least I think, I suck at Dev lingo sometimes). What I can say is by god, it’s amazing how many screenshots I could have and have taken in the time that I’ve played this game. The game looks beautiful from its artistic gothic streets all the way to the non-euclidianesque design of the final chapter. The lighting and color scheme of everything is different and varied from bright purple to murky light blue to even going black and white during the final boss. Speaking of, the creature and boss designs in the actual game itself (especially the Liquidators oooooh boy they look phenomenal) are freaky and intimidating and I love it. I love everything about this, they pulled these designs either straight from Lovecraft or mixed and matched their own vibes and while it’s ominous, with you and your weapons in your hand you it reeks of a good action horror experience. Speaking of the weapons, going to gameplay next but I’ll say that the weapon animations are also great for what they’re working with and the extra flair of the upgrades once you buy them add a sort of different aesthetic design that while is over the top and extra, doesn’t feel out of place for this game’s world. You’ll find your fair share of easter eggs out in the wild as well from references to The Shining, to Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, amongst others that you’ll experience. To finish off with audio stuff, The voice acting is pretty decent, you’ll only really hear voice lines from the Preacher and Journalist as well as the narrator and everyone does a solid job for the most part in the delivery of their lines. The environment sounds are amazing (the guns especially) and the soundtrack consists of banging metal riffs that get the job done in making you feel hyped.
The gameplay for the most part is simple fare: it’s a first person shooter. You’ll get guns that range from pistols, to Tommy Guns to Shotguns to whatever while ripping and tearing through enemies and collecting different colored keys for different colored doors. HOWEVER, it does SOME things that are different: mostly this has to do with the upgrade system as well as the two different characters in relation to their classes. As said before, you can upgrade your weapons in different ways that have different abilities (like having the Tommy Gun turn into a straight up laser cannon if I remember correctly as an example) and it allows for different variations and class choices in your run through the game. Either way, the weapons feel punchy as hell and amazing; so it doesn’t feel JUST like you're shooting a pea shooter even if it’s a weak weapon. The game also gives you reset skills as well after each act if you ever want to reset some of these skill trees to something different. You can also choose between the Priest and the Journalist, both of whom apparently have different skills according to the game? I can’t tell you about the Journalist except some guides say that she’s more of a crowd control person, I didn’t notice as my buddy played through it on Very Easy with cheats on for New Game Plus (which there is one if you want to play again with stuff unlocked) so I’ll post a guide but what I can say is that for the most part I didn’t really use the abilities? Half the time I even forgot what they did, but then again I played as the Priest like a year or two ago so I’m not too surprised in the slightest to be honest. The only other thing I can mention is that while I got confused sometimes, most of the levels were intuitive while the bosses can be a difficult HELL to get through and all require different strategies (I’m talking to you King in Yellow, and “Big Ugly Fish” you f u c kers) but feel satisfying to get through once it’s done.
The story is a simple one, either as the Priest or the Journalist you get a letter from your cousin Louis about strange happenings in the small town of Pestisville. However, once there the main character gets a VERY unfriendly welcome as you try to meet up with your cousin. An ambush happens with the undead and the main character gets rolling to shoot up the creatures of the unknown. That’s the most part of the story I could catch, there are documents scattered around that give flavor text but other than some references and vague stuff you don’t get much to go on. Between the boss battles you find Dr. Sullivan (Louis’s friend) who reveals a Cthulhu cult (later revealed to be led by the mayor of the town) and eventually you make your way to a ship and you hear a call from the Late Dreamer itself. After fighting your way through, you manage to kill Cthulhu…or did you? Was the whole game a figment of your imagination? Did you kill Louis? Is the cult keeping you trapped? Who knows but the ending fits the Lovecraftian tropes and I’m all for it and even though it's minimalist it does a good job conveying atmosphere.
So what’s the verdict? Do you need a small four to five hour retro FPS game to shoot s h i t for Halloween? My answer is yes, the game is worth your time and your money, if you want to get it on sale then that would probably be smart? My 10 ½ hours or so came from time in Early Access as well as my playthroughs with it but If I didn’t get it for my birthday, I would’ve gotten it on sale most likely. Either way, it’s a solid fun time and it’s sequel just got released on Early Access either today or yesterday so I’m a bit late but yeah, play the game it’s good!
Links:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2791989992
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/ForgiveMeFather
https://www.youtube.com/@BadGhosts
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2272250/Forgive_Me_Father_2/
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/