What always made the occult and the esoteric fascinating to me is that it's not representative of inherent evil. Many occultists identify themselves as good, and their practice as an attempt to understand the divine and the ways of the world through their religious prism. Probably my favorite kind of horror is the one where the lines between the divine and the horrific are blurred. Where awe and horror coexist, and experiences that are bliss to some, are nightmare to others.

As this game started off, I had a strong feeling that that's what we're gonna deal with here. First artifacts you encounter are obscure writings and symbolic imagery. For a moment I thought this game was really gonna delve into the esoteric and present ambiguous threats that are up to the player's interpretation.

But then it throws enemies at you, and ... sigh

It just devolves into a generic "spooky monster" horror game with bad combat. The enemies look like that corny oversized baby-looking thing from SCP. And at the same time you have to solve puzzles like "find this thing and bring it to that room." All the fascination fizzles out.

Actually this game made me realize something. Other than the Silent Hill series, I don't think there's any horror game that I genuinely like (for its horror aspects). The genre clearly has not matured in this medium almost at all. If anything, it almost seems like it has regressed, as most games seem to blindly (and poorly) copy Silent Hill and Resident Evil.