Withering Rooms

I have always had an interest in looking at what games are released during the months of the year. It is a necessity when you play as much as I do to be able to plan for both my time and wallet's sake, although these factors are usually thrown away and I get what looks interesting as soon as it is released. Withering Rooms, however, has passed me by completely unnoticed, despite the fact that it has been out via Early Access since the end of 2022. Now, however, it is ready to be released in full in a few days and completely unaware of what kind of experience awaited me, I ended up in the Victorian mansion called Mostyn House and took part in an atmospheric adventure.

The main character Nightingale wakes up, stuck in a dream, and must try to find her way out and solve the mysteries of the mansion. I will honestly say that the first impression was not great, as this horror adventure in many ways offers some things that feel a bit "cheap". Both the main character's animations and the first voice acting I heard gave a pretty bad impression, but fortunately, the atmosphere creeps closer and saves this first impression. At least a little bit. Right at the beginning, I thought you would only hide from the creepy characters in the mansion. This is because you can hide behind, under and in a lot of furniture and other things and wait for them to pass by or turn their backs. directly From the beginning, this is also a necessity for survival, but Nightingale soon equips herself with various weapons, discovers the possibility of creating spells and can manufacture other tools to kill all kinds of monsters and other things that stand in her way. Slaying also becomes something that needs to be done as different types of body parts need to be collected for various reasons, both for crafting items but also to move forward in the slowly unravelling story. The game has a very good variety of horrors to fight against and it is always fun to discover a new enemy and see its peculiar design.

One element that you quickly realise takes up a lot of space is that it is of a Rogue-like nature. Every time you "die" and wake up again, the mansion changes and you lose your artefacts, although this is partially preventable. I don't really know how I feel about this particular feature of this adventure. For me, usually only something like this creates a frustration if it is not a title where you do classic "Dungeon" runs. Here it becomes more of a "back to square one" moment that mostly feels annoying. However, it creates a bit of a caution to not want to die, something that you otherwise might not have cared so much about. Over time, you can also choose different items to remember so that you have them when you wake up again. So, losing your artefacts and having to look for them again can still work, I think. It is even worse with the fact that the mansion changes. A large part of the charm of exploring is that I learn about the place I am in. Here, that charm disappears as locations change, and although there is a handy map that can be clicked on the screen while playing, the layout of the mansion and its surroundings is also a bit messy as you can't really see how rooms and other things are connected. There are a lot of hidden passages and stairs to other floors and it's hard to get a good overview of the whole thing. In addition, it is largely built on a long corridor leading to a number of smaller rooms, so you'll be running in and out of doors as you explore.

In exploring the mansion, you meet many odd characters and this is also where I find one of the bigger charms in the game. The different rooms are quite small, which is a shame, I would have liked to see a more coherent screen to explore than having to run in and out of smaller rooms constantly. But the design and atmosphere is good and it's a real pleasure to explore every corner and discover everything there is. However, as I said, I think it's quite a shame that the rooms weren't a bit bigger and that the mansion felt more connected and the fact that it changes after each night also means that it doesn't really get the character it could have had. When you kind of learn its layout and then it changes, it becomes more of an annoying moment that you have to find certain specific rooms again instead of learning where things were in relation to each other. Or that the map was updated with what you explored when you started a new dream. That would have worked better in my opinion.

I mentioned earlier that Nightingale could defend herself and in addition to various weapons and spells, there is also a little simpler role-playing system with going up in level, different kinds of equipment and tools to find that help you against different things like being poisoned. A rather unique feature is a kind of curse that can come over you and then change different things in the house as it gets stronger. It's a little fun element that is added to the pile of quite unique things that Withering Rooms still offers. Because even though the game feels a bit simple in its execution, it still offers some things that work really well. Some puzzles are quite tricky and I also like the tension and atmosphere that is here to a large extent. There's also a surprising amount of places to visit and while Withering Rooms isn't particularly scary, although its visual style and an atmospheric soundtrack contribute to an eerie mood, it's mostly cosy. Some elements feel like something out of a nightmare, but it never scares the hell out of you. There are some really bizarre rooms and enemies but the perspective and graphics make it feel a little creepy, if that. However, I do not think this is a particular disadvantage where games such as Little Nightmares also have more of that cosy eerie feeling where it is more the design of some characters that feels a bit nightmarish.

All in all, Withering Rooms manages to captivate with a good atmosphere, but behind this there are some elements that also unfortunately feel a bit too simple. There's a lot of running in and out of rooms that don't offer more than a few enemies and items to find, and the game's best puzzles and other trickery appear far too rarely. I also don't really like the fact that every time I unlock a large part of the map and die, I have to revisit a lot of rooms to find items. Personally, I would have preferred a better context for the mansion to be explored bit by bit instead of being reset. Despite these weaknesses, it is an adventure with some unique elements and if you are looking for something in the horror genre, although it is much more atmospherically cosy than any horror, there are definitely some highlights that make it worth experiencing.