Review: Horripilant
- Guilherme Ribeiro
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
Explore the dungeons in search of answers.
THE GAME
Horripilant is an incremental game developed by Pas Game Studio and Alexandre Declos and distributed by Black Lantern Collective. You, a knight, awaken in a dungeon. With no memory of anything, you find yourself in a macabre environment. With limited resources, your goal is to escape, even if you have to face powerful enemies, including a God.
MY IMPRESSIONS
Incremental and clicker games generally follow an addictive formula of upgrades, increasing stats, and an endless cycle of restarts. Horripilant changes this common dynamic without removing the factor that makes the genre appealing. Yes, there will still be increasing stats and various upgrades, but here the game makes the player interact with the world, discovering new things in the form of puzzles and interactions in battles. To obtain resources, you must click on them, as well as make upgrades to acquire these same resources passively. Remember that even with the game completed, you will still receive resources passively. With wood, stone, and iron, you can improve your equipment to help in your dungeon adventure. As you descend, battles happen automatically. You can always choose to stay on that floor, exit on the next, or give up. If you give up, you lose resources, the same applies if you are defeated. During battles, points appear on the screen, which are the enemy's weak points, and if you press them, you will cause damage to the enemy, allowing the player to interact in battles in a way that makes a real difference in the initial levels of the dungeons. When you defeat enemies, you gain meat, which can be used to improve your maximum resource capacity or to recruit a familiar to aid you in battles. Additionally, upon completing a floor, you can choose an upgrade that will only last until you return to your camp. The first time you complete a dungeon floor, you gain a resource called Hemalith, which is used as points in a skill tree that appears upon rebirth – a way to restart with more upgrades, present in all games of this genre. This rebirth is essential for progressing in the game, as it makes your life easier and allows you to advance further. Finally, on some specific floors, you receive items that are essential for solving puzzles scattered throughout the game.
The puzzles are quite interesting, creating an air of suspense about what you will find, as the game's atmosphere is quite macabre. The art stands out for its very well-done pixel art, which evokes an ancient and dark feeling. The game is in Brazilian Portuguese, which helps the player understand the game's mechanics and upgrades, as well as follow the story. The tone of Horripilant is very interesting, making the player want to progress through both battles and puzzles to discover what's hidden in that world. It's not a tiring game that will demand hours of attention and loops where little progress is made. If you engage with the game, it goes by so fast you don't even notice, which is good for a game of this genre, since this type of game usually aims to keep you hooked for hundreds of hours. Horripilant has a story to tell, its gameplay is fun, and it knows how to finish in a satisfying way.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Horripilant rewards you with achievements just for playing what's proposed. Experiencing everything the game offers will unlock practically all the achievements, even passively by facing enemies, unlocking resources, or solving puzzles. I believe the only achievement that will be a real challenge is reaching floor 10 without dying or respawning, but that can be done in a new save space just to complete it. There's also an achievement related to an item and its use, but I won't spoil the surprise, as it serves as a message from the developers to players who push the game's limits. Therefore, just enjoy the game; you won't miss any achievements along the way. If you liked the game, you'll try the challenge and you'll surely get 100% of the achievements.
CONCLUSION
There are plenty of incremental games out there that don't know when to stop. While a game of this genre might be enjoyable initially, it can quickly become tiresome. Horripilant knows how to pace itself, precisely because it has a story to tell and doesn't let the player get bored, whether it's pressing weak points in battles and calculating the right time to leave, or solving puzzles scattered across the map. The game rarely gets stuck; many times I was the one pushing myself to the limit before respawning. Horripilant will appeal to those who like to let the game run in the background as well as those who like to advance quickly. The puzzles are interesting and the ending is quite unique. For those who like incremental games but don't want to spend hours managing resources, Horripilant is a great option.
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