Upcoming horror darling Holstin has had a few demos since it was first announced in late 2022, which its Steam Next Fest demo easily compiles into a single download for you, breaking them down into puzzle and combat sequences. Admittedly, I got stuck halfway through the puzzle, so I started their Steam forums to lose a bit of credibility as a guide writer looking for the solution, but I was surprised to see so much negativity on display. Some harsh words were thrown about its combat demo in particular, and a small wave of disappointment hit me at the prospect of another survival horror game with lackluster combat. Then I played the combat demo and came to an important conclusion. That is to say, your enjoyment of Holstin will almost certainly depend on how much you still like the classic survival horror design, rather than how much you like it. think You still like the classic survival horror design.
This isn't meant to be a haughty statement of “You just don't get it,” but rather a general guideline as to whether or not Holstin is the right flavor of survival horror for you. I completely understand why some might not adapt to its complicated combat, but after a brief learning curve (most of which I spent dying), it clicked for me spectacularly. Holstin isn't looking to add modern conveniences for an easy homage to '90s PS1-era survival horror. Instead, he's thrown a bunch of hiccups at you to remind you how stressful combat felt during the dawn of the genre, whether you like it or not. No.
Watch on YouTube
Admittedly, this is a bit jarring compared to the first demo, whose puzzles were pretty standard affairs you'd find in any game with the survival horror tag on Steam. The mustachioed protagonist, Tomasz, finds himself at the Janowski house during a rainy night in a hauntingly isolated Polish town in search of his missing friend, Bartek. Tomasz is searching for hidden blueprints for his new ally, Anita, so she can reluctantly help Tomasz in his quest. This is made even more difficult as some pesky tentacle-like pseudopods infest the ruined house and block important paths. Therefore, you must find light sources and manipulate where and when they shine on the pseudopodia to forge a path to the planes.
Holstin's touch of creativity here comes from his gorgeous pixel art style, creepy character portraits, and rotating isometric view. If you want to complete the puzzle, it is essential to turn the camera, as there are hidden items scattered throughout the house. It's easy enough to annoy you a little because of how many clues there are, but hard enough to annoy you even more if you're still stumped after one clue. It all comes together to feel like yet another love letter to survival horror, with some nice stylistic touches. The rest of Holstin could have been a perfectly good game if it had followed suit… but its combat demo is here to tear up that love letter and remind us that survival horror never really loved us anyway.
In Holstin, you really need to be precise and calculate what you are going to do during each enemy encounter. Or what you are No you're going to do, since running toward an exit is sometimes your best option (even if it's harder to do in Holstin's narrow hallways). If you choose to fight, aiming takes you from the isometric perspective to an almost first-person, over-the-shoulder view, and anything but fast, expert aiming is basically a one-way ticket to the game over screen. It's not so bad when there's an enemy far away, but it's a recipe for complete panic when more than one humanoid monstrosity runs towards you.
You also can't simply rely on headshots, since if an enemy has a visible mutation somewhere, it takes a lot more ammo to damage that body part. It might be a better idea to shoot their legs and run past the stumbling corpse, or rip off their arms to prevent them from grabbing you. However, sometimes, even with a mutation, you have to deal with the head first, or a disturbing amount of spikes could emerge from it, sometimes blocking the entire room.
It can be brutal. For a good portion of the 90 minutes I spent in the combat demo, I died almost immediately after hitting an enemy. Then, he would die again. It may seem like a terrible time, but any Soulsborne fan can tell you that there's some sick pleasure in a game that reminds you how much you suck, really, until you rack your brain a little and solve the unique puzzle. of an enemy encounter.
Many times, action can feel like it's added in survival horror games to give you something to do between solving puzzles and running away from the latest horrible creature. Or, in recent remakes and sequels, it often feels like a way to give you a little more power, which creates a lot less fear. When you know exactly how to take down each type of enemy with ease, for example, not to mention having enough supplies to do so, you take the stress out of managing ammo and medical supplies on the fly.
In Holstin, even with tons of ammo and plentiful health items, combat can be grueling if you're not paying attention, but it never feels cheap. I'm not a big fan of the combat in most survival horror games, but I am a big fan of the combat in Holstin. It has a purpose. Recapture the stressful feel of '90s survival horror combat without the tank controls, fixed camera angles, and questionable aim to contend with. An impressive feat when most other modern homages ease up on combat, opting to replicate exploration and puzzles to recapture that nostalgic feeling.
This doesn't necessarily make Holstin a better game than these modern tributes, but it does make it weirder. I'm much more excited to get my hands on the full game after experiencing Holstin's tough combat than I am after solving his excellent puzzle display. Something I never thought I'd say about a survival horror game.