Eclipsium review: Nostalgic nightmares

Out of all the subgenres in the indie gaming world, indie horror is the niche with the biggest variety in style, image, and theming. Eclipsium is a title that encapsulates this; it’s a Lovecraftian walking simulator with a heavily stylized aesthetic.

If you’ve been wondering whether or not to pick up Eclipsium, you’ll find The Escapist’s full review below, looking at everything from the gorgeous aesthetic and how it can affect a playthrough, to the puzzles and strange hand-menus. 

The Escapist recaps

• Eclipsium is a jaw-dropping indie horror, developed by Housefire and published by CRITICAL REFLEX. 
• This pixelated nightmare is a walking simulator at its core, with a subtly-woven story and simplistic puzzles to keep things engaging. The protagonist is silent, meaning the story is told through the world itself.
• Eclipsium doesn’t rely on cheap jumpscares or noisiness to build tension – it creates a looming feeling of dread, with a soft rustle in the bushes to indicate that something might be watching you from the treeline. 
• One of the biggest selling points for Eclipsium is its stunning, retro-inspired aesthetic. While we did find it caused a little eye strain during our review session, it’s undeniably beautiful and gives Eclipsium a clear identity.
• The lack of dialogue and direct storytelling may be off-putting for some players. For others who enjoy wandering through nightmarish worlds and piecing together the story for themselves, Eclipsium will provide the perfect burst of horror. 

A walking simulator with plenty of bite

Waking up in a seemingly deserted hospital and tumbling into a nightmarish alternate reality, Eclipsium makes it clear what’s in store right from the get-go.

You’re going to go on a strange, labyrinthian adventure, unlocking grotesque abilities to help you solve puzzles and attempt to piece together the wider story of the world you’ve found yourself in. It’s not a story-driven game in the traditional sense, as the main character is silent and you won’t be encountering many other life forms, but there is a story to uncover nonetheless. 

Eclipsium is a walking simulator; if you’re unfamiliar with this, it means that the core gameplay loop involves wandering around a linear world. It features a smattering of puzzles and interactive elements, but for the most part, you’ll be walking, jumping, and ducking along a linear path to make your way through the game. 

Taking the role of the Wanderer and attempting to find Her, you’ll end up exploring a wide variety of different locations; you might need to navigate a haunted forest or temple, or pick your way through dark mines or grotesque flesh-tunnels. 

It’s a very simple gameplay loop, with puzzles involving moving lights, traversing crumbling platforms, or finding keys to unlock a vast door. This is a game that focuses on its atmosphere and innate horror over tricky mechanics.

There’s something perfectly subtle about Eclipsium’s style of horror. If seeing a ghost is the sight you fear the most, there’s no need to worry, as the game doesn’t lean into noisy jumpscares or cheap frights.

Instead, it manages to make you feel as if you’re being constantly watched – and in some cases, you are. The game world is beautiful, but the cosmic horrors that loom over its skies feel consistently present, keeping watch over the player with many, many eyes. 

Despite the cosmic horror vibes, there was something oddly nostalgic about Eclipsium. It felt like wandering through a childhood nightmare; the world felt vaguely familiar yet entirely unsettling, particularly with the liminal energy of the opening location. 

Beautiful cascades of blood and pixels 

Eclipsium’s art style may raise a few concerns among potential players about eye strain – unfortunately, we did find that the heavy stylization induced mild eye strain during our review sessions. It’s a gorgeous art style, but it is somewhat visually intense. 

This is something the developers have clearly worked to avoid based on the developer diaries on Steam, and the settings available in-game to reduce visual effects or change the level of pixellation did help to lessen the impact. It didn’t prevent us from finishing the game or enjoying the beautifully horrific world, either. 

Other than this, Eclipsium performed well and looked fantastic. The controls were intuitive for the most part – changing between tools using the menu on the Wanderer’s hand felt admittedly fiddly – and the quality of the visuals and audio was stellar. 

We encountered a one-off crash when attempting to get back into a save file from the title screen, but this was not replicable and didn’t appear to be a major issue. Aside from this, there were no issues with performance while playing through Eclipsium, with a full playthrough taking roughly four hours or so. 

If you’re a fan of Lovecraftian horror and walking simulators, Eclipsium will be a delight for you to explore. It’s gross and gorgeous, with a subtle narrative, interesting premise, and heavily stylized world. While the art style may prove divisive, the experience as a whole is mesmerizing, adding a fresh spin on a classic horror walking simulator.

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References

1. Save 10% on Eclipsium (Steam)
2. Eclipsium – Housefire Games – A trippy and retro-inspired horror game… (Reddit)