Scary Game Review (Spectator): Monstrum (Demo)

What's up, guys and gals, it is I, Scared, with another Scary Game Review for you. This time I'm reviewing the demo for the upcoming Steam game, Monstrum.

About the Game:

Monstrum takes the traditional survival horror formula and remixes it completely with procedurally generated levels, permadeath, and AI driven predators, ensuring that nowhere on its derelict cargo ship is ever truly safe. 

Offering up a challenge to even the hardiest of gamers, Monstrum will force you to use your wits and whatever tools you can find to outrun or outsmart your pursuer. Attempt to escape from an environment that is out to kill you while evading the lurking terror that could be around any corner. Can you survive Monstrum? 

-Courtesy of Steam. 

I first heard and saw some bits and pieces of Monstrum probably last year. It looked pretty neat, but at the time I wasn't doing game reviews a lot like I am. But my video game commentator of choice, HarshlyCritical, has now played, so I am going to review it. Keep in mind this is the demo, so it will probably be a short review. 

Review: 

Your character wakes up on a ship, not knowing what is going on. He finds out why not a soul is on board by reading a note from his friend, Ellis. Ellis talks about these strange occurrences. What I found funny is Ellis says, in one of his notes, that he knows the dangers that is happening on the ship but doesn't bother to wake up his supposed friend because he is sick. Wouldn't you wake him anyways? I mean, what does the main protagonist have? A cold? A case of sea sickness? It's never told. Then again, I am keeping in mind that this is just the demo. 

The big thing that I liked about this game (demo) is that it's like Amnesia at sea (almost sounds romantic) with waking up, not knowing what's going on, finding out what's going on by reading notes. Also, it's a hide or die game. My favorite. And no, before you criticize me, I'm not saying every game has to be like Amnesia. I'm just saying it reminds me of it, in a way. 

I do remember watching another demo of this game probably last year. This one though had a different monster. One, that to me, resembled walking lava. 

This new demo, which has only been out for two weeks, has a different monster. Unfortunately, the only image I could really find (aside from distorted photos) of the new monster, real name Hunter, is this animation GIF. I will be posting a video of the new demo at the end of this review. 

The other neat aspect of Monstrum is you get to experience the game while it's being developed. Which is much like the popular web horror game, SCP: Containment Breach (I will be doing a review on this game as well). 

Now what I found weird is when watching the demo, I only saw the Hunter, but according to the Monstrum Steam page, both the Hunter and the Brute ("walking lava") can both appear in the newest demo*. Maybe Harshly got lucky only dealing with the Hunter, because the Brute is much scarier. 

* Sorry guys, I was wrong about this one. They can't appear in the same game. The game randomly selects one of the monsters and that is what pursuits the whole game. Whoops! 

It's really too early in the game process to find any fair flaws with the game. It serves it's purpose as a hide or die horror game. I was reading some peoples reviews saying it was "scarier than Outlast." Sure, this game is scary, but not Outlast scary. Outlast is frightening, this isn't. It is a atmospheric game that doesn't rely on jumpscares nor does the monster (or monsters) show up so much that they lose their appeal. 

I eagerly look forward to seeing this game develope even more and you can bet on seeing more Monstrum related reviews on here. Great job to the developers, Junkfish! 

Want to give Monstrum a try? Click here. 

Want to check out the demo provided by HarshlyCritical? Check out the video below. Do keep in mind that Harshly's play does not have the Brute monster in it. Still scary!