Innocence is a very creepy first person horror adventure that draws inspiration from the Playstation 1 era of survival horror as you solve puzzles, manage inventories and fend off creepy monsters while exploring a spooky 1940’s ghost town.
Although the first person viewpoint and faster paced gameplay of Innocence makes for a different experience, the grey and gloomy low poly art style brings back fond memories of Silent Hill as soon as you set foot in the town of Marshalville. In the game you’ll take on the role of one of a pair of investigators who are called in to assist at a neighboring island town, made infamous a year beforehand when a young girl was murdered, only to find the town full of crazy residents and freaky ghosts.
The gameplay is very much inspired by classic survival horror such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill, with limited inventory slots, scarce ammo supplies and slow moving, but deadly enemies that can quickly kill you if you’re not careful. The main enemies in the current build are The Haunted – residents that have been possessed by strange entities and charge at you with knives. Oddly enough, in the current build of the game it seems to take a totally random number of bullets to The Haunted, ranging from one shot to five even with direct headshots – which makes for some very tense moments as you hope they run out of health before you run out of bullets!
Much like the PS1 era of games, there’s very little in the way of hand holding in Innocence and it’s a pretty tough game. You’re trusted to figure things out for yourself and deal with its challenging puzzles and deadly enemies without any assistance. There’s no save function in the demo either, so the combat is pretty high stakes – if you die it’s game over!
Innocence does prey on your nostalgia for classic PS1 era survival horror, but it does also have some well implemented bits of modern game design too, particularly in the end section of the Demo (which we won’t spoil). It’s a very tense experience from start to finish, with fun twists, clever puzzle design, freaky monsters and super stylish retro visuals. A highly recommended slice of old school survival horror.
Tip: Struggling With The Door Code? Expand the Description Our Gameplay Video Here for a hint!
Support Innocence on Kickstarter Here
Check Out a Full Playthrough of the Alpha Demo Here
Download The innocence Alpha Demo Here (Windows)