Ad Infinitum

About Ad Infinitum

Ad Infinitum is a first-person psychological horror game developed by Hekate and published by Nacon. It came out on 14 September 2023 for Windows (Steam and GOG), PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

You play a German soldier haunted by the horrors of the Great War. You wake in your bedroom, unchanged since your teenage years, in a run-down and deserted manor, and suddenly find yourself in the trenches of the front. The two places keep swapping, and you can no longer tell reality from nightmare.

At the front the war is overshadowed by worse things: creatures that come from the recesses of your mind. The store names blind demons that hear your softest footsteps and hideous disjointed puppets that move in the dark; the Escapist review remembers mannequins that freeze when your flashlight finds them. To get past them and the death traps you sneak, watch how each creature behaves and solve the puzzles in your way. The game has a few boss encounters, and the puzzles range from simple to fiddly.

The game is told in four chapters. Each begins in the manor, whose rooms shift between visits, before sending you into a nightmare version of the front. Between the walls of the house and the barbed wire of No Man's Land, the story of a family torn apart by the war comes out through notes and memories. The store warns that it deals with post-traumatic stress and family drama and shows violence, gore and some nudity.

What sets it apart from other First World War horror is the split between a quiet, melancholy house and a front turned into a nightmare. Reviewers praise its score and its nightmare scenes; The Escapist calls the trench visuals muddy and the English voice acting stilted. A first run takes about seven hours.

It suits players who like story-led first-person horror with puzzles, stealth and a real history behind it, such as Amnesia: The Bunker or Layers of Fear.

How to play Ad Infinitum

1. Buy it on Steam or GOG for Windows, or on the PlayStation Store or Xbox store for PS5 or Xbox Series X|S.
2. Explore the family manor in first person and read the notes that tell you about your past.
3. When you are pulled into the trenches, watch and learn how each creature behaves before you move.
4. Sneak past the creatures and solve the puzzles and riddles that block your way through each chapter.

Tips

• Move slowly near the blind creatures: the store says they hear your softest footsteps.
• Each monster has a source and a motive; learning them is how you get past it.
• Use your flashlight on the mannequins: The Escapist notes they freeze while the light is on them.
• Read what you find in the manor; it fills in the family story the trenches only hint at.

Questions