Stealth horror Survival horror PS1 horror

Gloomwood

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Sneak through a cursed Victorian city where the monsters listen for you.

Platforms: PC
Stores: Steam
Price: Paid
Rated: Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam (95% of 8,478 reviews), in Early Access
Players: 1
Controls: Keyboard and mouse: WASD to move, mouse to look, lean and crouch to stay unseen
Made by: Dillon Rogers, David Szymanski, Nate Berens and Thomas Porta
Released: 2022

What frightens Abducted to a fog-bound Victorian city under an ancient curse, you creep through streets, tunnels and mansions where Crowmen with sharp claws and a corpse-seeking Corpse Duster hunt by sight and sound, with a canesword and a few bullets to defend yourself.
Content: gore, blood.

Gloomwood is a first-person stealth horror game set in a forgotten, fog-bound Victorian city in the middle of a horrifying transformation. Armed with a canesword, a six-shot revolver and very little else, you hide from monsters that see and hear you, and find your own way through streets, rooftops and hidden passages.

About Gloomwood

Gloomwood is made by Dillon Rogers, David Szymanski, Nate Berens and Thomas Porta and published by New Blood Interactive, the label behind DUSK, AMID EVIL, ULTRAKILL and FAITH. It entered Early Access on Steam in September 2022 and is still being built, and it calls itself a stealth horror FPS inspired by the immersive sims and survival horror games of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

You are abducted to a forgotten, twisted Victorian metropolis and must find your way out. The city is built by hand and open to explore: you can climb onto rooftops, drop into tunnels, slip into decadent mansions or make your own path through windows and passages.

The fear comes from being watched and heard. The game tracks how visible you are in the light and carries every sound you make through the world, so a dropped bottle or a hurried step can bring the Crowmen and worse down on you. You lean to eavesdrop, peek through the gaps of doors, check how many bullets are left in the cylinder and keep your few weapons, from a canesword to a folding shotgun and a harpoon rifle, in a cramped gridded suitcase. When fights do happen they are bloody and short.

It suits players who like slow, tense sneaking with an old-fashioned look, and who would rather plan a route around a monster than shoot it.

How to play Gloomwood

Explore the city at your own pace; there are several routes through each area, over rooftops and through hidden passages.
Stay in the dark and move quietly: light and noise both give you away.
Lean, peek through door cracks and listen to learn where the monsters walk before you move.
Manage the suitcase inventory: weapons, ammunition and bottles each take up space.
Fight only when you must, with the canesword for quiet kills and the guns when you are cornered.

Screenshots

Gloomwood screenshot: a cloaked watchman with a green-glowing eye stands in a torchlit brick hall below caged windows

Gloomwood screenshot: the suitcase inventory open with a revolver, a shotgun, ammunition and two bottles of Ash Brew

Gloomwood screenshot: holding a harpoon rifle on a rowing boat by a dark wooden pier, a lighthouse beam in the night

Gloomwood screenshot: a shotgun blast throws blood and fire across a wooden dock at night

Tips

Check how many rounds are in your revolver before trouble starts; reloading is slow.
Throwable objects make noise where they land, which can pull a monster away from your path.
Look up: rooftops and ledges often lead around a guarded street.