Survival horror Cosmic and Lovecraftian horror Horror PS1 horror

Lamentum

Rate it

Seek a cure for your wife in a mansion of nightmares.

Platforms: PC, Linux, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch
Stores: Steam, GOG
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (88% of about 840 reviews)
Players: 1
Made by: Obscure Tales
Released: 2021

Get it on Steam GOG PlayStation Store Xbox Nintendo eShop

What frightens Victor Hartwell brings his dying wife to Grau Hill Mansion, whose Earl promises a cure, and is drawn into a nightmare world of creatures, traps and cosmic secrets with only a lamp, a few weapons and scarce ammunition.
Content: gore, adult themes.

Lamentum is a pixel-art survival horror game by Obscure Tales, set in New England in the mid-nineteenth century. As the young aristocrat Victor Hartwell you search Grau Hill Mansion for a cure for your wife, rationing ammunition and items against nightmare creatures, and your choices of whom to trust lead to different endings.

About Lamentum

Lamentum is a survival horror game by Obscure Tales, published by Neon Doctrine and Raw Fury and released in August 2021 on PC, then days later on PlayStation 4, Xbox and Switch. It is set in New England in the mid-nineteenth century and drawn in top-down pixel art.

Victor Hartwell, a young aristocrat, brings his wife Alissa to Grau Hill Mansion in the hope of curing the disease that is killing her. The Earl who lives there has uncovered ancient secrets and forgotten sciences and says he can heal her. What the price is becomes the question, as the mansion turns into a world of nightmares.

It plays like the classic survival horror games the makers name, Resident Evil and Silent Hill. You carry a lamp to see in the dark, lock picks for sealed doors and chests and restoratives for your health, in an inventory too small for everything, with item boxes to store the rest. Melee and ranged weapons each have strengths and weaknesses, and firearms use ammunition that is scarce in the mansion. Traps, lethal places and dangerous puzzles punish mistakes.

The horror owes as much to the Cthulhu mythos: tentacles and growths spread through the halls, and the creatures each behave and attack differently. The makers call it a dark, adult-themed game. Characters you meet may or may not deserve your trust, and those choices change the ending, so it rewards a second play. It suits players who want old-style survival horror with cosmic dread, in a small and cheap game.

How to play Lamentum

Buy it on Steam, GOG, PlayStation, Xbox or the Nintendo eShop.
Explore Grau Hill Mansion with your lamp lit, picking up tools, weapons and restoratives.
Choose what to carry in your limited inventory and leave the rest in an item box.
Fight or avoid the creatures, saving ammunition for when you need range.
Talk to the people you meet and decide whom to trust; your choices shape the ending.

Screenshots

The bearded Earl at his desk in a red study greeting Victor: Welcome to Grau Hill

Victor raising a hammer at a hooded figure on a blood-red street lit by lanterns

Victor with a sabre facing a fleshy many-legged creature between two giant stone faces

Victor holding a lantern in a dark cellar with bodies hanging in sacks and red growths on the walls

Tips

Set shortcuts for a melee weapon, a firearm and a restorative so you can switch fast in a fight.
Use melee weapons on weaker creatures and keep bullets for the dangerous ones; ammunition is scarce.
Search rooms carefully: the store says many items are hidden at first.
Read Victor's diary when you are stuck; it keeps his notes on what he has seen.