Of Love and Eternity

Rate it

A murdered knight crosses a world of the damned to find the other half of his soul.

Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Stores: Steam, itch.io
Price: Pay what you want
Rated: 4.7 out of 5 on itch.io (299 ratings) for the demo
Length: about half an hour for the demo (itch.io average session)
Players: 1
Controls: WASD or left stick to move, mouse or right stick for the camera, Shift to run, Space or X to attack, Left Ctrl or left bumper to crouch, Q to switch camera, right mouse or right bumper to zoom
Made by: acornbringer (Acorn Bringer)

On PC: one of the PC horror games.

Get it on itch.io Steam (free demo; full game coming soon)

What frightens You are a murdered knight whose soul falls from the void into a world of the damned, a place between death and the afterlife where violent, wicked spirits prey on lost souls. You search it unarmed for the other half of your soul, your beloved, through dark woods and crypts heaped with bones.
Content: skeletons, skulls and corpses, murder shown in cutscenes, nudity.

Of Love and Eternity is a third-person dark fantasy horror adventure in a retro PSX style by acornbringer. You play a murdered knight whose soul falls into a purgatory of wicked spirits and bones, searching for the beloved who shares his fractured soul. A free demo of about half an hour is out for Windows, macOS and Linux; the full game is in development.

About Of Love and Eternity

Of Love and Eternity is a dark fantasy horror game by the solo developer acornbringer, who calls it a work of passion several years in the making. An early demo was announced in April 2021 and has been revised several times since; the itch.io page and the Steam page both offer a free demo, and the full game is listed on Steam as coming soon. Ten parts are planned, and the demo is the first, described by its maker as an alpha or vertical slice of the game's systems.

The story opens in the void. You are dead, murdered, and your soul drifts as a broken memory through an impossible abyss. Somewhere out there is your beloved, the other half of one fractured soul. When the void lets go, you do not pass on but fall into somewhere in between: a world of the damned where lost souls stray and violent, wicked spirits wait for others to join them. Only by finding each other can the two of you leave.

You play the knight from behind, in third person, through broken and haunting places: a dark forest in the rain, a campfire, a crypt where skeletons sit among heaps of skulls and bones. The Steam page says that some of the spirits pass through peacefully while others prey on souls so they do not fade themselves. The knight is unarmed and has only his own strength to defend himself, with an attack, a crouch and a run on the controls.

The look is a big part of the appeal. The game is drawn in a dithered, low-resolution PSX style with deep blues, reds and oranges, and the demo comes with an original score by composer Michael Berto with vocals by Freya Berkhout, which can be downloaded with it.

The developer warns of macabre imagery including bones, skulls, skeletons and corpses, and of cutscenes showing murder and nudity. It suits players who like slow, atmospheric dark fantasy with a sad love story at its centre more than constant scares.

How to play Of Love and Eternity

Download the free demo for Windows, macOS or Linux from itch.io, or get it from the game's Steam page.
Move the knight with WASD or the left stick and turn the camera with the mouse or right stick; a gamepad works too.
Explore the forest and the places beyond it, running with Shift and crouching with Left Ctrl.
Defend yourself with Space or the X button when a spirit comes for you, and keep searching for the way onward.

Screenshots

Of Love and Eternity screenshot: the knight faces skeletons slumped among skulls and bones in a blue-lit crypt

Of Love and Eternity screenshot: the knight sits by a campfire in a dark red forest

Of Love and Eternity screenshot: a glowing pink figure falls through a starry purple void

Of Love and Eternity screenshot: the hooded knight in the rain before a stone crypt door in a dark forest

Of Love and Eternity screenshot: a crowned knight raises a blood-red sword under stained-glass windows

Tips

Switch the camera with Q if a view hides the path, and zoom with the right mouse button to look at details.
Play with sound on: the soundtrack is a large part of the experience and comes with the download.
Expect a short demo of about half an hour; it is the first of ten planned parts.
Follow the devlog on itch.io for updates, since the demo has been revised several times.

Questions

Is Of Love and Eternity free?

The demo is free (name your own price) on itch.io and also offered on Steam. The full game is in development and listed on Steam as coming soon.

How long is the Of Love and Eternity demo?

About half an hour, according to the average session on its itch.io page.

Can I play Of Love and Eternity with a controller?

Yes. The maker lists gamepad controls next to the keyboard and mouse ones.

Is Of Love and Eternity a horror game?

Yes. It is a third-person dark fantasy horror adventure in a world of the damned, with macabre imagery of bones, skeletons and corpses, cutscenes of murder and some nudity.