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A horror game made in MS Paint? World of Horror is a love letter to Junji Ito and 80s PC games

6K View2023-10-19

WORLD OF HORROR

8.9

Pixel GraphicsUnforgivingPsychological HorrorSurvivalRoguelikeRPGPoint & ClickHorror

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SHOULD I PLAY WORLD OF HORROR?

Love Junji Ito? Can’t get enough of Lovecraft? If you’re a fan of terrifying tales, World of Horror is a game you won’t want to miss. An old god has turned its gaze on your sleepy Japanese town, and it’s up to you to investigate the creepy events happening around you. Why is your neighbor suddenly hoarding eels? What’s up with the scissor-carrying lady that’s been wandering around your school? World of Horror is about confronting the monstrosities lurking in the dark, and you won’t always like what you find. The game has added a ton of new features and story content over the years, but it’s never lost its terrifying charm. The throwback PC mechanics and roguelite gameplay won’t appeal to everyone, but it’s a uniquely chilling experience.

TIME PLAYED

I’ve been playing World of Horror since the original demo was released many years ago. Recently, I spent around eight hours with the new, full release of the game. I was able to test out nine playable characters, solve plenty of disturbing mysteries, fend off the old gods, and try my hand at several of the game’s built-in challenges. World of Horror is filled with unlockable content, and I know there are plenty of gruesome secrets I have yet to discover.

WHAT'S AWESOME ABOUT WORLD OF HORROR?

• Incredibly creepy art style. The best part of World of Horror is undeniably its eerie visuals, which were created in MS Paint. The 1-bit graphics aren’t overly gruesome, but somehow, the lack of detail makes things even more disturbing. Everything in World of Horror looks and feels off, and that left me on edge even during innocent encounters.

• Unsettling atmosphere. World of Horror presents itself as a PC title from the ’80s, and it really nails the feeling of playing ancient computer games. Everything is backed by a sinister synth soundtrack. The old-school sound effects made me a little nostalgic, but they could also be jarring, and that really upped the game’s scare factor. Every sound, whether I was opening a drawer or clapping my hands, seemed ominous.

The game-within-a-game artifice enhances World of Horror, but it also manages to be chilling in ways that go beyond that. Shadowy tentacles waved across my screen when I moved onto a new investigation. If I clicked out of the game for a minute or two, sometimes there’d be a horrifying face waiting for me. World of Horror gave me an overwhelming sense of dread, and that dread stuck with me even after I stopped playing.

• Fantastic short horror stories. World of Horror has an overarching story, but the game primarily focuses on small disturbances happening around you. This format allows the game to tell all kinds of bloodcurdling tales. Some of these stories are reminiscent of horror manga classics, like The Drifting Classroom and Uzumaki, but others felt wholly original. One of my favorites involved a school janitor who dreamed of building his own mermaids. Every story has multiple endings, which makes these tales even more compelling.

• Addictive roguelite gameplay. World of Horror uses elements of RPGs and adventure games, but it’s the roguelite mechanics that really shine through. During each playthrough, I was asked to solve five mysteries. Cracking a case would bring me one step closer to stopping the old god, but failure could leave me dead or worse.

There’s a lot of randomization in each World of Horror playthrough, but the game also gives players a surprising amount of agency. I was free to tackle the mysteries in any order and solve them in my own way. There were times when I relied on improvised weapons, playthroughs where I cast dangerous, deadly spells, and even times when I let my friends do all the fighting for me. Every time I screwed up, I was excited to approach the mystery in a different way.

WHAT SUCKS ABOUT WORLD OF HORROR?

• It can be really punishing. Like many old school games, World of Horror has permadeath, and it only took a little bad luck to bring me back to the start screen. All it took to get a game over was running into the wrong monster or failing a few skill checks. While I could save my game mid-playthrough, I was only able to do that after completing an investigation. I’m a die-hard roguelite fan, so I didn’t mind this approach, but some players might be put off by the game’s unfair nature.

• It’s pretty repetitive. World of Horror has a great selection of ghoulish mysteries, but the game’s randomized nature means you’ll be seeing most of these stories more than once. Getting to the bottom of a mystery usually requires some trial and error, so you may need to investigate a case a few times before you even see an ending. Mysteries have multiple endings, so no two playthroughs are exactly alike, but if you don’t like replaying story quests, this might not be the game for you.

💬 Are you brave enough to enter a World of Horror, or is this game too spooky for you? Share your favorite scary story in the comments!