NEED TO KNOWWhat is it? A medieval horror sport with delightfully wonky controlsRelease date August 27, 2025Expect to pay £9.99/ $11.99Developer WildArts GamesPublisher Black Lantern CollectiveReviewed on RX 9070 XT, Intel Core i5 12600K, 32GB RAMMultiplayer No Steam Deck Not verified Hyperlink Steam First-person horror sport Caput Mortem is one other reminder that “good” controls will not essentially enhance a sport. Mouselook or twin analogue management mods can typically make a basic extra approachable, however different occasions it is such as you used AI to “enhance” the Mona Lisa or one thing. Caput Mortem will get this, and makes the controls one among your major enemies, elevating a fairly good horror sport to a very memorable one.Caput Mortem’s idiosyncratic controls, partly lifted from King’s Discipline, FromSoftware’s pre-Darkish Souls first-person dungeon crawlers, had me hooting from the beginning. It is a “we have been nonetheless determining first-person on gamepad” type of deal: You look left and proper with the triggers and up and down with the bumpers, swiveling your head such as you’re dialing in a WW2 anti-aircraft gun. The correct analog stick is freed up for controlling your character’s hand to govern objects within the setting, clear up puzzles, and goal melee weapons at enemies.As above,Caput Mortem warns gamers that its controls are speculated to make them really feel susceptible, they usually handle simply that: This deliberate latency as your mind tries to fireside off the suitable instructions provides an anxious thrill to encounters that simply would not land the identical with a extra intuitive interface. There is a slapstick attraction to all of it as properly, a sense of enjoyable being had at my expense that jogged my memory of Getting Over It.
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Caput Mortem recommends taking part in with a gamepad, and that is how I went by the sport, however I might see the keyboard-dominant possibility sans correct mouselook providing an analogous expertise. Both method, the novelty and ideal style match of this management scheme actually set this one aside. There are loads of first-person indie horror video games, however none fairly like Caput Mortem.Caput Mortem sees you exploring a tower constructed by alchemists, right here the medieval equal of the Umbrella Company’s ethically doubtful “scientists.” Within the grand custom of fantasy spires like Durlag’s Tower within the OG Baldur’s Gates, the above floor construction is only a pretense for a sprawling underground dungeon, and Caput Mortem has you happening stage by stage to uncover what these kooky alchemists have been as much as.Picture 1 of 5(Picture credit score: Black Lantern Collective)(Picture credit score: Black Lantern Collective)(Picture credit score: Black Lantern Collective)(Picture credit score: Black Lantern Collective)(Picture credit score: Black Lantern Collective)There’s a fantastic environment to the entire expertise, a way of isolation and claustrophobia as you delve deeper underneath the tower, piecing the story collectively by environmental cues and the style basic paper path of journal entries concerning the affront to god these doofuses have been cooking up alchemical-style.One environmental element that floored me: You’ll be able to observe work by nice masters subsequent to crude, disturbing, impressionistic copies in a single space, proof of the alchemists making an attempt to show artwork to the homunculi they created. Later areas make the homunculi’s craving to be totally human extra express—it will get tragic, even with them being such little freaks.Hold updated with a very powerful tales and the perfect offers, as picked by the PC Gamer group.The vibe is tied collectively by a grounding in medievalism and alchemy that also feels distinctive in video games—extra The Title of The Rose than Dungeons & Dragons. One of many huge puzzles includes a fast crash course within the Greek cosmos, for instance, an genuine little nugget of the humanities and letters in Renaissance France that actually added to the setting for me.So belowThe monsters are extra uncanny than horrific, however I actually dig the designs. The homunculi are my favourite, and virtually a mascot for the sport: Eight foot-tall, misshapen, spindly issues that look shaped out of clay, with bulging eyes and rictus grins. Caput Mortem wrings extra pressure and scare issue out of Amnesia-style display blurring and sharp, high-pitched audio if you’re trying straight at hostile enemies. It is a cheaper trick to up the worry issue, however I believe it really works.There are normal enemies you may kill by melee fight, with Caput Mortem encouraging that Elder Scrolls shuffle of bopping a man in melee, backpedaling to keep away from their assault, then going again in to bop them once more. It is a type of melee fight you see in loads of indie first-person not-shooters, however the deliberate clunk of the controls serves to tell apart it right here.There is not any dorky sidekick going ‘Hm, do not these symbols appear like those on these jars within the different room?’However there’s additionally a number of huge kahunas who cannot be killed and can pursue you over the course of a complete stage, along with your predominant recourse being shock puzzles with the hand manipulation mechanic to make them go away for some time. Considered one of these guys, a homunculus in a schoolhouse stage of the dungeon, simply needs to play a little bit sport of Simon Says with you, prompting you to imitate his hand motions to make him run away for cover and search.After all, he is received a Lennie from Of Mice and Males factor occurring, and you are the rabbit—fail to play his sport, and he’ll rip you aside. My first time working into him I freaked out and tried to go at him with a hatchet, however unintentionally matched his hand motions in my flailing, main him to run away—a second of horror, humor, and emergent gameplay all wrapped into one.Picture 1 of 5(Picture credit score: Black Lantern Collective)(Picture credit score: Black Lantern Collective)(Picture credit score: Black Lantern Collective)(Picture credit score: Black Lantern Collective)(Picture credit score: Black Lantern Collective)These guys naturally lose their worry issue after you’ve got swatted them away a number of occasions, however they’re fast to cope with when you perceive them, and sensible pacing additional ensured they by no means grew to become tedious for me. For instance, I appreciated that, the one time I used to be actually stumped by a puzzle, the resident evil of the ground was well mannered sufficient to not hassle me whereas I used to be futzing about within the puzzle room.Talking of puzzles, I loved those in Caput Mortem total. There was nothing that actually fried my mind other than the one the place I missed an enormous clue earlier within the stage—they’re principally questions of connecting setting cues to the massive alchemical equipment du jour. However Caput Mortem will get most worth out of easy mind ticklers by letting you join the dots your self. There is not any dorky sidekick going “Hm, do not these symbols appear like those on these jars within the different room?”Except for its delightfully bizarre controls, it is the intangibles that actually stole my coronary heart right here. Caput Mortem is a sport with capital-A Ambiance, and its unusual little slice of renaissance-flavored psychedelia is gonna keep on with me for a very long time.If I’ve one criticism, it is that Caput Mortem left me wanting extra, however horror’s a tough style with regards to runtime—I used to be simply beginning to parse Caput Mortem’s creatures extra as RPG enemies than unknowable horrors when the credit rolled, and I believe it is pretty priced at $12 for what it provides. There’s loads of juice left on this orange, however that is preferable to the choice: Paying extra for one thing that wears out its welcome.
