Forgive Me Father from Byte Barrel and Fulqrum is a dark retro-style FPS inspired by Lovecraftian horror with a comic book look. Check our Forgive Me Father review!

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Forgive Me Father from Byte Barrel and Fulqrum is a dark retro-style FPS inspired by Lovecraftian horror with a comic book look. The game offers you the choice of playing as a Priest or a Journalist. The Priest is set on vanquishing evil while favoring a more defensive approach to combat. The Journalist is a professional seeking the truth. She has shorter cast times for her abilities, which makes it a character that can be used for taking on a more aggressive gameplay style. For this Forgive Me Father review, I went with the Priest.

Along with selecting which character you’ll play as, you’ll also have to choose from one of the five different difficulty settings: Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard, and Expert. For Very Easy, foes will not be as strong, and ammo will be more plentiful. Easy is a good option for those that are new to the FPS experience. If playing on Normal, you’ll need to pay attention to how you approach each challenge, or else you can end up feeling overwhelmed. Play on Hard, and you will go up against stronger enemies, ammo will be scarce, and you won’t gain as much Madness – more on this in a bit. And then, there’s Expert. You won’t be gaining enough Madness to make a difference, enemies will hit hard, and ammo is hard to come by.

You have been contacted by Louis – your cousin – who sends a very peculiar letter your way. People have gone missing. Strange otherworldly voices can be heard. He asks for your help in order to be able to sort things out. Without hesitation, you set off for your home town of Pestesville. Upon your arrival, you notice that the locals have left the area and yet… you feel observed. The room where you were supposed to meet your cousin is empty, but you could hear weird footsteps and scratches from the corridor. What exactly is going on?

Since this is a first-person shooter, you’ll control your character with the left analog stick as you aim with the right analog stick. You can attack with the R2 button, be that with your starting knife, the revolver you soon collect in the first level, or the shotgun you’ll find soon after. You can switch between the available weapons with the L1 and R1 buttons as needed. Jumping is mapped to the X button. You can interact by pressing the Square button, which is used to open doors or check out documents or things that are related to the game’s story.

Once you find a lantern, you’ll be able to bring it up by pressing the L2 button, giving you a way to see in the dark. Do know that you can’t attack while you’re holding out the lantern. You’ll gain access to different skills as you progress through the game. These will be mapped to the D-Pad, by pressing up, down, left, or right. As you defeat enemies you’ll get to level up and gain skill points. These can be spent at the skill menu, which you can open by pressing in on the controller’s Touchpad.

And now, let’s talk about Madness! You’ll notice the Madness bar in the bottom right corner of the screen. The Madness bar will fill up as you defeat enemies, as well as when you drink alcohol. The higher the Madness bar is, the more damage you will deal to opponents, and you’ll also receive less damage from enemies. The faster you defeat groups of enemies, the bigger the boost to your Madness bar.

And now, back to skills. To be able to activate them, you’ll need to spend some of the Madness that you’ve accumulated, which will end up powering up skills and letting you know how many times you can use them. Skills be on a cooldown, so that you can’t spam them over and over. They include a Cross that can be used to heal some of your wounds, and Aspergillum, which can make your target unable to move or attack for a while. And once you grab the Necronomicon, you’ll be able to make yourself temporary immortal for a short period of time.

What can you get in exchange for your skill points? You can boost the strength of your lamp so that it lights up a larger area. You can increase your character’s max health so that it can withstand more damage. Maybe increasing the size of the cross would be a good option? That way you can heal your wounds some more! You can also upgrade your weapons so that they can, for example, wield dual revolvers, get more bullets per shotgun shot that deal more damage, or increase the damage, accuracy and range of your Tommy gun.

The game has a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy waiting for you. The list includes 8 Bronze trophies, 4 Silver trophies, and 8 Gold trophies to work on. To make those trophies pop, you’ll have to complete 100% of a level, find and use a secret gun, defeat each of the bosses at the end of each act, complete the game with the Priest, complete the game with the Journalist, complete a level with 1 HP left, complete any level without taking any damage, and survive for 10 and 20 waves in Endless Mode.

Forgive Me Father is a dark retro-style FPS inspired by Lovecraftian horror with a comic book look. As either a Priest or a Journalist, you’ll be taking on a journey that pays homage to the classics in the genre, using supernatural abilities to try and overcome even the worst of odds. It’s a game that can be as challenging as you want it to be, thanks to the five different difficulty settings. Forgive Me Father is out on PlayStation 4 with a $24.99 price tag.

Disclaimer
This Forgive Me Father review is based on a PlayStation 4 copy provided by Fulqrum.