Terror at Oakheart [Review]
Tainted Pact and Assemble Entertainment’s horror game wears its inspirations proudly.
Image credit: Tainted Pact / Assemble Entertainment
Tainted Pact’s Terror at Oakheart is side-scrolling horror adventure game with action elements, featuring pixel art graphics. Horror film favorites of the 1980’s and 1990’s inspired the game’s story.
Teddy the Clown is a serial killer under the control of Lovecraftian monster. The creature commands Teddy to bring dead bodies, and Teddy obliges. One victim, a young woman, fights back and kills Teddy. A year passes. During a thunderstorm, Teddy rises from his grave; given new powers by his master, Teddy begins to kill again. Teddy must be stopped.
Image credit: Tainted Pact / Assemble Entertainment
The game is split into a series of chapters that move you along in the story to different locations. Throughout these chapters, you control a variety of characters and experience events through their points of view. Sometimes this ruins suspense and anticipation; for example, you’ll control a character, but then you immediately get control Teddy to murder them. Well animated in-game pixel art cutscenes and dialogue help tell the story.
Gameplay consists of walking through scenes and interacting with objects. There is some light environmental puzzle solving to open up some areas. You may have a flashlight or a weapon depending on the current part of the story. Ammo is unlimited, which removes the game from the survival horror category. You can only walk in one speed, but some characters are able to quickly roll as a dodge move.
Image credit: Tainted Pact / Assemble Entertainment
I found the game a bit tedious. Much of the game takes place in pitch black darkness, with light emanating only from your flashlight or weak lights in the scene. Even in low light conditions, we should be able to see a bit more of the scene; of course we can make allowances because games like this don’t demand realism, but in Terror at Oakheart the use of this trope ends up more irritating than fun.
Combat is frustrating. It’s made unfair by the fact that you can only walk at one speed, so it’s impractical to get distance from enemies when you need to reload a weapon. Using the dodge roll to get distance feels clunky and cumbersome. Most fights take too long; enemies are almost all bullet sponges with no visual indication of damage. Additionally, the game’s UI doesn’t have a health gauge, so it’s difficult to tell how close you are to death at any given moment.
Image credit: Tainted Pact / Assemble Entertainment
The game’s art, animation, and music are solid. The 16-bit style graphics are mostly crisp and clean. Sprite and environment animations make the action gross and visceral, fitting the game’s horror movie conceit perfectly. The Halloween and Friday the 13th franchises are clearly among the era inspirations. However, Teddy bears a resemblance to a more recent horror villain, Art the Clown from the Terrifier films.
Terror at Oakheart is a short experience that you can complete in a couple hours. If you like horror, you may enjoy the game despite the combat. The game is available now for PC on Steam, along with a free demo.
Overall Score: 4/10
Played on: Steam Deck
