Developer: Tainted Pact
Platform: PC
Genre: Survival, RPG, Survival horror
Publisher: Assemble Entertainment
Terror at Oakheart is a slasher-film-inspired horror game. This game was developed by Tainted Pact and published by Assemble Entertainment. There are not many games similar to Terror at Oakheart, as it has quite a unique gameplay style. This review was done on the PC.
Terror at Oakheart is a single-player game where the thriller story is set around the town of Oakheart. An ice cream man, Teddy, creates a clown costume when a sentinel being from outer space lands in front of his house. This creature infects Teddy and starts to take complete control over Teddy. The creature takes control of Teddy by putting a mask on him, which he uses to serve and share their powers. Teddy becomes a masked serial killer who goes on a rampage, killing many civilians in the town of Oakheart.
The controls to Terror at Oakheart are extremely easy to get a hang of, but sometimes; there is a bit of finickiness when trying to dodge and use F/R on the keyboard. As you start off the game, all of the controls are highlighted and given descriptions for the various mechanics. When certain things can be interacted with, control is highlighted. Also, when pressing the options button in the esc menu, there is a great layout for the keybinds found for the keyboard and controller. The game plays well on both keyboard and controller, but I feel, on the controller, it’s a lot smoother to shoot, dodge and reload when at the combat stage. It depends on your preference mainly.
The art style for Terror at Oakheart is a side-scrolling graphic pixel art. The game takes much inspiration from 80s horror slasher movies and does a wonderful job of creating a horrific and gruesome environment. The pixel style of this game adds much of a retro vibe, and the dulled-down colours make the game even more atmospheric. The pixel art gives the game a retro vibe, which fits well with the theme. The game has a darker tone and ambience, and with the gore element of blood and guts, it really encapsulates the environment. I really enjoyed the design of Teddy and his use of weapons, especially when it came to the killing animation. The killing animation cutscenes in the game really do seem like they’re something out of Friday the 13th or Scream. In addition to the visuals, the soundtrack makes the game even more alluring, which makes it more haunting, horrific and gruesome. The game features quite menacing music mixed in with orchestral piano. Even when you load into the game, the game title is read out loud in a deep and terrifying voice. I like that the music creates a slasher feel, and even the sound effects bring many in-game details to life.
The gameplay for Terror at Oakheart is quite simple as you play a side-scrolling game where you explore certain areas to complete objectives. The game has several different chapters which follow a captivating storyline. What I really love about the gameplay is that you do not just play one set character, but you switch between different POVs and play out their objectives; this really puts you into the slasher movie feel as many characters get killed off. There is not much of a difference between the gameplay style when switching characters, but because of the captivating story, it keeps the player on their seat. The gameplay includes gathering certain items to build weapons/tools to defeat various creatures. I liked that the game included subtle puzzles, which were not too difficult nor hindered the game experience.
The combat in this game was quite decent, though it did seem slightly tedious in some parts. To begin with, the weapon loadout progression was quite good, and their reload speeds seemed reasonable. My only issue was that when dodging some creatures, the distance between their hit radius and your character sometimes inflicts damage when trying to dodge, which felt quite annoying, especially when health was limited.
There was a weird error when starting the game that wouldn’t allow the game to start. Disk write error. To fix the problem, I just restarted the laptop and reinstalled the game. The game has a weird bug where the main menu, at times, just stays frozen for a while. After this error, the game just started to act up. The issue was fixed after the game was put into Windows mode. There were no visible bugs whilst playing the actual game, which worked smoothly.
Overall, I found the game to be quite enjoyable. The story that follows through grips you from the beginning, and getting to play different characters who you see get killed out in crazy ways makes the game so much more exciting. It’s as if you’re playing one of those popular 80s horror movies. There was one main thing that I did not like, which was not being able to continue from the last checkpoints after exiting the game. This meant if you were close to finishing the chapter but had to leave the game and pick it up at another time, you would need to replay that entire chapter. Besides that, the game was very enjoyable and getting to the end of the story was so much fun. Other than the main story, the game also features Teddy’s Playroom, where a showcase of toys you collect in-game is displayed, and Mr Tops Murder Mayhem, where you go around slashing people to collect their souls. I found this game style to be so exhilarating, and it was so much fun to watch all the animations played out in the game.
Terror at Oakheart is quite a thrilling game inspired by the 80s slasher horror movies where you get to play from chapter to chapter as various characters and learn how their stories tie in with the terror reigning down on Oakheart. If you’re looking for a well-detailed pixel side-scrolling game with immersive visuals and terrifying music, then this game is just for you. The story is captivating and truly puts the terror in Terror at Oakheart!
Overall: 9/10
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