There’s a fantastic indie horror game market on the Xbox right now. Some might argue that there are too many, and the marketplace is becoming a bit saturated, but I can’t get enough of them, especially those that focus on different story beats from around the world; games from South Korea, Brazil, and Romania.
Now we are being treated to POMBERO: The Lord of the Night, a horror game set in Paraguay, from a local developer and artist.
This is a first-person horror in which you play Albert Hertz who has just heard about the mystery of his mother’s death. He goes back to her apartment to investigate and things seem to go off course in terms of strange events. He finds some documents that lead him to a property that he has inherited, just outside the city. Here he learns about his family’s past and tries to solve the mystery…
I liked the story and the mixture of folklore and mystery in the whodunnit type tale of POMBERO. It does its horror tropes well, building in some genuinely scary moments at times. It is however a tad confusing in its set-up and it takes a short while to get into the rhythm of the game’s narrative.
Gameplay is very much like any other first-person adventure game. You walk around and explore the areas presented, looking for clues. Sometimes you will find hints, passwords or codes, as you look to work things out; you’ll not be getting any spoilers from me. But throughout, there is a problem, and that is in terms of the darkness in some of the levels. It’s hard to spot things even with the lights on. For instance, in some early moments, I was looking for a key, all so I could open the door to the apartment. This took me twenty minutes because I couldn’t get my brightness levels right.
The controls can get a bit fiddly at times too, and the inventory side of things will take some getting used to. Nicely, you get access to a camera quite early on and with this you can record and take snaps, which gives insight into another world that you can’t see with human eyes. It’s a great way of understanding clues or codes to progress. It is also used in a sort of combat style, ridding the world of ghosts that are found coming at you. Later on, this mechanic gets used a lot as demons chase you across farmland; you’ll need to be quick to capture them with the camera. Whilst it is all good to begin with, if I’m honest, it does start to annoy after a while.
Aside from that darkness, POMBERO: The Lord of the Night looks fine, but it struggles as you are chased, particularly across farmland where all you’ll be seeing are shrubs and the occasional flash of your camera. Thankfully, there is some nice, pretty clever, uses of horror in the locations and thoughtful design throughout.Â
As you may expect to hear from a horror, the soundtrack does a great job of creating a tense and disturbing atmosphere. There is some original music here and there too, working well alongside a good solid piece of voice-over work.
POMBERO: The Lord of the Night is a good indie horror game that allows you the chance to experience a different culture. The gameplay, exploration and story are to be liked, but the whole thing is too dark at times and the combat/chase mechanic becomes weary.Â
Should you be looking for a new horror experience though, then you should just about be brave enough to experience POMBERO: The Lord of the Night.
