This review is spoiler-free.
How does your trauma manifest itself? For some of us it’s a simple shudder in the shower. Maybe a mild panic attack while doing something mundane. For others it’s flashbacks and waking up in a cold sweat. Depression. Psychosis. Everyone can be affected differently and none of us are safe. Ad Infinitum is a game about trauma, and how it can manifest in the form of grotesque and terrifying creatures who want to tear you apart in a never-ending nightmare loop.
Right, that’s the motivational intro out the way…
Playing as a German Soldier suffering from the events of World War 1 and a mysterious dysfunctional family history, this survival horror game from Berlin based developer Hekate tasks you with unravelling the horrific events of your past, questioning what’s real, and trying to escape the monsters that wish to imprison you in the dark memories forever.
With a layered story told almost exclusively through the environment and in-game files, the plot can be confusing and overbearing, but this is kind of the games thing, and isn’t really a criticism. I found myself engaged with the family story at the core, but there is a lot to take in, and it’s really up to you how deep you dive. I did always want to discover more though, and you’re almost taking the role of an investigator, searching for answers, while also trying to flee from the horrors that hunt you in the ‘trench world’. Thankfully, large chunks of the story are saved for the ‘haven’ of your home between chapters, meaning you can take your time in soaking up those files, many of which are read aloud for you (though performance quality does vary, and confusingly everyone has an English accent which continuously threw me off).
The backdrop of WW1 trenches and your family manor provide consistently creepy and unsettling environments, with the late game placing you in some even more twisted areas which felt like Hitchcock meets SAW. As a life-long Resident Evil fan, I very much appreciated the Spencer mansion-like setting with superb attention to detail, and a lot of story peppered around the rooms. Visually the environments of the game stand alongside many Triple A titles, with some atmosphere enhancing lighting that’s probably about as good as I could hope for in a horror. It can be terrifying stuff and had me on edge for most of the game. The soundtrack has a suitably classical style (including music found on in-game gramophones which all add to the texture). From a technical perspective my experience was bug-free, with just a couple of frame rate slow-down moments (though these could have been intentional for all I know... this game messes with you). Very smooth.
Gameplay is fairly linear, but you will come across some backtracking and maze-like level design which will require you to ensure your internal compass is in good working order. There are encounters that require choice, and these do have an impact on the ending you will receive (though I’m still not sure if I got the ‘good’ one). Much like 2022’s Scorn, combat, inventory, and character progression are all very stripped back. Playing the game can be more like walking through an interactive art installation than your classic survival horror. Puzzles are plentiful, you'll need to find missing items, mix chemicals, and re-route power - there were a couple of occasions when I found myself scratching my head trying to figure out what goes where and how the hell I’m supposed to progress, but if you keep your eyes peeled, you should be fine. If you try to sprint through, you will undoubtedly miss what you’re looking for (and the character will in-fact run out of breath, forcing you to slow down).
Enemy encounters are puzzles in themselves which I enjoyed as a nice change of pace for ‘combat’ scenarios, and despite getting to wield a rifle a couple of times, I didn’t get to use it as much as I would’ve hoped. Sometimes you just want to blast an ugly monster in the face, am I right? You must instead figure out how to distract, lure, and dodge your way past, and I often found myself holding my breath as I ran to hide from the various 'stalkers'. One of the highlights involved having to dodge multiple enemies in the dark, with their own horrifying sound design calling out to me. I loved and hated it.
Monsters can be difficult to get right, and it’s easy to end up in a place where your twisted creature comes off a bit silly. Here in Ad Infinitum, the enemies drip with demonic and mechanical flavours from the depths of my nightmares. They each represent different aspects of the horrors of war and family trauma. Some of them want to eat you, others want to burn you, it’s possible some of them want to keep you as a pet, like a bird in a cage, forever tweeting your way into insanity (a bit like some people on social media).
As I reached the latter stages of the game I did find myself thinking there could have been some trimming, or at least less repetition, with some of the long-winded ‘walk from here, to here, to here’ sections a little tedious. Though as mentioned, the game is out to make you suffer, so perhaps climbing ladders repeatedly at quite a slow place is all part of the pain you must endure before overcoming your fears and freeing yourself from the nightmare. It is called Ad Infinitum after all.
If despair, corruption, and rage plague you daily, you’ll be right at home in the world which this game drops you. Thankfully it’s a relatively brief affair (I finished it in 7 hours) so you’ll be out before you lose your mind to the twisted world you explore. Most of what’s here is a very high-quality ‘puzzle-horror’ experience, with a tone that larger franchises sometimes don’t seem brave enough to inject. Ad Infinitum feels like a love letter to various cornerstones of the genre, screaming its way through the swath of 2023 releases and is one of the surprises of the year.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Game code provided by The Horror Game Awards. I played on Xbox Series X
Ad Infinitum is a 2023 survival horror video game developed by Hekate and published by Nacon. Available now for Windows, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
Comments