Exilium is a fast-paced horror puzzle game that follows the work of an exorcist and detective. Read on to see what this upcoming title has in store.
Exilium, An Exciting, Horrific Puzzle Game
Design Philosophy
Players seeking a good horror/suspense puzzle game finally have something nice to look forward to. Exilium, according to its Steam Store page, is an atmospheric point-and-click project. Developed by lonch.me, the game takes heavy inspiration from the 2003 puzzle game "Neighbours From Hell." Only, instead of annoying your neighbor with mostly harmless pranks, you use your puzzle-solving skills to ruin the demonic rituals of the possessed.
An Intriguing Journey Of A Troubled Man
The game follows Detective Adam Wayne, who also works as an exorcist who casts demons back to hell. However, your main job is to save the souls of the unfortunate victims. To do that, you must get your hands dirty and walk the lair of the damned yourself.
Although the demo is relatively short, it does finish a chapter dealing with the entire arc with a possessed doctor through a comic-like delivery. As for Adam Wayne himself, the possessed little girl on the game's title screen bears a strong resemblance to photos of what can be assumed to be his daughter, which appears throughout the game's narrative. It can be speculated, then, that his daughter is possessed, and Adam is perhaps looking for a certain factor that would help him to exorcize the demon out of her body.
Unfortunately, the game, or at least the demo, has no voice acting. That's quite a shame since it could have substantially elevated the game's immersion. In exchange, it has a robust set of sound effects to accompany its raw, macabre level design and frightful enemies.
Gripping, Urgent Puzzle Gameplay
Exilium is a point-and-click puzzle game heavily inspired by JoWooD Entertainment AG's "Neighbours From Hell." To expel demons from our world, you must disrupt the various rituals the possessed are performing. But, in a strange contrast between your professional background and the game's setting, you start every stage without a single tool at your disposal. Instead, you must scour every nook and cranny of the demon's domain for items to help you reach your goal.
Right off the bat, it's essential to remember that Exilium's pace isn't leisurely by any measure. You can't go into a level while distracted by something else. In fact, the game often makes you start at a location where you'll die if you don't move away immediately. This is because the possessed can kill you the instant they find themselves in the same room as you. That means there's no running away from them if they're alerted to your presence. The only thing you can do is to either hide from plain sight or keep yourself at least one room away from where the demons are.
While this may seem easy enough, the challenge really starts once you start working on your tasks. More often than not, every action you make takes a few seconds to execute, such as filling a jar with water, searching for items in drawers, or seasoning an animal carcass with salt.
Although every stage is just an expansion of its previous iteration, the game maintains its urgency with more sophisticated maps and more interactable objects each time. The possessed will also start taking more threatening paths around the area and may even wander into rooms you thought were safe.
Releases This Coming 2024
Though Exilium's demo is extremely short, with about twenty (20) minutes of playtime, its thought-provoking gameplay, intriguing backstory, and beautiful 2D artwork are more than enough to set promising expectations for its upcoming release.
Exilium is set for a 2024 release. If you're interested in the game, you may have a go at it with its demo, which is available on Steam.
| Platform | Price |
|---|---|
 Steam |
N/A |
