Dishonored's mix of player choice, Victorian aesthetic, and stealth gameplay are twisted into a survival-horror nightmare in Gloomwood, an upcoming stealth horror FPS from New Blood Interactive. Gloomwood incorporates several elements of Dishonored's stealth gameplay and throws it into a dark city full of mystery comparable to Bloodborne's Yharnam. However, The game does more than simply borrow from its inspirations, Gloomwood takes these components to craft an entirely new experience for fans of survival horror and stealth.
In Gloomwood, players take control of the mysterious doctor after being abducted by unknown assailants and thrown into a forgotten and transforming Victorian city. New Blood Interactive, Gloomwood's developer and publisher, has provided hardly any story details to maintain the game's mystery, but the currently available free gameplay demo has already given Bloodborne players with a PC time to experience a taste of what Gloomwood has in store when it exits Early Access. The response has been positive with fans of Bloodborne, Dishonored, and immersive sims, who've praised the game's dark atmosphere, engaging mechanics, and tough enemies. Gloomwood throws players into a world with few tools and trusts that the player is smart enough to work their way through its twisted metropolis.
Gloomwood may take elements of Dishonored and Bloodborne to craft a survival-horror immersive sim, but its stealth mechanics are firmly rooted in Thief: The Dark Project, a stealth game from Looking Glass Studios that also inspired Dishonored: Death Of The Outsider's development. Gloomwood uses the slogan "Thief with Guns" to place its inspirations upfront - and for good reason. The player must rely on stealth to make it through several of the encounters throughout the game. The denizens of Gloomwood's mysterious city stalk the streets and back alleys on the hunt for intruders using sound mechanics and advanced lighting to alert them to the player's presence. Thief popularized the use of sound as a gameplay mechanic where players needed to watch their step when walking on hard surfaces to remain undetected during a mission. Gloomwood takes the same idea a step further by adding several new tools the player can take advantage of like using the cane sword - an elegant stealth weapon useful for backstabbing enemies - opening new paths, or creating distractions. Bringing the right gadget for the job was a large part of Thief's stealth gameplay, a mechanic that would be worth revisiting in a proper Thief reboot. Gloomwood's tools look to be a refinement of these mechanics, but the doctor starts with basically nothing and must descend into Gloomwood's menacing streets to scavenge the right gear to survive.
Gloomwood Twists Dishonored Into A Stealth Horror FPS
The Victorian metropolis presented in Gloomwood immediately invokes images of Bloodborne's Yharnam. Both locations are eerily quiet hubs teeming with deadly horrors waiting to strike, but the different styles of gameplay deviate enough from each other to provide unique experiences. Yharnam's pacing is fast and deliberate with few opportunities to maneuver around Bloodborne's enemies. By contrast, Gloomwood allows the player to slow down and explore the environment to find a suitable strategy. Contrary to Bloodborne's hardest bosses, when a monstrosity crawls out of the dark in Gloomwood, the player is given several ways to avoid them altogether, thereby granting the player more opportunities for an ambush. The kind of attention to detail present in Gloomwood's ominous cityscape goes deeper with plenty of hand-crafted interior locations populated with Gloomwood's deadly menagerie of horrors.
Fans of Dishonored are no strangers to well-guarded areas with a variety of approaches. Levels are open and intricate with well-lit branching pathways that compliment Dishonored's mix of magic and gadgetry, giving players plenty of choice in how to complete certain objectives. When games like Deathloop and Dishonored's critiqued systems are combined, it becomes a playground for experimentation where players can teleport over rooftops, set enemies on fire, or possess rats to breach the fortress walls. Gloomwood takes Dishonored's sun-filled playground and merges it with survival horror. It uses in-depth player interactivity to place the player in frightening situations to decide whether to face what lurks around the corner or stay hidden.