Cole Luke - Blog
Embrace the dread in Holstin’s playtest
It’s spoopy time
Wishlist on Steam.
After last month’s reveal, a playtest of Holstin has just dropped and first impressions are very good.
It has all the hallmarks of a classic survival horror thoroughbred. The playtest itself is set within a decrepit and tentacle-goo infested house filled with some very unsettling characters.
The goo reacts to artificial light and you need to solve electricity and light-based puzzles to navigate through the house, uncovering a grisly scene as you go.
Holstin utilises a novel isometric view which can be rotated between 8 angles, allowing you to take in the morbid beauty of its world.
For a playtest, it is highly polished,with full voice-acting. The location itself won’t be in the final game so the playtest acts as a spoiler-free demo to get a handle of the mechanics and take in the incredible artwork and atmosphere on display.
Further enhancing the visuals, the custom engine utilises real-time per-pixel lighting and shadows to stunning effect. Most of my playthrough was from just admiring the foetid details from every possible angle.
This rendering deliciousness does come at a performance cost, however.
The developers state the lighting system in the game is “uncharted territory” but says much work will be done over the next six months to further optimise the experience. In the full version of the game there will be combat and more frenetic gameplay scenarios so improved performance will be a must. But for this release, 30 FPS is the target.
On the Steam Deck, I averaged around 26 FPS and on my RTX 2060 equipped Razer Blade, I saw returns of 46 FPS.
Despite the current technical hitches of this early state I was able to look past these performance issues and found myself hooked.
The eerie and interesting world of Holstin has captured my imagination and I can’t wait to try the next public demos slated for release in the coming months.
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