Heidelberg 1693 | PS4 Review

If horror is your thing, and you don't mind a bit of gore laced with sacrilegious freak show oddities, "Heidelberg 1693" might just suit your fancy. This Victorian era mashup of the metroidvania genre, and "Ghosts & Goblins" games has you taking on the role of an unnamed Musketeer under the orders of the Sun King. It seems that the King's arch-nemesis the Moon King has been up to some nasty things. Conjuring up armies of the damned and grotesque in an attempt to end the Sun King's reign. As the Musketeer with a single bullet musket rifle, and a rapier on hand it is up to you to deal the deathblow to your King's sworn adversary, and his army of darkness. 

Through silent film inspired art panels and textual storytelling we find our hero in one Hell of a mess. At the behest of his Majesty this dual armed soldier of yesteryear sets out to do the impossible in a land ravaged by beastly monstrosities. That impossible task being to behead the Moon King, and put an end to his tyranny. At his disposal the Musketeer has a limited use musket rifle dependent upon a stock of gunpowder, and bullets that must be reloaded after each shot in real time. Making his secondary option, the rapier, a must use tool in dispatching the denizens of the damned. With said rapier the Musketeer can do a jumping upwards spin slash, and can combo a string of melee attacks while facing forward. In addition to these two base weapons, and their abilities comes special use items that can be thrown or utilized on the fly so long as that special item is in your inventory. In the way of upgrades new hidden musket rifles with different bullet types can be found, and like the special items they are only available so long as you are alive. You die you lose all collected weapons and items.

Life, and death in 'Heidelberg 1693' is, as you might expect, measured in hearts or the lack thereof. By finding female prostitutes or "Girlfriends", if you rather, you can gain extra heart containers. This too only lasts in the life with which you got it though. As you traverse the mapped out point to point locations of Victorian era Germany, and the surrounding lands you will face not only the spawning Hellspawn, but also have to deal with the intruding indestructible mask of the Moon King. The latter of which makes getting from start to end so much more difficult through enemy interactions. Thankfully there are tombstone checkpoints in the longer stages, and will allow you to make progress even if it is through repeated respawns, and retries. Respawns themselves allow you to pick up right where you die regardless of whether or not you made it to a checkpoint, and there is no loading screen slowing down that reload process. 

Stages in 'Heidelberg 1693' each carry their own unique theme and new enemies to deal with. There's even the occasional boss battle. Bosses have a huge health bar, and while their attack and movement patterns can be learned they sometimes mix it up. This "Surprise MF'er!!!" predicament happens a lot throughout a playthrough, and even with the lesser enemy types. I'd dare say the game has predictive programming that anticipates your next move, and punishes you accordingly. It is frustrating, but you can muscle your way through, regardless. One thing you need to learn early on is that slow and steady wins the race. That patience is a virtue. If you rush you're as good as dead. There are also other tricks to the trade, so to speak. Taking advantage of the fact that enemies can kill other enemies is but one of many useful tricks that can see you through to the end. Mind you trying to kill all enemies is folly as they will respawn. A fact that should also be taken into consideration.

The Presentation ...

Heidelberg 1693 is a modernized metroidvania masterpiece with an interesting indie flair. It is pixel by design, and done up in layered 2D fashion. With lots of blood, gore, and death animations as well. In fact everything from the muskateer to the various damned creatures are all intricately animated, and articulate. It is the attention, and level of detail applied that makes this game the morbidly beautiful spectacle that it is. The various stags feature time period set pieces in ruin with moving parts, and traps. This is further accented by special affects shown through enemy attacks, and projectiles. The accompanying soundtrack is also something worthy of mentioning. It is a melodic blend of somber symphonies, melancholy melodies, and tension building tunes. It is by far one of the more unique soundtracks I've heard from a metroidvania, and it fits the bill. Those things aside the accompanying hand drawn story panel art adds an even darker and abysmal layer to the hopeless world that our Musketeer hero is fighting through. All while staying true to the Victorian era theme.

The Verdict ...

Me, and 'Heidelberg 1693' have a love/hate relationship. I really like the game. The art style, the attention to detail, and the horror-like gore are my cup of tea. There's really not much outside of that that's bad besides one little thing. The gameplay seems to be manipulated in some form or fashion to read, and predict player inputs. If you've ever played a fighting game where the AI is reading and reacting to your button presses it's the same thing. It can be frustrating. I did cuss a little, because of said frustration. Thankfully though I was able to muscle my way through those areas, and get to the end of the stage. The game is definitely doable, but only of you take it slow, and mind things. Despite my issues with the game I think it has enough redeeming qualities to still recommend for the experience alone. I've never seen a metroidvania quite like it. I'd dare to say it's far darker than "Blasphemous", and in creepy freak show kind of way. With religious mockery, and sacrilege tacked on. Something that you definitely need to be aware of going in if you are a religious person. If not then it's an interesting enough game worth the money!