Forgive Me Father 2 Review - Old Gods, Old School
I love looking at indie games. To me, they’re a bit like a short-form podcast. Often niche, sometimes weird settings and narratives that explore a theme and then move on. In both casts and indies, the hook isn’t always done well, but most of the time I will come away with myriad thoughts on something that hasn’t been fully explored by other media. That’s what I seldom see from higher-production products, which is why I’m mostly bored of the big-budget experience.
Forgive Me Father 2 isn’t a game I even knew existed. I don’t really look at shooters very often (I am dog-water at them, as I explained to my editor) but I’ve been on a bit of a recent Lovecraft dive, so the timing felt right.
Without playing the first game, I feel like some of the setting is lost on me. Not to be glib, but in a boomer shooter, I’m not even 100% sure it matters. You play as a priest in an asylum having nightmares, and you break out as the world twists around you. The question at the core seems to revolve around whether the priest’s reality is real or not. As he progresses through increasingly nightmarish visages, touching upon places that impacted the priest greatly; whether that be cathedrals where he sought solace and helped people flee through secret passages, or the frontlines of the Great War.
By far the most striking thing is the visuals. The game uses 3D environments interlaced with some fantastic-looking 2D sprites. The juxtaposition of styles might seem jarring, but I feel like it works very well in this setting. It makes things look like a comic book, complete with some serious comic book violence where enemies satisfyingly explode into hunks of flesh and viscera. Environments are similarly well designed; from the frontline trenches feeling claustrophobic and oppressive, a twisted asylum ripe with cthulu-spun posters, and a villa that once served as refuge instead of being broken down and decrepit.
Weapons feel amazing to use too, and very varied. By default you’ll gain access to 5 types of weapons; a knife, revolver, shotgun, rifle, and grenade launcher all are unlocked normally, but finding weapon tokens allows you to buy more otherworldly versions. All of the designs are great, but I especially love the more occult weapons. A mortar that has a weird creature on it, where reloading it requires hitting it on the back and shoving ammo into its mouth, or your melee weapon to be replaced by a zombified arm handcuffed to your own. Super awesome. The gunplay feels tight, and you’ll be doing a hell of a lot of shooting. There is a madness system in place as well, where unlockable pages for a dark tome give you access to buffs for a short time. I never felt very reliant on it though and the buffs didn’t seem insanely powerful, so I forgot it existed more often than not.
Levels are short if you’re a good player. I’m not, so some levels took me around an hour or so to complete. Littered amongst the levels are unlockable secret areas, clocks to destroy and enemies to kill. Doing all of these will give you a 100% ranking, and it encourages you to come back. Especially with some new additions to your arsenal made levels feel fresh and interesting even after I had beaten them. Plus it helps to have some idea where enemy placements are so you’re equipped for what’s around the corner.
This being said, one of the major gripes is around checkpoints. Some of the checkpoints are a bit lacking, so there were quite a few times I had to redo 10-15 minutes of gameplay because there was no new checkpoint after a small combat and I got wiped out. The priest is not a strong character, and I think newer shooters have conditioned me into health regen and cover systems. This isn’t that type of game. Instead, much like older Quake, Doom, and Unreal Tournament, if you’re not moving you’re going to die. This turns combat into tense, fast encounters where you need to use everything at your disposal to survive. Need to reload a gun? It’s going to be better to switch to a new one and thin the crowd before you get the time to do it.
Also, holy shit. The music is so damn good. Gothic church music is great during some levels, but when the combat gets going and that metal soundtrack kicks in: there’s nothing better. The music brings reminders of a Mick Gordon soundtrack, and I don’t give that praise lightly.
All in all, Forgive me Father 2 was a welcome surprise that tested my very rusty skills with fast-paced action sequences and a very cool Lovecraftian vibe. Even after finishing it once, I’m very keen to check out the other story paths, and to try and 100% all the levels. If you like fast FPS games then put this on your radar, because much like Cthulu, you should not sleep when there’s mayhem to be had.
Forgive Me Father 2 was reviewed on PC with code kindly supplied by the publisher.
