Forgive Me Father, for this game hath committed many a sin.
O.K. Long story short: Forgive Me Father is HIGHLY PLAYABLE. It is well made, well designed (I can't speak to the programming, but aesthetically it is stellar), and is, on the whole, a genuinely fun experience. I hate to leave a bad review, this is more of an "it is O.K."
however
There are many other games I would recommend OVER this one. I wouldn't say I don't recommend it, but I could give you a list of better experiences. Maybe give it a couple years, play other things on your wishlist, then check it out when you have money to burn and feel a bit bored.
I have to say, Civvie 11's hot take on it in ROUNDUP 4 - THE ALLUVION is pretty much an accurate description of most of my complaints: "A game everyone tells me I should love, but I don't. It feels weightless and strange to me, like the damage feedback is exactly the same whether you get hit with a paper airplane or a freight train. Shooting enemies feels like breaking cardboard cutouts, I keep trying to plow through it but like, EHH, I don't know... and this one just doesn't do it for me."

This game desperately wants to be a grand-slam love letter to Doom, Quake, etc, and join the mass of Boomer Shooters that have cropped up over the past few years. And you know, you would think given the inky, Mignola-inspired art style, and the full-on Lovecraftian, Stephen King, Edgar Allen Poe influences that maybe this game could pull it off. But unfortunately, it has a lot of problems keeping it from doing anything new with what it has going for it. As much as the Lovecraftian has always been a major part of classic FPS games, this game doesn't really do anything interesting with it beyond the surface level.

To begin with, the "main characters" are little more than silent space marine-types. Except, no, they're worse than that. They *have* voice acting, on par with someone snagged on Fiverr, though. No disrespect to the actors themselves. They work with what they're given, but it isn't much. The most you get from them, honestly, is the odd "Ahh, ammo." and the most uninteresting sort of things that tell you nothing about them as characters. And even the actors themselves, their approach is awkward at best, cringe at worst. Its like having the choice between a ditzy journalist who's in the wrong genre, or the "world weary" preacher edgelord who is really trying to sell how depressed he is. And if that wasn't bad enough, the best time to actually give these pale excuses for characters some significance as regards the story is in between missions, but fortunately/unfortunately, they have opted for the typical "less is more" approach, read by a far more convincing, aged narrator. What little story is here, the cutscenes certainly steal the show in the art direction and narrator's grim reading.

The story itself is an issue. Scattered throughout, there are little text dumps to be read, titled "story", which is supposed to add to the world-building and story, but there is little to no coherency or importance to any of these readables, neither do they attempt to try to take a Bioshock approach with people's writings scattered around for you to follow some kind of goings-on that occurred before you got there. And for the most part, this game just devolves into just another Doom-like. There are little to no significant story elements or set pieces within levels, and you just start blitzing through them, or as Civvie said, "plowing", because this game just starts to drag. I honestly just found myself in an abusive relationship with this game playing each level to just see the end of it. And it just keeps going. More enemies, more levels, more enemies, more levels, another boss. Props on the creativity and work put into the levels, bosses, and enemies, but there are almost too many levels and enemies. The boss fights themselves are fairly well-designed, although this leads me to the balancing.

This game, at least when I played it before a veritable waterfall of patches came through, really needed retooling on the upgrade system. From what I've heard, it has improved, but when I played it, the upgrades came at an incredibly slow trickle. Its like when you are waiting for a drip of water to fall from a tap, and you're dying of thirst. I was barreling through level after level, getting to boss fights, going over and over them until my game plan worked out. And I began to wonder, am I making the right choice? For any of my upgrades? This is not a game that really encouraged any sort of flow or play style for me. I really didn't feel tempted by the upgrades because I couldn't usually feel they helped enough when I got them. It wasn't so much as play style effected as it was just a leg up every once in awhile over the hordes of Serious Sam-like arenas and Doom-like sprawling maps. There was no grind and excitement or desperate desire for an upgrade, it was just necessary for progression before I got irritated.

Oh, and the sanity/liquor meter? I don't even understand how they work. Honestly, I couldn't figure out how using abilities actually effected my sanity, I wasn't sure if alcohol added to it or what, I think that was separate. That whole idea was honestly a terrible mess, and yet the best they could do for the sanity effects is black and white with red blood? Really? The abilities were meh, healing is best.

Spoiler time***** Basically, you go to your home town in Maine (because of course), your cousin wanted to talk with you or something. Then you find he's been kidnapped, I think he's hung (honestly a highlight because of the dark, rainy night and all the townies with their torches and pitchforks, good level), and then you're basically on this quest to take down the mayor, and eventually the dark forces presiding over the town... ooo... ahhh... spooky. Yeah, it is just Cthulhu. Shocker. His reveal was pretty good, I guess. Honestly not the worst or hardest. That honor would go to the dishonorable... shadow... thing. I don't know how to describe it. Back to Cthulhu. So you kill him. At various points in the game there were segments which I swear were supposed to be plot/character relevant but are so subtle and vague and poorly planned that I had no idea what was going on. Woman screaming, a locket that I think the preacher goes "I thought I left that..."
Long story short, after beating Cthulhu, he sort of names you his heir or something, but that doesn't matter. In fact, none of it matters, as you discover that the events of the game you just slogged through (congrats) was all an insanity induced fever dream and you murdered almost everyone in town. The end. Which begs the question, I thought the devs would understand how to write a Lovecraftian video game? Isn't the existential dread and insanity supposed to happen AFTER you come face to face with the unknown? What set the main character off? Why did they pull the classic "IT WAS ALL A DREAM" thing, when it would have been more effective to, I don't know, tell a worthwhile tale of horror, mystery, and intrigue?

Overall, my experience with Forgive Me Father was a painful one. And not the good kind of pain. The kind that disappoints me. In the end, did I play a well-made, fun game that was stunning in a lot of ways? Yes, congrats to the devs. But could it have been far better, and left me with fewer answerable questions, and more unanswerable questions of dread? Yes. In the end, my experience was colored (out of space) by a lot of issues, some of which I'm sure I didn't cover (like how enemies were far too silent, and would often sneak up on me in some early levels). This game could really use, at least, a little more time in the oven, and at most, re-hauling and re-envisioning the experience. I can imagine so much that would have been neat to see with this concept, and at the end of the day, its just another corridor/arena shooter with scant storytelling and a lot of ideas that need re-tooling.

Forgive Me Father, for this game hath committed many a sin. O.K. Long story short: Forgive Me Father is HIGHLY PLAYABLE. It is well made, well designed (I can't speak to the programming, but aesthetically it is stellar), and is, on the whole, a genuinely fun experience. I hate to leave a bad review, this is more of an "it is O.K." however There are many other games I would recommend OVER this one. I wouldn't say I don't recommend it, but I could give you a list of better experiences. Maybe give it a couple years, play other things on your wishlist, then check it out when you have money to burn and feel a bit bored. I have to say, Civvie 11's hot take on it in ROUNDUP 4 - THE ALLUVION is pretty much an accurate description of most of my complaints: "A game everyone tells me I should love, but I don't. It feels weightless and strange to me, like the damage feedback is exactly the same whether you get hit with a paper airplane or a freight train. Shooting enemies feels like breaking cardboard cutouts, I keep trying to plow through it but like, EHH, I don't know... and this one just doesn't do it for me." This game desperately wants to be a grand-slam love letter to Doom, Quake, etc, and join the mass of Boomer Shooters that have cropped up over the past few years. And you know, you would think given the inky, Mignola-inspired art style, and the full-on Lovecraftian, Stephen King, Edgar Allen Poe influences that maybe this game could pull it off. But unfortunately, it has a lot of problems keeping it from doing anything new with what it has going for it. As much as the Lovecraftian has always been a major part of classic FPS games, this game doesn't really do anything interesting with it beyond the surface level. To begin with, the "main characters" are little more than silent space marine-types. Except, no, they're worse than that. They *have* voice acting, on par with someone snagged on Fiverr, though. No disrespect to the actors themselves. They work with what they're given, but it isn't much. The most you get from them, honestly, is the odd "Ahh, ammo." and the most uninteresting sort of things that tell you nothing about them as characters. And even the actors themselves, their approach is awkward at best, cringe at worst. Its like having the choice between a ditzy journalist who's in the wrong genre, or the "world weary" preacher edgelord who is really trying to sell how depressed he is. And if that wasn't bad enough, the best time to actually give these pale excuses for characters some significance as regards the story is in between missions, but fortunately/unfortunately, they have opted for the typical "less is more" approach, read by a far more convincing, aged narrator. What little story is here, the cutscenes certainly steal the show in the art direction and narrator's grim reading. The story itself is an issue. Scattered throughout, there are little text dumps to be read, titled "story", which is supposed to add to the world-building and story, but there is little to no coherency or importance to any of these readables, neither do they attempt to try to take a Bioshock approach with people's writings scattered around for you to follow some kind of goings-on that occurred before you got there. And for the most part, this game just devolves into just another Doom-like. There are little to no significant story elements or set pieces within levels, and you just start blitzing through them, or as Civvie said, "plowing", because this game just starts to drag. I honestly just found myself in an abusive relationship with this game playing each level to just see the end of it. And it just keeps going. More enemies, more levels, more enemies, more levels, another boss. Props on the creativity and work put into the levels, bosses, and enemies, but there are almost too many levels and enemies. The boss fights themselves are fairly well-designed, although this leads me to the balancing. This game, at least when I played it before a veritable waterfall of patches came through, really needed retooling on the upgrade system. From what I've heard, it has improved, but when I played it, the upgrades came at an incredibly slow trickle. Its like when you are waiting for a drip of water to fall from a tap, and you're dying of thirst. I was barreling through level after level, getting to boss fights, going over and over them until my game plan worked out. And I began to wonder, am I making the right choice? For any of my upgrades? This is not a game that really encouraged any sort of flow or play style for me. I really didn't feel tempted by the upgrades because I couldn't usually feel they helped enough when I got them. It wasn't so much as play style effected as it was just a leg up every once in awhile over the hordes of Serious Sam-like arenas and Doom-like sprawling maps. There was no grind and excitement or desperate desire for an upgrade, it was just necessary for progression before I got irritated. Oh, and the sanity/liquor meter? I don't even understand how they work. Honestly, I couldn't figure out how using abilities actually effected my sanity, I wasn't sure if alcohol added to it or what, I think that was separate. That whole idea was honestly a terrible mess, and yet the best they could do for the sanity effects is black and white with red blood? Really? The abilities were meh, healing is best. Spoiler time***** Basically, you go to your home town in Maine (because of course), your cousin wanted to talk with you or something. Then you find he's been kidnapped, I think he's hung (honestly a highlight because of the dark, rainy night and all the townies with their torches and pitchforks, good level), and then you're basically on this quest to take down the mayor, and eventually the dark forces presiding over the town... ooo... ahhh... spooky. Yeah, it is just Cthulhu. Shocker. His reveal was pretty good, I guess. Honestly not the worst or hardest. That honor would go to the dishonorable... shadow... thing. I don't know how to describe it. Back to Cthulhu. So you kill him. At various points in the game there were segments which I swear were supposed to be plot/character relevant but are so subtle and vague and poorly planned that I had no idea what was going on. Woman screaming, a locket that I think the preacher goes "I thought I left that..." Long story short, after beating Cthulhu, he sort of names you his heir or something, but that doesn't matter. In fact, none of it matters, as you discover that the events of the game you just slogged through (congrats) was all an insanity induced fever dream and you murdered almost everyone in town. The end. Which begs the question, I thought the devs would understand how to write a Lovecraftian video game? Isn't the existential dread and insanity supposed to happen AFTER you come face to face with the unknown? What set the main character off? Why did they pull the classic "IT WAS ALL A DREAM" thing, when it would have been more effective to, I don't know, tell a worthwhile tale of horror, mystery, and intrigue? Overall, my experience with Forgive Me Father was a painful one. And not the good kind of pain. The kind that disappoints me. In the end, did I play a well-made, fun game that was stunning in a lot of ways? Yes, congrats to the devs. But could it have been far better, and left me with fewer answerable questions, and more unanswerable questions of dread? Yes. In the end, my experience was colored (out of space) by a lot of issues, some of which I'm sure I didn't cover (like how enemies were far too silent, and would often sneak up on me in some early levels). This game could really use, at least, a little more time in the oven, and at most, re-hauling and re-envisioning the experience. I can imagine so much that would have been neat to see with this concept, and at the end of the day, its just another corridor/arena shooter with scant storytelling and a lot of ideas that need re-tooling.