Dread Delusion developed by Lovely Hellplace and published by Dread XP— Xbox Series X|S review by David with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Oh how I do love the depth of retro style games we find ourselves inundated with from the independent development scene these days. From pixel art souls-likes to King’s Field clones, and everything between and adjacent. Today we’re looking at what has rapidly become an absolute favorite in the open-world RPG genre for me. An interesting story, memorable NPCs, stunning visuals, and a setting absolutely dripping with flavor, Dread Delusion sets its tone immediately and sticks with it.
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Pedro Pascal really is in everything these days |
Like some of the most iconic RPGs of our time, you wake up in a cell, with no explanation of your crimes. The state, in this case The Apostolic Union, decided that you were guilty, but that they had a job for you to earn your freedom. So opens Dread Delusion, though I think the visual storytelling of a desiccated corpse in one corner of your cell and piles of unspecified but easily concluded piles of brownish filth in the corners really sells it in this one. You are Prisoner XVII. No name, no face, just a convict in rags sent to capture a renegade holed up in a fortress your side’s army has been failing at taking up ‘til now. You’ll find plenty of dead Inquisitors to demonstrate the depth of the problem too. You’re given this task by your army’s High Confessor, also a criminal of the Union, her crimes resulted in her placement inside a torture device of a mechanical exoskeleton, and she’ll tell you more about it later.
Predictably, your mission results in your failure to stop the woman you’re chasing, but you succeed in capturing their fortress, which you will return to repeatedly throughout the game. Inside this fortress is a bedroom with a save crystal, allowing you to manually save your progress (there are autosaves occasionally), as well as a functional bed, because exhaustion in this game exists and affects everything from your stats to your stamina bar. Not all beds are accessible, so it’s good to take note of where they are, because that fatigue harms everything. At this point, the game will have a tutorial for you on everything but the crafting system, so you’ll be fairly used to the d6 roll that determines lockpick success and been introduced to the secret location system. But if you want to find everything, keep that lore skill up and always look for things that appear askew. If your reticle changes on an object, click it, always.
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Death’s Veil might be my favorite alchemy ingredient in fantasy gaming |
Touching back on my love for the indie dev environment we find ourselves in these days as gamers, I wanna talk about where this game came from for a minute. Because of the prevalence of mushroom forests and starting out as a prisoner, this game gets a lot of comparisons to Morrowind, but I don’t feel that’s quite a fair comparison. Morrowind was the third game in a beloved RPG series from a major game developer, and the scale of the game as well as how you explore and how much there is to do reflect that. While it’s likely the developers also were Morrowind fans, the game wasn’t made to reflect that particular piece of media, but as an homage to an even older era of gaming. Dread Delusion first came to this world with the demo being a playable part of Haunted PS1 in 2020. We finally saw a full game release on Steam in May 2024, and now we have our console release. I love to see it.
The real mission of the game is to track down former members of the Dark Star Mercenaries, trekking across the Oneiric Isles to find them. Forty years ago, a war against the gods was fought, with communities rising up and killing their patrons after centuries of horrific deals made with these eldritch horrors, exchanging living sacrifices for harvest quality and the like. These communities formed the Apostolic Union, from whose navy split the Dark Star Mercenaries and Vela Callose was branded an enemy. You learn over the course of the game that her goal involves heading to the Underlands for an artifact she believes will fix the world.
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Love the long distance views in this game. |
The setting is absolutely delicious too. It’s referred to as The Oneiric Isles, a cluster of islands floating far above the surface of a ruined planet, held aloft in their ever shifting positions by a “Neutron Star.” Your first location after taking over Blinding Light is the village of Pwyll, which serves as a sort of gateway to Hallowshire, the only Union affiliated of the three major zones. Corresponding with three of the four former mercenary leaders you need to track down is Jack Basalt, the first of the four, who is waiting for you in The Wobbly Noggin ready to send you after the remaining three: The Emberian, who has been spotted in Hallowshire; Caxton Frost has gone to his homeland in the Clockwork Kingdom; with The Endless Duchess fittingly being found in the Endless Realm.
While Hallowshire is more of what you’ve experienced so far, just at a higher level with the expectation you'll be familiar with the mechanics by then, the other zones are QUITE a different vibe. The Endless Realms are a culture of people who never die even as their flesh rots from their bones. Many in the realms have sealed themselves in tombs to simulate death as they prefer it to the alternative. The Clockwork Kingdom is an automated monarchy with a mad king at the helm, causing a whole different level of chaos as even the weather is affected by its artificial whims.
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The absolute realism of some of these characters just gets me right in the soul |
You can buy property, upgrade it to your tastes, and investigate spooky mysteries while you search for these missing mercenaries. Melee combat as usual is the easiest to get the gist of, but stealth and range are my favorite to approach problems, using magic in a pinch for offense and to make my escape. More than combat will kill you in this game though, as falling off the floating islands is a constant peril. Death is not the end though, as you're snatched from its jaws each time through a mechanic I won't spoil the details of, but finding the respawn points hidden around the map was interesting as I tumbled repeatedly into the abyss after misjudging a jump. You will absolutely miss jumps, especially if you're searching for as many Glimmers of Delusion as you can to level up.
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Immortal librarians never forget your late books |
Travel is a bit of a slog early in the game but improves. Your walk speed is slow, but sprinting has some decent time to it before your stamina is empty, and the regen rate is pretty solid. As you progress and unlock The Erudite Academy, you'll open up teleportation chambers. You'll find magical portal mirrors and remember where to find them, you'll even eventually get your own airship! And all of those are good, because your ever increasing skills will have you backtracking to explore areas you couldn't open at lower levels, all the way back to Blinding Light at the beginning of the map. There is no map-based fast travel, all of it is in-world and directly experienced. There's barely a map, truth be told, as you have to make it. One of the early quests is from a cartographer you find in a tent on a raised platform, and you'll find these in each zone to turn in completed portions of the maps, but using the map at this point relies on you knowing where you are in relation to landmarks. Once you have a compass, your magical map shows your position on it and tracking your movement becomes that much easier. The playable area isn't small by any means, or at least doesn't feel so with how much there is to do and explore, but its not so big that you'll spend noticeable portions of time just traveling.
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Immaculate vibes every time we find a key NPC |
Dread Delusion is an impeccably flavored multi-course meal for those who appreciate modern RPG depth, retro styles, and simplified gameplay. With memorable characters, well written storylines, a beautifully crafted world, and a rewarding sense of exploration, Dread Delusion has me endlessly hungry for more.
Score: 10 / 10
NOTE: Our author has this to add to his review:
A big strength for such a small game (2.1 GB on Xbox) is the breadth of choice you have. You don't actually have to engage in combat for the most part, for example, and doing so in the right areas will even alter quest dialog and direction in some instances. There's almost always a way to use your Charm skill to avoid hostilities with a speaking NPC, sometimes even skipping whole sections of the quests altogether. Almost every quest has multiple endings, with many of those affecting the game world and other quest lines. From enthusiastically supporting the Apostatic Union like your tortured Confessor Division superior to a staunch proponent of a return to the Old Ways, or a Vibes Only approach with zero consistency beyond "feels right at the time." Your playthrough will absolutely feel like your playthrough, and the mysteries throughout the game had me already planning a second run before I even finished assembling my crew of Ex-Mercs, much less the rest of the game.
