Prepare to face the horrors of war in Ad Infinitum, a WWI-set horror game developed by Hekate and published by Nacon. Awaken after a horrific encounter in the trenches to a dark and terrifying house where the voices of mothers and children haunt you, and everything is uncertain. You’re thrown right into this world with only notes strewn around the house and flavor texts to help the player discern who you are, what is haunting you, and how to navigate the circumstances you find yourself in.
Ad Infinitum relies on two things primarily to drive your immediate fascination with the game and uncover its truths: good puzzle-solving and atmosphere. The game’s mechanics are simple and familiar. You meander around the house to start the game, looking for clues, objects you can pick up, and what to do with those objects as you find them. The house is big enough that you’re not going to solve its puzzles instantly but compact enough that you won’t be backtracking long distances or getting lost going in circles, either. The text attached to various objects and the objective screen in the pause menu give just enough of a clue as to where to search or what to do next without giving it all away.
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The house itself is also sufficiently creepy. I’m not a horror guy, and I didn’t find myself too skeeved out at any point, but there were a good few jump scares that got me, disgusting moments that left me slightly unsettled, and a whole lot of dark and foggy corners. At no point in my two hours of play was I anything but completely engrossed. The atmosphere kept me too anxious to ever lose my focus while the gameplay had me moving through the experience so seamlessly that I hardly had time to think about how creepy things were getting as they went on.
The house in Ad Infinitum serves as a bit of a hub in between levels where the player uncovers more about the family the game is focused on, while the “levels” will take players out into the heart of the war to come face-to-face with demonic representations of its many horrors. The first level that I got to play had me wading through the trenches and hiding from hunger monsters that would come straight for my face in a graphic and terrifying fashion if they heard me approaching. They represent the literal hunger of the starving civilians and soldiers that war engenders, as well as the depravity and desperation that war can drive anybody to contend with.
All of the hellish creatures featured in Ad Infinitum represent the unique monstrosities of WWI and the way it rapidly ushered in a modern era of war and violence. While the monsters demonstrate some of the ways society was scarred forever, the same themes reflect onto your journey through the house as you learn about the various family members and how the war destroyed their personal, emotional, and financial well-being. I appreciate the two-pronged approach to analyzing the atrocities of war through metaphor and horror.
The greatest horror I experienced comes from the main “boss” of the first level. This masterfully designed and terrifying mother-like creature crushes the hunger creatures instantly and will mortify you at every turn. I enjoyed how the game had me using completely different skills and tactics during this part of the experience compared to the house. I was crouching around, running from demons, avoiding making noise, and finding solutions to puzzles in a more linear, section-by-section fashion than the more open grounds of the house. Death was inevitable at certain points, but waking back up always offered a chance to notice things from a different angle and rarely required too many attempts to nail. However, there were certainly some rather challenging sequences.
Ad Infinitum is a deeply atmospheric and engrossing examination of the horrors of war through a fun but fairly challenging and complex horror metaphor. The first few hours I got to experience were completely captivating and promised even creepier and even more intense challenges as you come face-to-face with the many horrors of war.
Ad Infinitum is scheduled to release on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC is available now.
