Game Review: Krampus (Steam)

A point & click holiday survival horror based around the titular anti-Santa demon, Krampus. This £3.99 game promises a lot but ends up massively failing to deliver.

The story is simple; you’re a teenager who has arrived at a lavish country house to celebrate Christmas with his family. However this year it’s not Santa that will be visiting this happy home. Someone’s on the naughty list & Krampus is here to teach them a lesson they’ll never forget.

Played from the first person perspective you are given a few tasks to complete within a localised area of the house starting outdoors. It’s simple stuff like clear the snow from the gate & build a snowman. It’s here that the games first problems become apparent.

It’s incredibly dark; you’ll have to knock the brightness up on your screen to the max to be able to see into dark corners. Trying to find a shovel that is leaning up against a wall in near darkness is an incredibly frustrating introduction to the game.

The second issue are the controls, now it’s basic stuff if you’re using a keypad & mouse. That’s not the problem, the problem is that when moving the look around portion of the controls (mouse) locks up meaning you have to stop moving, turn to look in another direction then carry on. Every so often it will allow you to move & look at the same time (mainly when running) but it’s rare.

Once you’ve completed the tasks in & outside the house you go to bed only to wake in the night having heard noises. This is where Krampus finally comes into play, seemingly kidnapping your mother. It’s now up to you to find her by exploring the house, completing simple puzzles & reading the odd note.

There really isn’t much to this. The locations are ugly & bland, the moments that are designed to chill end up falling flat & the final part of the game is so poorly designed you’ll consider giving up. It’s all for an unsatisfying ending too.

The game has numerous bugs; you’ll fall through the floor, suffer stuttering, freezes, crashes & struggle to pick items up unless you’re standing in the right place. The game can be finished in less than an hour. That’s being generous though as half of that run-time will be you just wandering around wondering what you’re supposed to do next.

A disappointing mess of a game that’s only positive is it’s sounds. They offer the only chilling moments of the game.