Somewhere in the storm of video game news in Summer Game Fest 2023's orbit, a highly intriguing survival horror roguelite was announced.
Horror Stories: Harvest Hunt is a new game from indie studio Villainous Games, whose elevator pitch for the title is "Resident Evil Village meets Inscryption." And honestly, watching the announcement trailer, that description seems entirely appropriate.
The first thing that struck me about Harvest Hunt is its art style, which definitely borrows liberally from Inscryption but uses a backwoods village as a template. The result, indeed, is something of a blend between Resident Evil and Devolver Digital's deckbuilding roguelite.
- This survival horror Steam Next Fest demo doesn't care that its puzzles are breaking me because it knows I'll stay for the immaculate Silent Hill vibes
- The Metroidvania gods have spoken and answered my prayers with this horror game that looks like Majora's Mask if it let you play as an onion-headed freak
Gameplay-wise, Harvest Hunt is a single-player stealth survival roguelite with a card system that lets you sacrifice some of your health for special abilities and modifiers. The goal, in Villanous Games' words, is to have "the replayability of roguelites with the tension found across the horror genre."
Harvest Hunt puts you in the shoes of a newly appointed warden whose job it is to gather resources from the dangerous, non-linear, and dilapidated Farmlands of Luna Nova. What isn't part of your official job but is equally important is surviving the threat of the Devourer, which mercilessly stalks the fields every night.
As the moon rises on each night of the harvest, cards are drawn to determine which advantages you'll take with you on the hunt. Along with these helpful tools, you'll also have weapons including pitchforks, axes, and more to combat the many threats of the night. Occasionally, you'll also want to sneak around and hide in order to survive because after all, you're just an ordinary person and your enemies are very much not that.
Each run should take around 10-15 minutes, after which you can customize your deck once more in hopes of countering the randomized challenges to come. It's unclear if environments themselves are randomized/procedurally generated, but at the very least the threats you'll face will be.
I've yet to check out the demo, but the trailer for Harvest Hunt definitely got my attention, with stunning environments, creepy monsters, and plenty of replayability to keep me coming back for more.
Harvest Hunt launches on PC sometime in 2023, and there's a free Steam demo launching June 19 during Steam Next Fest.
In the meantime, here are the best horror games to play tonight.
