Publisher: Motamot
Developer: Motamot
Year: 2025
Genre: Adventure

Hellkind is a free, short top-down horror game where you investigate a cult and ritual inside of a church. Apparently the game is inspired by Galician folklore, which I have no knowledge of but want to read more about after playing this game. I really enjoyed the grainy black and white aesthetic the game has. It’s not quite the 80s Macintosh look or what Return of the Obra Dinn did, but it feels similar. Usually I’m not a big horror person but I saw one or two reviews about how creepy the game was even though it doesn’t have any jump scares and I would say it succeeds on that front.

It’s definitely an adventure game. You aren’t being chased by any monsters or asked to fight anything. You are just slowly walking around this church trying to figure out what happened and picking up items to add to your inventory so you can use them elsewhere. The game only took me about 20 minutes to complete but there’s optional details you can discover if you want to investigate further and do the optional puzzles. I didn’t because I couldn’t really figure it out and was starting to get antsy about the player character’s slow walking speed (if I did have any gripes about the game, it’s this), but I think it’s fun that there’s optional stuff to pursue if you want. This is the first game by this “studio” (it’s one person that is very open about how they’re not solo because they buy assets) but I’m definitely interested in playing more games by them in the future. I recommend playing this game but think you should be aware that the game has flashing lights, the game warns you about this when you start it up.

Hellkind is available for free on Steam.