With Halloween right around the corner, Allogloom is an intriguing point-and-click adventure with deep lore to uncover, fun puzzles that aren’t too much of a hassle, and a beautiful yet twisted art style.
Here’s a fun fact about me: I’ve been getting into horror over the past few years, especially psychological horror, thanks to Silent Hill 2 Remake and Junji Ito manga. To quench my thirst for psychological horror, Allogloom arrives just in time, even though it’s not really designed to be scary. Developed by Galactic Ghosty and published by Iceberg Interactive, Allogloom is a fun point-and-click adventure with a beautiful, twisted art style that reminded me of Fran Bow, and eight story chapters about the mysterious flesh-eating moths the folks at Gruesome Grove seem to worship for some unknown reason.
Allogloom follows Nora from Gruesome Grove, a small town that worships flesh-eating moths that eat anyone who’s dead or tries to leave. On the night of Blessed Festivities, Nora helps her grandmother and brother prepare for a ritual to receive a blessing from the moths; however, Nora worries about her missing mother, since leaving the town is forbidden. But during the celebration, a group of disgusting-looking monsters abducts her family and townsfolk, and Nora must embark on a daring journey to save everyone and find her mother by solving puzzles and meeting many intriguing folks across the realms.
“Allogloom is a fun point-and-click adventure with a beautiful, twisted art style that reminded me of Fran Bow…”
As someone slightly new to the point-and-click adventure genre, I thoroughly enjoyed Allogloom’s gameplay for its simplicity, while still offering fun, intertwined puzzles and obstacles. For example, I encountered a monster trapped in a receptionist’s room, but I needed access to retrieve an ingredient. Without spoiling the full solution, I had to complete a series of intertwined puzzles to kill the monster, such as finding the doctor’s missing legs with an axe, acquiring a tool from a previous puzzle to adjust the receptionist’s phone ringtone volume, and calling from a payphone to make the monster explode.
This is one example of the gameplay loop. However, if players feel lost, they can enable Object Highlights in the settings, which acts as a hint function by highlighting the clickable objects in the room they are in.
My favourite section in Allogloom is the sixth chapter, which does a great job combining puzzles with psychological and body horror. As Nora is transported outside a deserted hospital, we learn how the monsters were created and the havoc they caused. Additionally, Nora meets many intriguing characters in the hospital, including a creepy-looking nurse who is melting, a spoiled queen, a hungry squid-looking baby, and a talking wizard door. Shifting to the straightforward puzzles, my favourite was the one where you need to find a spare heart and liver to replace the Wizard Door-infected organs. This premise is so wacky, but I love it.
Not to mention, it’s a huge narrative shift that goes beyond saving our family and the Gruesome Grove townsfolk. But as we embark on a new mission, Allogloom slowly unravel the strange, mysterious aspects of the many worlds, including why Gruesome Grove trees produce a deadly amount of sap, where the monsters came from, the moths in general, and more.
However, I can’t talk about Allogloom without mentioning the beautiful, twisted art style. Developed by a solo developer, Galactic Ghosty hand-painted the game, inspired by Art Nouveau illustration. Not to mention, the developer shared on the Steam Page that Fran Bow was one of the games that inspired Allogloom, which is the first game I thought of during my first playthrough, and I thought that was very cool, as although I hadn’t played the game before, I did know about it because my sister was a fan of the title when we were kids.
Each world is crafted wonderfully and highlights its setting, while also doing a great job highlighting the monsters’ grotesque features, from their long tongues to their many bloody eyes. I especially like how Nora design evolves in the game, as she goes from a relatively clean person who’s ready to celebrate in the festival to being covered in the blood of the monster she slaughtered as she searches for her family. Not to mention, the music was well done and fitting across each world I explored.
Although I enjoyed the game a lot, my only gripe is the backtracking in certain chapters during my first playthrough, which isn’t too excessive, just a bit annoying when feeling lost. Along with the backtracking, the music doesn’t loop, and it goes silent for a couple of minutes. It’s kinda odd, and I’m not sure if it’s intentional. However, I did encounter a glitch where Nora would switch between clean and bloody when talking to some characters after an update. Hopefully an update can reverse the glitch, but otherwise, everything operated smoothly.
Allogloom is a fun, relaxing, and charming point-and-click adventure title, especially during the spooky season. Although the backtracking can be a bit excessive at times and the random glitch occurs, it still didn’t stop me from pushing forward as I explored the beautifully crafted worlds and uncovered the mysterious lore. As a short title that can be completed in one session, it does a great job of not overstaying its welcome and leaves no questions unanswered.
