The Haunted Hoard: Allogloom (PC)

Growing up in Gruesome Grove, the young lady Nora has an unusual view of morbid subjects. The friendly citizens treat their ancestors being sealed in red sap more like statues honoring the dead than a terrifying ongoing look at someone’s last moments. When Nora finds herself in mortal danger, it’s more the idea that she won’t get a chance to be eaten after her death by golden moths that frustrates her about the encounter. When an attack by a group of malformed flesh beasts disrupt the macabre but peaceful life of Nora and the villagers, hardly anyone seems to recognize being eaten alive by the fiends as something worth getting overly scared about. Nora’s perspective perhaps makes her a great choice for the hero who has to save her home and the captured people though, because in the point and click game Allogloom, she’ll always continue on no matter how nasty or monstrous the dangers in her way happen to be.

When Allogloom begins, first you get some time to be immersed in Nora’s world, Gruesome Grove having a range of customs that most citizens don’t openly question but might have some private objections to. It’s a little settlement between the trees people aren’t allowed to leave, but Nora’s mother, an outsider who was let in despite such traditions, ends up going missing right before the monster attack. As other members of Nora’s family are taken, she sets out quickly to try and save them before it’s too late, but in doing so, she starts to rub up against the things she has taken for granted. It’s not too hard to gradually see the broader message of Allogloom, people practicing old traditions unaware they were not made for their benefit but instead serve as means of subjugating the populace and bolstering the power of those who made them. It doesn’t come out with a thesis statement as such, but since Nora was a bit shielded from the world, she does gradually have to push against these systems to actually help save her family, especially when things move beyond the grove.

 

Allogloom will actually see you traveling to a few similar connected worlds as part of your puzzle-solving adventure, certain elements Nora takes for granted like the golden moths being fleshed out more as you see how they’re treated in places with different histories. Nora maintains her bright-eyed perspective throughout even when some things do start to perturb her a bit more, allowing her to better handle things like talking with a large spider or using body parts as puzzle-solving tools without hesitation. While there is no voice-acting and it can feel like it would have helped at points, Gruesome Grove and the slices of other realms you visit are all realized with a beautiful detailed hand-drawn style. Nora’s reactive face is one reason it does feel a bit odd you don’t also hear a voice when she emotes so clearly, but a lot of spaces you find yourself in have a lovely storybook feel. Not many of the monsters or bloody bits you encounter along the way are overly disturbing in appearance, many sights meant to be ominous or unusual first rather than aiming to make your skin crawl. Even when things get a little dark though, many characters you interact with can be pleasant, and it’s easy to quickly become attached to some like the hopping parrot Hopper so he’s a delight when he pops up despite being a troublemaker.

The detail in the backgrounds can sometimes make it a little tough to notice every interaction spot, but a press of a button will highlight them in most situations to keep that from being an issue that stops you in your tracks. Each chapter usually makes sure to cull your inventory a good bit and then carefully lay out the areas you have access to so you make a manageable mental checklist of what needs doing, the player given more and more range to solve inventory puzzles across a larger area but not so many that it feels overwhelming or too often sends you walking back and forth. As a point and click, there are good bit of situations solved by having the right item found elsewhere, but Allogloom makes sure to include a good deal of other steps to make sure you’re still using more interesting logic than simply picking the right item to use. You might find the right spot to lay the transparent grid item, but interpreting the information properly is another step to make the puzzle more interesting. You might pop open something and need to figure out the right phases of the moon for a code, searching around the area for clues on top of parsing a small riddle to bring it all together.

 

There’s a good balance of items being the means to start a puzzle and the game not getting too complicated with what it asks of you, the lack of a hint system perhaps intimidating for some since this is otherwise an eerie point and click that doesn’t include any sort of time pressure or need to act quickly, but it felt like most points where I did briefly hit a wall were because I failed to a notice a small item I needed to properly connect the chain of interconnected activities and get me moving again. In fact, the expanding size makes problems more rewarding to solve, especially as it starts to integrate more character interactions so you can have the reactions of people to look forward to as part of the process. There is still certainly dread as you press into places Nora should maybe better recognize the danger in, especially as you near the end, but overall Allogloom makes good use of the disrupted morbid normalcy of the Gruesome Grove and the different ways the other worlds handle similar issues to make for a story more interesting than just its horror elements.

THE VERDICT: Nora’s interesting perspective on the horrors around her gives Allogloom a fun protagonist to explore its worlds through, her comments on the macabre adding some levity even when you’re using organs as puzzle-solving items. The lovely art style is better at making vivid backgrounds than portraying terrifying monsters, but the puzzle-solving mixes inventory use with actual logic tests and riddle interpretation to make your activities interesting beyond just getting to see more of the world. Pleasantly macabre, Allogloom is a creepy point and click that can have its gruesome sights and still come out charming.

 

And so, I give Allogloom for PC…

A GOOD rating. Allogloom’s creator compared its tone to Fran Bow, another game about a young girl who doesn’t see the horrors of her world for the terrifying sights they can be, but in Nora’s case it feels like it plays well into the cultural side of the story being told. The early game gives you time to steep yourself in her way of thinking, seeing how casually they accept a world where people can chat away about which hand the new Moth Minder will lop off as part of taking over the religious position. Nora clearly isn’t fully committed to the local religion much like most people don’t follow every letter of their faith, Nora usually just needing a moment to acknowledge something is sacrilege or asking for forgiveness before pressing ahead so long as it is not an egregious breach of her understanding of her culture. These little bits and the overall look at the dangers of tradition aren’t in your face but are not buried elements either, the player getting to do more than head to new places to face the fleshy creatures and try to find where they’ve taken Nora’s family and friends. It sets a tone and helps you sympathize, all while the puzzles do good work in keeping your mind busy with other considerations as well. Wisely the game doesn’t lean on inventory puzzles as its only source of progression, but you do get to sometimes have that sense of progress of gradually combining things you find into the tool you’ve been working towards, all while more involved thinking tests help it avoid being too simple. The art style never compromises on lushness so perhaps that did keep the game from being longer, but while some puzzles are simple (and in a case where it’s a tile spinning puzzle instead of the slide puzzle it appears to be, that’s a good thing), Allogloom pieces together a good range of activities and sights to make its adventure worth taking.

 

Allogloom is the first game from developer Galactic Ghosty and some clear care was put into realizing it properly. Its size means its neither bloated nor does it end abruptly, and things tie together neatly while being a visual treat. While you can imagine the developer’s skills put to even greater effect, Allogloom does provide a pretty world with creepy corruptions nicely, making for a good point and click for those who might not want to dive into truly terrifying horror but also might like some blood and monsters alongside their relaxed puzzle solving.