Othercide | PS4 Review

Anyone that listens to our show will know I can never find the fun in roguelikes. People adore this genre, but I’ve never found one for me. The repetitive nature ruins any possible investment in narrative I could have, which is the primary reason I play. That has changed with Othercide. The combination of tactics gameplay, sharp aesthetics, and macabre story has entranced me.

Can’t Avert Your Eyes

The most striking thing about Othercide is its utterly entrancing visuals. I won’t bother describing them here; I’ll let the screenshots do the talking, but I am in constant awe while playing. The enemy designs play into the overwhelmingly melancholic atmosphere, with plague masks and demonic appendages aplenty.

The story moments are few and far between, but the almost poetic dialogue keeps you glued to the screen. Every character speaks as if they’re in some kind of tone poem, and it lends an eerie nature to all of the proceedings. The esoteric nature of the world itself is also enrapturing, and you never know what will come next because you’re unsure of what harrowing horrors are even possible.

Yes, Mother

The game has you assisting The Red Mother as she seeks to rescue The Child from the clutches of The Suffering. You send your Daughters to fight through Remembrances as you try to get as far into your “run” as possible. Remember when I said Othercide was poetic and esoteric? The many nouns of the games are well-explained via the in-game codex; for instance Remembrances is just a flavorful way of saying “runs.”

The strength of Othercide is in its simplicity. There are only three classes (ranged, melee, and tank), the maps are small, and the objectives are simple. It makes for that in-and-out gameplay loop you want from a roguelike. The combat is pretty standard for tactics games, outside of the “timeline” mechanic. This timeline is ever present at the bottom of the screen, and it keeps tracks of whose turn is next. On a bar of 0-100, any Daughter or enemy can be coming up next.

Time is an Ocean in a Storm

The game wants you to play with this mechanic constantly. Gunning for the enemy attacking next seems smart on the surface, but maybe it’s smarter to use a skill that sets their initiative back and gives yourself a little breathing room. You could do this to combo attack with another Daughter, and deal some serious damage. Or perhaps you want to kill the enemies’ support unit before focusing on the attackers. It’s a small system, but it expands outwards in clever ways. You are the maestro, the enemies are your orchestra, and the timeline is your baton.

The Bloodletting

It behooves you to take as little damage as possible in Othercide. Enemies can deal out serious damage, and there’s no healing in between combat encounters. You can’t even heal up before the big bosses. Well, not unless you’re willing to make a small sacrifice. The only way to heal, you see, is to sacrifice one Daughter to heal another, and the kicker is that the sacrifice must be equal level or higher. No farming Daughters for healing; you must choose a life just as important over another. Considering how tough it can be to keep Daughters alive long enough to hit higher levels, not to mention how loaded with invaluable skills they’ll be by then, you really have to commit. It’s brutal, but it suits the harsh tone of the game.

Those aforementioned bosses are no joke, either. You never know what you’ll be walking into, and rest assured you will wipe on the first encounter with these foes. And the second. And the third. Your skills are pushed to the breaking point. The game unfolds across five weeks, and each of these foes get their own week dedicated to them. You may be dismayed upon death, but the way these enemies mock you during their weeks compels you to wipe the smug grins from their faces.

To Hell, and Back Again

Lightbulb Crew is onto something special with Othercide. I have only defeated two of the fives bosses so far, but I am constantly itching for more. I want to see what happens to The Child, and everytime I’m forced to restart at Week One, I get to appreciate how proficient I’ve become at combat. I’m routinely challenging the bosses early, now knowing what to do and summarily destroying them. It’s a rush of euphoria to clean the clocks of bosses who were humiliating you for hours.

If you’re wary of roguelikes as I am, maybe this will finally be the game to teach you how joyful the genre can be. The roguelike tactical fusion is something I can very much get behind, especially one dripping with such horrific style. It might be time for a visit to the Othercide.

This review is based on a copy of Othercide provided by Sandbox Strategies on behalf of the publisher, Focus Home. It was played on PlayStation 4. It is also available on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft Windows.