Gloomwood

Gloomwood
Developer(s)
  • Dillon Rogers
  • David Szymanski
Publisher(s)New Blood Interactive
EngineUnity[1]
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
Release
  • Early access
  • September 5, 2022
Genre(s)
Mode(s)Single-player

Gloomwood is a first-person stealth survival horror video game developed by Dillon Rogers and David Szymanski and published by New Blood Interactive. Players control an unnamed doctor who makes his way through the Victorian-esque titular city. The game features stealth and exploratory gameplay, along with utilizing weapons (melee and firearms) against enemies.

The game is heavily inspired by the Thief series of games, especially its first two: The Dark Project (1998) and The Metal Age (2000).[2] It has also been favorably compared to Dishonored,[3] Bloodborne,[4] Sir, You Are Being Hunted,[5] Resident Evil,[6] BioShock,[7] and Deathloop.[8] It has also been referred to as an immersive sim.[9][2][3][10]

Having been announced in June 2020, Gloomwood was released via early access on September 5, 2022, after a delay from its initial August 16, 2022 date. The pre-release builds have received praise for the atmosphere, tone, world, level design and gameplay, but has been criticized for the unfinished elements and difficulty.

  1. ^ Jester (September 17, 2022). "Gloomwood – Refreshing and Disappointing At the Same Time". GND-Tech.com. Retrieved July 29, 2023. (this is a Unity engine game anyway and the engine has Vulkan support)
  2. ^ a b Moyse, Chris (June 13, 2020). "Gloomwood's stealth 'n' slash action invokes '90s classic Thief". Destructoid. Retrieved July 8, 2023.
  3. ^ a b Tate, Alexander (September 9, 2022). "Gloomwood Turns Dishonored Into A Survival Horror Nightmare". Screen Rant. Retrieved July 8, 2023.
  4. ^ Wallace, Chris (September 6, 2022). "First-person stealth game 'Gloomwood' sneaks into Early Access". NME. Retrieved July 8, 2023.
  5. ^ Smith, Graham (June 13, 2020). "Gloomwood demo is out now with heavy Thief vibes". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved July 8, 2023.
  6. ^ Litchfield, Ted (September 14, 2022). "One of our most anticipated games since 2020 is about to enter early access". PC Gamer. Retrieved July 8, 2023.
  7. ^ Blaine, Lucas (July 22, 2021). "Gloomwood Mixes BioShock and Thief Into a Throwback Package". CBR.com. Retrieved July 11, 2023.
  8. ^ Pechalin, Andrei (September 30, 2022). "Gloomwood Disrupts the Immersive Sim & Thief Formula with Its Save System". The Escapist. Retrieved July 8, 2023.
  9. ^ Jackson, Claire (September 13, 2022). "Stealth Games Like This New Sneak 'Em Up Are A Rare Breed". Kotaku. Retrieved July 8, 2023.
  10. ^ Donlan, Christian (September 7, 2022). "Gloomwood is stealthy Victoriana incarnate - and it's already super good". Eurogamer. Retrieved July 8, 2023.