Exilium is a point-and-click puzzle side-scroller developed and produced by lonch.me. You play as the emotionally and physically exhausted exorcist, Adam Wayne. As this is the demo and the full game will not be out until next year, I won’t spoil anything, but I’ll try to explain the premise.

You are asked to investigate a possession at a large creepy house, and inside you will find a tentacle-possessed man. You’ll need to avoid him as you locate objects that will help you destroy the demonic items found throughout. Once you destroy them all, the level is over, and you’ll be treated to a comic-like panel that explains the story behind the house and the possessed man.

The levels become more challenging with added items to find, demonic objects to destroy, and more stories to uncover.

The controls are simple enough, WASD to move the camera around, and the mouse moves Adam and interacts with objects. That’s about the gist of it, but the controls are very responsive, so you might accidentally go through a door and get yourself killed, so watch where you are clicking.

As you collect items, you may have to use them with other interactable objects, like filling a jar at the sink before combining it with a crucifix to make holy water. The tutorial is particularly good at explaining everything, making it quite easy to pick up and play.

I love the comic book art style, which goes well with the comic book story scenes. It is well drawn, but it’s not flashy, and that’s my main point. It looks clean. The music is very tense, creating feelings of suspense, and there’s a hint of a Sin City feeling during the comic storyboard cutscenes.

Exilium genuinely reminded me of a game we had on the school computers twenty-something years ago, I can’t remember the game’s name, and I have tried finding it over the years with no luck.

Exilium is a great game, and one I knew I had to jump on. My housemate and I had just finished watching the whole Conjuring-verse, so an exorcism game seemed appropriate. On top of that, the main character’s name is Adam, so it must have been fate. Or dare I say it, divine intervention.

The demo is available to play now but make sure you keep an eye out for the full release in 2024. I am sure we will do a follow-up full review on release.

Written by: Adam Brasher