Holstin is a survival horror game set in the 1990s in a Polish town conceded by nightmares. Holstin was created and published by Sonka, and players will look for answers on a missing friend while coming into contact with survivors and the horrors that lurk in the shadows.

In the demo for Holstin, there are two modes available to play; one that features puzzles and another that is more story-focused without problem-solving. For a long-time horror puzzle fan like myself, I was quick to jump into the full experience and I quite enjoyed the puzzles the game had to offer. It made me stop and inspect everything on the screen to try and solve things. Some puzzles can be solved by talking to any locals you may come across, or they can just be as simple as turning on a light to find a sheet of paper with the answers you seek.

Holstin uses hand-drawn pixel art with a very impressive lighting system to add to the environment. It’s played from a perspective similar to the Diablo franchise, but with camera rotation as well, which is handy for finding hidden items or pathways. The environments are beautifully crafted in the pixel art style, giving great detail on the creatures you encounter and the goo that is infesting the town.

Holstin uses the standard WSAD keys for movement, and a click of the mouse to interact with items in the word, but you do have to be directly in front of an item to interact with it, so using the camera rotations with Q and W will help to fully explore and interact with things in the world. It also features some amazing audio with creature snarls from the darkness, phones ringing in the distance, but most importantly, voice acting in either English or Polish. The work put into the voice acting alone is an amazing feat.

Holstin looks to be a fun horror experience that offers a challenge for puzzle players and a story that will keep you interested while diving deeper into the nightmare that is ahead of you. I am very interested in the final product of Holstin, as it will definitely be a game I will sink more time into, and I look forward to seeing what other elements may be in the full release.

If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, you can request access to the playtest on Steam, and you’ll try out the same build that I have.

Written by: Shane Walsh