With a playthrough time of around 45 minutes, Habilis is an ideal candidate for those looking to kill a little time without committing to the usual 30+ hours demanded by most alternatives. Set to release on November 15, the Lovecraftian horror title offers an atmospheric experience in a short and somewhat effective burst.

Gameplay

Stepping into the shoes of a fame-hungry video content creator, Nathan Walters, you visit an abandoned facility in a bid to draw in viewers and generate those much-coveted “likes”. Seen through the body cam worn by our daring protagonist, the spooky industrial building sets the scene well with a dark and foreboding atmosphere which is paired with creepy noises and disembodied voices to build a sense of apprehension and growing trepidation in the mind of the player. The level design and audio are brilliantly crafted and compelled me to explore further into the bowels of the building, eager to discover what the wonderful world of Habilis had to offer.

A Brilliantly Executed World Devoid of Life

Sadly, however, the neatly packaged gifts of fear and abject tension stopped here. It’s all well and good spending time, care, love and attention on the sounds and surroundings and having very little to populate the game. I played Habilis from start to finish and encountered just one enemy capable of dealing damage; even then, the creature had the intelligence of a slice of bread and the movement speed of a concrete refrigerator.

For a game to make a mark in the horror genre, it needs to have some sort of threat that keeps you on your toes and strikes fear into your heart; Habilis fails on both accounts due to it being all but devoid of anything that can actually deal any damage. It’s a shame that the game worked wonders in setting the scene but failed to capitalize on it with the most important element of a horror title.

Habilis Lacks in the Story Department

While the voice acting boasts a strong cast of industry professionals, the story itself lacks any real depth. With very little explanation about what exactly is happening, the confusion reaches a crescendo when the final scene plays out. Despite Habilis being compacted into just 45-minutes, there was ample opportunity to flesh the story out a little and give it some much-needed direction. There are a few attempts at forming a narrative through information and voice recordings found scattered across the game but even these do little to make the premise anything but a disjointed nothingness.

A Dynamic Musical Score Can Sometimes Overshadow the Narrative

The music is built around each scene, so perfectly matches what is happening in the game at any given time, adding another rich layer to the title. However, it’s intensity sometimes competes with the dialogue and, on occasion, can compete with the already limited dialog.

System Requirements

Minimum

• Operating System: 64-Bit Windows 10
• Processor: Core i3 / AMD A6 2.5Ghz
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 / AMD Radeon HD 5750. OpenGL 3.3
  

Recommended

• OS: 64-bit Windows 10
• Processor: Core i3 / AMD A6 2.4Ghz
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: Geforce GTX 460 Or Equivalent

Habilis in a Nutshell

The lack of any real scares mean Habilis is maybe the perfect introduction into the horror genre. The lighting, audio and scenery meld together to create an excellent broth of horror staples, but sadly creepy scenery is as far as the game ventures into fear.

For a game that can be played and finished inside an hour, Habilis does all it can to build up the tension, before whipping away the rug as you get to the final scene and realise there was never any real story to unfold.