mProkz

'Old Gods Rising' is a cheeky and mysterious adventure game set in an English university. The main story line for our character, Professor Thomas Winston, is to investigate Ashgate University’s ancient artifacts for movie director, Maz Kayfer. Although reluctant at first, our character heads off to explore the university upon encouragement from his partner, Lex. Throughout the game, the player is pushed in various directions leading to the player suspecting a few contrasting conclusions (I don’t wish to spoil things). This is realized through great voice acting (especially by the voice acting behind Lex, Tom’s partner) and a ton of satirical and amusing artwork. The artwork was my favorite part of the game and I made efforts to painstakingly explore every corner of the university in search of it – I was not disappointed. This is most evident through my discoveries of a plethora of Easter eggs subtlety hidden throughout the university, waiting for the player to discover. The world consists mainly of the university, which is brilliantly modeled (you can tell this is the developer’s forte). Even though the university is designed to be empty, it still manages to feel alive; birds chirping, crickets in the bushes and don’t forget those pesky CCTV cameras. The entire setting feels sarcastic and hyperbolic in nature – a grand, stone university at first glance that actually turns out to be a bit of joke of an institution. The main characters are all voice-acted incredibly well and is one of the game’s strengths! Tom’s partner Lex easily instills an impression of calmness and sensibility that keeps Tom grounded. The main character, Thomas Winston and movie director, Maz Kayfer, are both written and voice-acted in a manner that depicts themselves as exaggerations (like the University), which I found highly amusing and thought-provoking! If you are a fan of Lovecraftian elements, enjoy games with a hint of humor (especially English humour!) and/or you like uncovering mysteries…this one is for you! P.S. Played about 10 hours with non-Steam version of the game.

I managed my expectations for this release based on previous Obsidian releases and what developers said in interviews. Upon release, this definitely exceeded my expectations. If you were disappointed with map size, overall length and art style of the game you only have yourself to blame as these were all things the developers talked about while in development. For someone that is a 'completionist' and an achievement hunter, this game provided me with a ton of content.