Holstin preview — Welcome to Jeziorne-Kolonia

Tomasz Wolański boards a train headed to the small polish town of Jeziorne-Kolonia in search of his missing friend Bartek, a journalist who originally travelled there to investigate rumors of a sinister meat-packing scam. When he arrives, the situation is already bleak, as a strange substance has sprawled over the town, infecting its residents and the environment with an unnatural ooze. Tomasz must navigate this hellish nightmare and rescue his friend by any means necessary before he too succumbs to the plague that envelops the land.

Holstin is a survival horror game with vivid inspiration from games like Resident Evil, Silent Hill and even a touch of Twin Peaks. During the short preview build, I was able to explore the opening areas of Jeziorne-Kolonia, pursuing quests for the odd residents and combating the strange sentient matter that crawls over the landscape in a detailed pixel art style.

While the pixel art environments certainly aren’t anything new to this genre of game, what really sets Holstin apart is the dynamic action camera. When you’re exploring the rotten city, the perspective is mainly 3d isometric, but when in combat, it swoops into an over-the-shoulder view. While it might appear gimmicky on paper, the perspective shift is a fun and creative way to engage with the monstrosities present in the game, and really provided an atmospheric pressure to the combat that I really enjoyed.

Expanding further on combat, the main weapons I had at my disposal were a pistol, a shotgun, molotov cocktails and a handful of melee weapons that I scavenged along my journey. Melee combat is a bit different than shooting, as instead of the cool over-the-shoulder transition you just swing away. While I found the melee combat to be generally less interesting than the ranged combat, it was still serviceable enough to be effective against single targets. The grenades were certainly flashy though, erupting large groups of enemies in a fantastic ball of fire that was always satisfying.

It isn’t all about combat though, as there’s plenty of unusual and interesting characters to engage with throughout the city. While it was initially a bit odd that many of the townies didn’t seem that perturbed about the fleshy mycelium creeping along their feet, it did enhance the dreadful and uneasy atmosphere that hangs over Jeziorne-Kolonia. Some NPC’s will also have small quests for you to take on, like finding a hidden treasure left behind somewhere or completing a task for them, while others might even offer goods for trade. The small preview slice already had some great characters in it, and it made me look forward to seeing who else might still be prowling around in the full release, whether they be friend or foe.

One aspect of Holstin that I didn’t find that satisfying though was the inventory management system. Plenty of survival horror games have a similar system where crafting items, ammo, weapons and other things must be managed and rearranged to fit your inventory grid, but there were just so many things to collect that I rarely had the space for any of it. Ammo takes up a considerable amount of space, so nearly half of your backpack if not more is already occupied by just one weapon. Throw in a few healing items and crafting ingredients and you’re already full within minutes. Sure there were pouches to increase the space, but without a way to drop things without losing them or even a staging space to rearrange items, it was a drag. Perhaps this will be less of an issue when playing through the game as a whole package, but it still bothered me during the small slice that I played.

Even though the preview build was a small slice of the full pie, it’s safe to say that I’m intrigued by the mystery that Holstin sets forward. The gameplay is solid, with an innovative dynamic camera that helps shake up the exploration segments in a good way. The environments are detailed and delightfully dingy, in a good atmospheric sort of way. I’m definitely looking forward to exploring more of this moldy little town and uncovering the truth behind Bartek's disappearance once the full game is ready to be released in the future.