Devil in the Pines Review

Well, if there was a Devil, would it be hiding in the pines; chasing unfortunate Appalachian men? Making ghostly, black hands grab Appalachian feet? Making proletariat weep? What kind of a Devil is that?

Devil in the Pines is the first attempt of Rebelware Games, but don’t mind me calling it an “attempt”. It’s a solid horror game, especially for a price of $4; and if you are not a psychopath or something, it will make you digest bricks… For a while. Like Slender –I remember the first minutes of Slender, oh ancient gods, I was scared out of my mind. But after a while, I was like, “Eh, you again? Get out of my face”. Yeah, I sometimes become Canadian when I get frustrated. Well, the main point is, horror does not necessarily mean jump scares. Jump scares are basically reflexes. The real horror, in my opinion, comes from your own imagination when roaming around archaic torture tools in Amnesia.

Atmosphere in Devil in the Pines (DitP from now on) is great at the beginning. Especially the sounds will keep you on edge in every moment of your journey, be sure of that. The story, is basically about a Appalachian man, on a journey through the woods pines, searching for a key to the mine. Mine is the climax of our game, and to reach there, you have a long way ahead of you, keep that in mind.

The game is not so long, but the odds are not beside you, be sure of that. You have only a crossbow with limited ammo (6 arrows, to be exact), a flashlight and ability to make campfires. And when you die, you die. Bye bye pines, bye bye sick daughter, bye bye hauntingly fast demons… Yeah, they are fast. In your encounters with them, you’ll usually have only one shot.

For an Unreal Engine 4 game, the visuals are not very satisfying, to be frank. The optimization is also not optimized, and if you are looking for some graphic options to give your computer a relief (YES I HAVE AN OLD COMPUTER SO WHAT), there are none. It’s like a bad console port… Forget what I’ve said about the visuals. I was too optimistic. They do not belong to the beautiful monster called UE4…

…Although we are not the kind of gaming enthusiasts who put the visuals above all else, are we? So, we can say that, apart from the visuals, DitP manages to create a good atmosphere and a satisfying experience for the followers of the faceless business guy, Slenderman. But if you demand a strong narrative and believable characters in a horror game, this is the wrong address. Play this game without high expectations, and you’ll do just fine.