Even the title screen looks like 2002.
- They are full of spirits maledict.
But that hereafter sight alone suffices thee.
Hear how and wherefore they are in constraint.
Phlegethon is a retro-style First-Person Shooter released in 2022 for the PlayStation 4... and running with graphics resembling the original PlayStation. With the first Silent Hill being it's main inspiration.
You're trapped in the Greek underworld (of course) near the banks of Phlegethon, one of the five rivers running through hell. You have no idea how you ended up here, but you'll need to locate an exit across riverbanks, empty plains, and open areas filled with all kinds of monsters and... Nazi soldiers? What?
Luckily, there are ten different firearms you can collect to slay the undead, the first - a handgun - obtainable right off the start with your trusty default combat knife. Good luck!
Now bear us onward one of the hard margins,
And so the booklet's mist o'ershadows it,
From fire it saves the water and the dikes.
- Ambiguous Situation: The whole game, basically. Why are you in the underworld? What period is the game set in (given the presence of Nazi grunts)? Where are all the other humans? And after defeating the last monster of Phlegethon, did you even make it out alive - since the game then skips back to the title screen?
- All Deserts Have Cacti: There's a desert-themed level which does have saguaro growing at random, that you can shoot for points.
- Artificial Stupidity: The game's AI is rather poorly-designed (likely intentional, since it's trying to imitate old-school games from the PlayStation era), with enemies programmed to loiter through a fixed area - once they've crossed the unseen line, they automatically turn back allowing you to gun them down. You can also take advantage of this invisible border to retreat and take cover (and laugh at a dozen zombies inexplicably fleeing away from you).
- Attack Its Weak Point: The game's last (one and only) boss, a giant rock-creature thing, is only vulnerable on four blatantly-placed green spots on it's arm, shoulder, and torso. Which turns red when shot at. Shooting anywhere else, even with the rocket or grenade launcher, does nothing.
- Chainsaw Good: You can collect one in the mausoleum which chews up monsters like no tomorrow.
- Energy Beings: The giant demon creatures made of light, resembling glowing featureless humanoids, that appears in the snowy areas. Oddly enough they do bleed when shot and can be killed by fierarms.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: You'll encounter all sorts of creatures in hell, and they're all after your blood. Even those which aren't demons or undead, like the SS soldiers, will target you relentlessly.
- Excuse Plot: You're in the underworld, there are all kinds of enemies, you need to kill your way to the next exit.
- Featureless Protagonist: There's no indication on what gender your character is. Or ethnicity and race (it's one of the few FPS games where only your gun is visible during gameplay - if you use a melee weapon, you see the weapon onscreen slicing a chunk of health from enemies, but not your hand holding it). You being a Heroic Mime isn't helping either.
- Giant Mook:
- The giant, horned black demons who spits fireballs, towers above all other onscreen enemies and can absorb far more hits than regular mooks serves as the game's XXL-sized, extra durable opponents.
- Levels themed around mechanical enemies also have larger-than-average robots with you reaching their thighs.
- Faceless ogres the size of buildings tends to dominate the desert levels, but they seem to fall under Fake Ultimate Mook - they're hilariously slow and a sitting duck to grenades.
- The Goomba: The weak, shambling zombie enemies of the first stages dies with just a single, well-timed slash. They're there to ease you with kicking ass before sending stronger monsters at you.
- Gratuitous Nazis: In a game where you're stuck in the underworld and fighting the undead, you'll be inexplicably attacked by human mooks dressed in SS uniforms for... reasons.
- Mecha-Mooks: One stage contains robotic enemies, from seemingly out of nowhere. Hitting them with a melee weapon even makes a metallic clanging sound. You even fight them on a hovering mechanical platform that sticks out like a sore thumb.
- Ominous Fog: The banks and areas around Phlegethon is constantly shrouded with fog, and of course there are all kinds of undead and monstrosities waiting to pounce at you.
- The Place: The entire game takes place in the banks of said accursed river, where the shores consists of mausoleums and graveyards filled with undead.
- Retraux: Released in 2021, but with graphics from the late 90s or early 2000s.
- Skull for a Head: The humanoid-based undead monsters tends to have skulls in place of craniums, while the rest of their body still has flesh.
- Sword and Gun: You begin the game with a pistol and your trusty dagger, which works surprisingly well against most low-level enemies. There are separate buttons for shooting and slashing for good measure.
- Wings Do Nothing: There's quite a lot of winged demons as recurring enemies, but somehow none of them are capable of flight, instead running around while spitting fireballs with their wings flailing uselessly.
