Devour

Greetings, ‘Devour’ is a co-operative horror game from 2021 that was developed and published by Straight Back Games. The Edinburgh based company is fairly new, having only come into existence in 2019 when it was started by Joe Fender and Luke Fanning. They have one other title in their completed works to date which was released a year earlier in 2020. That other game is called ‘The Watchers’ which looks to be fairly similar to ‘Devour’ in terms of gameplay and subject matter. While ‘Devour’ has a maximum of 4 players, ‘The Watchers’ is limited to 2 as the players take on the roles of a brother and sister team as they stealthily evade cultists while trying to unravel the mystery behind their mother’s disappearance.

The plot of ‘Devour’ is very simplistic as it was never intended to be the main selling point of the game and it is effectively the same in all the variations of maps the players can explore. The players belong to a satanic cult called ‘The Watchers of Azazel’ and one of their fellow cultists has been possessed by the malevolent entity known as Azazel. They must banish and excise the demonic presence by destroying a total of 10 totems or ritual items. These totems differ in each of the five maps but they consist of sacrificial possessed goats, pigs and mice as well as inanimate objects such as spider eggs and books. The livestock need to be lured towards the player by placing food such as hay or a bowl of food.

As aforementioned, there are five maps at present with more due to be added in the future. The first of these is the Farmhouse which is haunted by Anna, the Asylum is watched over by Molly while the Inn has a particularly creepy antagonist in Zara, an arachnophobia sufferer’s worst nightmare. The Western setting of the Town is the undead gunslinger Sam’s terrain while Nathan lords over the Slaughterhouse. After each totem is destroyed, the difficulty is ratcheted up a bit more as the enemy becomes increasingly more deformed and faster paced. The bosses are aided in their attempts to kill the players with their ghoulish minions who have to be repelled by focusing a flashlight on them before the battery runs out.

‘Devour’ is definitely a fun game but after the player gains the satisfaction of figuring out how to beat the antagonists, it loses its appeal a bit which is probably the same for any game of its ilk. The characters do have backstories in their bios although little is done to distinguish them from any of the other choices in actual gameplay. There is also a minor set of objectives in each map as the player is tasked with locating 25 hidden objects which have been scattered about. This is much harder than would initially be believed as the player is often trying to outrun the possessed cult leader or is overrun by smaller enemies. This game apparently shares the same universe as ‘The Watchers’ which I might check out at some point.

Plot = 5/10

Characters = 5/10

Graphics = 7/10

Overall= 7/10

Quote of the Day

To my dear Prince Alexis... I did not "usurp" the crown. I found it, in the gutter, and I, I picked it up with my sword, and it was the people, Alexis, the people who put it on my head. He who saves a nation violates no law.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Waterloo