Game Review: FAITH: The Unholy Trinity (2022)
Airdorf Games
(this review contains a basic overview of the plot, but no key details.)
Once upon a time in my mid-twenties, I considered exploring post-graduate work on the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 1990s. I’d lived it child, growing up with evangelical parents who viewed sex, drugs, and rock and roll as mere envoys from a much more dangerous corruption: that which would damn my immortal soul and turn me into an animal-killing, Satan-worshiping goon. While I ultimately chose another path for my academics, that component of the American sociological experience, as well as moral panics more broadly, has continued to hold my intellectual attention throughout the years. From the Black Death to QAnon, humans are remarkably inclined to “embrace the stupid” when times get challenging, and this seems to be something encoded in our psyche so deeply that we return to this as a coping mechanism anytime collective uncertainty gets a bit too high.
I think something that gets lost in the decades since this time is that in many American communities, people like my parents weren’t regarded as kooks; this was a commonly accepted worldview, and even those who didn’t personally subscribe to it probably still believed there were people in their community who were privately dabbling in fringe forms of religious exploration that were thematically opposed to the dominant culture.
It didn’t help that teenagers in every American town covered the underpasses and alleyways of their community in pentagrams, the number 666, and heavy metal lyrics. While Satan’s lackadaisical followers of the period were more interested in recreational drugs than animal sacrifice, they enthusiastically tweaked the nose of the dominant culture as often as they could, openly embracing the more cartoonish elements of the collective fear.
Anyway, let’s move onto the game, which captures the elements I’ve outlined as well as anything I’ve played.
Ripped From the Headlines (of Yesterday)
FAITH: The Unholy Trinity is a lo-fi pixel horror game developed by Airdorf Games and published by indie darling New Blood Interactive (Dusk, Amid Evil) that digs deep into the PC gaming toolbox of the 1980s while also throwing in a few new tricks that don’t break the old-school aesthetic. Players take on the role of Father John Ward, a young priest who, a year prior to the beginning of the game, assisted a superior with a failed exorcism that killed three people.
Airdorf Games
The first act follow’s Ward’s return to the Martin house in Sterling, Connecticut, where one year before he and his superior, Father Allred failed to exorcize a demon from a young girl named Amy. Father Allred was killed along with Amy’s parents, and the girl was placed in a psychiatric hospital from which she has now escaped. Ward confronts Amy in her now-abandoned residence, and the decisions he makes here affect events of future chapters.
The second act introduces another priest, the shotgun-wielding, duty-driven, fan favorite Father Garcia, who is attempting to remove a demonic entity that appeared in Chapter 1 from a young boy. Garcia connects with Ward, enlisting his help to explore a cemetery where demonic activity has occurred and an underground cult in the city’s sewers. This chapter greatly expanded the gameplay elements presented in the first, and begins to explore the Satanic Panic in the context of the wider community.
The culmination of the game is a third act that follows Ward in the days leading up to an event called the Profane Sabbath that will summon a demon named MALPHAS, and another demonic entity known only as ‘Gary’ will open a portal to hell. The chapter culminates in a confrontation with a cult that is–delightfully, in my opinion–headquartered under a children’s daycare.
FAITH: The Unholy Trinity, like many other great horror properties set during this time, embraces the darkest inventions of the period: we have Rosemary’s Baby-esque cult in an apartment building, an Exorcist-style possession, and Satanic lairs hidden in unlikely places. The demons are nasty and garish, the police bewildered and unhelpful, and every setting carries an element of malice.
A Gun With One Bullet
One of the most impressive elements of FAITH is its remarkable and diverse array of challenges that rely on the exceedingly simple one-button + crosspad controls. Ward’s only action, apart from rare occasions when he handles a story item, is to raise his cross, slowly damaging whatever demonic entity or spirit is close proximity to him. This manages to feel both severely limited and tremendously powerful at the same time, as all but one enemy in the game will kill him with a single hit. At no point did I feel the combat was repetitive or regressive, as FAITH somehow managed to marry John’s slow walk and upraised crucifix into what feels like a developed kit of character moves. Developers who fall into the ‘too many buttons’ trap could learn a lesson here.
Airdorf Games
In addition to Ward, the evils he faces through the three-act journey are unique and thematically appropriate to the environments in which he finds them, and each area finds its own little niche in the pantheon of demons. From the early skittering ‘chupacabra’ demon in chapter one, to the underground cultists who have been transformed into towering, wrinkly-headed nightmares in chapter three, FAITH never repeats its tricks, never phones it in.
Demon, Thy Name is Tedium?
This game is universally adored, so look away if you can’t handle a bit of criticism. While I think FAITH is an excellent game, I don’t believe it is as perfect as public reviews would lead you to believe.
I feel this title burns a lot of its credit in the final chapter. In the spirit of building something that truly feels like a retro game, the player is put through a series of encounters where they die almost instantly, and the only true way to complete them is to memorize the attack patterns of the cultist enemies, as playing in a purely reactive manner simply doesn’t feel possible. The game further complicates this by restricting your view to a small radius around the character to simulate darkness. While I think this works, I did have my most negative feelings toward the game in the run-up to the finale due to the sheer tediousness of these encounters. The game had instilled a nice sense of dread at this point, but that was significantly eroded by the sheer mechanical demands of the final stretch.
On one hand, I understand the value in creating a true-to-history retro gaming experience. On the other, perhaps these especially obnoxious elements were better left in the past, and something a bit more creative and frankly, skill-based, could have been identified. Wandering through dark tunnels remembering the position of enemies so that I could preemptively raise my cross a moment before they appeared was not a fun gaming experience, and something more manageable would have been both more fun and less likely to wear on the player’s patience.
Airdorf Games
Mortis
All in all, FAITH: The Unholy Trinity is an excellent indie horror game that hits far more often than it misses. It has a high skill cap and carries the frustrating elements of 1980s gaming, but those in no way should dissuade the intrepid gamer who typically finds they are more than a match for the asks of modern games. Despite my issues, Airdorf Games are still going to make my automatic purchase list, as the vibrant creativity and excellent storytelling showcased in FAITH eclipses all of its lesser elements.
Verdict: 9.2/10
Strengths
Does an incredible amount with an Atari-era setup, continually throwing new and interesting challenges as the player despite the simple controls
Captures the spirit of the times really well
Has a few genuinely creepy moments–a great accomplishment given the 8-bit pixel graphics
What you do in earlier chapters influences later events
Weaknesses
Will be too challenging for some players
Repeated cheap-feeling deaths will lead many to frustration and undermine the good elements
Some key story asks are poorly signposted, and most players will probably have to resort to a guide to get the best ending
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