Red Stewart reviews The Textorcist: The Story of Ray Bibbia…
The Textorcist was one of those video games I wanted to play solely because of the title. I’ve never been huge into shmups or even 8-bit games, but sometimes a developer comes up with such a unique name for their project that it warrants being experienced just to reward the creators for their ingenuity.
Luckily, that imagination on the part of developer Morbidware and publisher Headup Games extends to the gameplay, which combines bullet hell-style fights with text-based inputs. Add to that a surprisingly dark story and you have something that has a chance of attracting newer players to a retro era of gaming. The question is, does The Textorcist live up to my premature expectations and succeed in its polymorphization, or is it a case of good concept, bad execution? The short answer is it works, but lacks enough content to truly expand upon its world. For the long answer, read on!
The Textorcist is, for all intents and purposes, a child of the cyberpunk genre. It takes place in a dystopian society where the Vatican has grown so powerful to the point of becoming a shadow government, and focuses on a renegade priest with a hardboiled, no-nonsense attitude equipped with divine magic and a hi-tech computer. It’s a backdrop that could have been fleshed out more to rival classics like Deus Ex and Tex Murphy, but one recurring problem you’ll find with Textorcist is it lacks either the confidence or budget to pursue some of its more intriguing ideas. This is a world full of demons, gangs, slavery, and oppression, but none are ever given much of a chance to shine outside of an obligatory mention here and there as befits a particular section of the storyline.
And that’s a big shame because this was a setting I could have easily lost myself in had it all been expanded upon. The potential is there, the lore is good, but the story seemed more interested in just getting to the end than taking the time to stop, breath, and let its characters act natural. Ray, the titular protagonist, is a genuinely cool guy: a 55-year old exorcist who has seen a lot in his day and has no time for games. But he has a lot of internal turmoil, and the way it’s disclosed to players over the course of the story is very rushed and blunt. There were times where I genuinely questioned whether he was being serious about his statements, and that’s a sign that the script perhaps needed a second overview before being approved. In addition to this, I felt that Ray’s dialogue, all too often, delved into hipster territory of making him sound like wannabe-suave and hip dude, though that’ll be for players to decide for themselves.
Despite the flaws I had with the narrative, I can at least commend Morbidware for its presentation value. Sprite-based games may have the advantage of aging well compared to their polygon-based counterparts, but their limited display opens them up to the risk of appearing bland, vague, and ultimately unmemorable. Thankfully that isn’t the case here as The Textorcist is, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful games I have played this year. With an atmosphere heavily reliant on the supernatural and occult, it truly indulges in the macabre: monsters look like the detailed Hell spawns they are, straight out of a Lovecraft novel; muted reds, browns, and greys adorn the floors and walls of the downtrodden locales you visit; interiors and exteriors alike are full of furniture, creases, and well-textured building materials; blood and gore splatter on the floor whenever you successfully hit a creature with a spell, and even the few bright places in the city like Ray’s office and a strip club are so well constructed, they’re as immersive as some areas I’ve explored in 3D games.
The real graphical feat, however, comes in The Textorcist’s depiction of lighting. Obviously, this wasn’t built on a game engine that could generate actual illumination, but what the geniuses at Morbidware did, instead, was create a wavering field of bits around conventional light sources that are brighter than the space around them. This has the effect of making Ray appear to be in shadows when outside of the lanterns, and, vice-versa, in the light when inside that zone. It may seem simple, however I’ve rarely seen it done well, even in iconic titles like Chrono Trigger, so honestly this is something that Morbidware deserves particular praise for.
Sadly, I can’t be as positive regarding their sound design. Noises are constantly rehashed, whether it’s the demons all growling the same, energy blasts lacking diversity in spite of the different conjurings, or even Ray’s footsteps not differentiating between wood and concrete flooring. Now granted, as someone who is not too familiar with the shoot-em up genre, I can’t say for certain if this is a common trait with other games. However, considering the paranormal world you’re in, I do believe the game, as a whole, would have benefited from a full-fledged soundscape.
There is also no voice acting at all outside of the aforestated grunt of a beast or Ray’s scream whenever he dies, which I thought was a shame because The Textorcist’s dialogue absolutely lent itself to being orally performed. There are a lot of mood changes and emotional conveyances in the soliloquies and conversations that, while easy enough to read, would have been a joy to hear from a talented voice artist. Alas, I definitely understand how the constraints of the budget possibly played a role here.
Music is the final factor in the sound trifecta, and it’s a mixed bag. It suffers from the same problem the original Harvest Moon on SNES had in that it is too narrow in scope. Each location has its own soundtrack, most of it coming from a ominously vibrant electronic motif, but it gets repetitive, particularly if you take the time to explore a place or a fight happens to drag out (which will be the case for fellow newbies to shoot-em ups). What you will hear is very good, and it was refreshing to listen to an electronica score- I just wanted more.
Last is the gameplay, and it is here that The Textorcist shines. As I stated before, this is a bullet hell wherein you have to dodge a barrage of particles thrown your way while also discharging your own Holy bullets or “hollets” as the game itself calls them. You do this through entering long incantations that vary between English and Latin through two different methods depending on the device you have: if you’re using the keyboard and mouse, you obviously type the hexes out, whereas if you’re using a controller, you spell out each word by hitting the left and right bumpers to input each letter. It’s an interesting set-up because both come with their own pros and cons- keyboard typing is quicker to do, yet consequently harder to balance in the heat of a battle, while hitting buttons on a controller is easier to do, yet consequently much slower. The Textorcist, based on the way that it’s set-up, is clearly meant to be played through the former, though it was nice to see the developers create a method for controller users.
This clash of styles might seem strange, but it makes for a very fun game. No matter how frustrated I got at times, I always enjoyed myself as it is truly exhilarating to play mystical dodgeball while working to hit each keystroke. That being said, I fully acknowledge that there is an inherent flaw with this design, and that is that it will only please those who have learned touch typing; having to constantly glance between the keyboard and the screen in order to make sure you’re hitting the write letters will get annoying, especially as you face harder enemies down the line. So keep that in mind.
In the end, do I recommend The Textorcist? It took me about 5-6 hours to complete the game, though the better part of one of those hours was admittedly spent on a single boss. That fluke aside, this is (thankfully) one of the easier bullet hell games, and is definitely open to newcomers to the genre. However, that unfortunately creates the problem of making the game relatively quick to get through. There aren’t too many stages, and considering the problems with the story, this is a game that needed more playtime. As much as I hate to say it, the $15.00 asking price on Steam is just a little too much for my liking.
But that being said, you guys know by now my more lax attitude towards indie games- they always deserves our support, and The Textorcist: The Story of Ray Bibbia is fun enough that you won’t feel money was wasted even if you throw a little extra cash the way of Morbidware.
Pros:
+Gorgeously-realized grim aesthetic
+Entertaining gameplay
+Demonic spritework is top-notch
Cons:
-Too short story
-No voice acting
Rating – 6/10
Red Stewart
