Anyone looking for a spooky investigative adventure to play during the Halloween season will find a lot to like about The Occultist from developer DALOAR and publisher Daedalic Entertainment. It has just about everything needed for a creepy night of gaming, including a deserted island, abandoned buildings, supernatural mysteries and plenty of things lurking in the shadows that would very much prefer you leave them alone. It’s available for the PC on Steam, the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X console.
One nice thing about The Occultist is that it’s the kind of horror experience that doesn’t need to constantly throw monsters at players to keep them on edge. Sometimes a quiet hallway, an empty staircase or an old farmhouse can be every bit as frightening as an encounter with something supernatural. And when those ordinary locations begin revealing their terrible secrets, the effect can be genuinely unsettling.
Players take on the role of Alan Rebels, a paranormal investigator searching for his missing father. His investigation leads him to Godstone, a mysterious British island where his father spent his early years. Alan knows surprisingly little about the place, despite hearing his father mention it many times over the decades.
Unfortunately, Godstone isn’t exactly a welcoming vacation destination. The island was once home to a sinister cult that practiced disturbing rituals and conducted horrific experiments. Its inhabitants disappeared long ago, leaving behind an assortment of abandoned buildings, overgrown paths and secrets that probably should have remained buried.
The adventure begins with Alan arriving on the island in a small boat. As he approaches the deserted shoreline, he discovers another boat, remarkably similar to his own, sitting wrecked and decaying near the water. Could that have belonged to his father? It’s one of the first mysteries players encounter, and a fitting introduction to a location where nearly everything seems to raise more questions than answers.
From there, Alan begins exploring the island, following forgotten trails and investigating abandoned cabins, farms and other structures. The environment is beautifully rendered using Unreal Engine 5 with enough detail to make even ordinary objects and locations interesting to examine.
I particularly enjoyed the way the developers use the landscape itself to create tension. A lonely building at the end of an overgrown path might seem harmless enough, but the surrounding atmosphere makes it difficult to shake the feeling that something terrible happened there. And because this is a horror adventure, that suspicion is often correct.
Thankfully, Alan has one extremely useful piece of equipment. He carries a mystical pendulum, which serves as both an investigative tool and his primary means of interacting with supernatural forces. The pendulum can reveal things that ordinary human eyes can’t perceive, including echoes of traumatic events from the past. It also has several other supernatural abilities that become important as players progress through the adventure.
One of my favorite early moments involved exploring a seemingly empty staircase. Looking at the area normally, I could see a few subtle indications that something unpleasant might have occurred there. But when I raised the pendulum and examined the same location, the scene changed dramatically. Suddenly, the staircase was covered in blood, revealing what appeared to be evidence that someone had been violently dragged down the steps.
That was genuinely creepy.
It’s one thing for a horror adventure to show players a bloodstained room. It’s quite another to let them explore a seemingly ordinary location and then reveal its gruesome history through a supernatural investigative tool. The contrast makes the discovery much more effective.
That mechanic also plays an important role in solving puzzles. Many of the clues needed to advance are hidden within the island’s past, meaning players must carefully examine their surroundings both normally and through the pendulum. And without that magical assistance, many of Godstone’s mysteries would be impossible to solve.
In some ways, the investigative gameplay reminded me of The Witcher series. During those adventures, Geralt would frequently accept a contract and then spend considerable time examining a location, gathering evidence and determining what kind of creature he was dealing with before figuring out how to defeat it. The Occultist offers a similar sense of detective work, although it trades the fantasy setting for something closer to modern supernatural horror. And unlike Geralt, Alan isn’t carrying around a pair of swords and an assortment of magical combat abilities.
In fact, Alan doesn’t really fight at all. When confronted by one of the malicious entities haunting Godstone, players generally need to rely on their wits, their investigative abilities or a good hiding place. Sometimes solving a puzzle provides a way to protect yourself or overcome a supernatural threat. Other times, your best option is simply to run away.
It’s a refreshing change from horror titles where players eventually become walking arsenals capable of blasting their way through nearly anything. In The Occultist, even an experienced paranormal investigator remains vulnerable to the powerful forces inhabiting the island. That vulnerability is a major part of what makes the atmosphere so effective. Knowing you can’t simply pull out a shotgun whenever something frightening appears makes every encounter more tense.
Of course, this style of gameplay isn’t going to appeal to everyone. The Occultist moves at a fairly deliberate pace, and there are times when it feels almost like a walking simulator with puzzles and supernatural threats added to the mix. It actually reminded me of some of the earlier Unreal Engine 5 adventure titles I’ve reviewed for GiN, including Nobody Wants to Die and, perhaps more closely, Still Wakes the Deep. Those adventures also featured detailed scenic environments and compelling stories, although character movement could occasionally feel sluggish.
The Occultist shares some of those characteristics. Alan isn’t particularly nimble, and exploration can sometimes feel slower than I would have preferred. However, the measured pacing also gives players plenty of opportunities to appreciate the environment and absorb the unsettling atmosphere.
And atmosphere is something this title has in abundance. The visuals do a wonderful job of making Godstone feel like a place abandoned by the living but not necessarily by the dead. Fog, shadows, decaying structures and carefully placed environmental details all contribute to the sense that something is terribly wrong.
The audio design deserves equal praise. Rather than relying exclusively on sudden noises or loud musical stings, The Occultist often uses quiet moments and unsettling background sounds to build tension. The original soundtrack by composer Pepe Herrero complements the experience, helping maintain that constant feeling of unease as Alan ventures deeper into the island. The result is a horror adventure that can remain frightening even when nothing particularly dangerous is happening onscreen.
The puzzles are generally interesting and fit naturally into the investigation. However, there were a few occasions when I became frustrated trying to solve something in precisely the way the developers intended. Sometimes the problem involved overlooking a small clue hidden somewhere in the environment. Other times, the answer required examining a location through the pendulum, even when there wasn’t much indication that I should be doing so.
Because important information can exist both in the physical environment and within supernatural echoes of the past, it’s possible to spend quite a bit of time searching for something that turns out to be surprisingly easy to miss. A little additional signposting would have helped in those situations. I enjoy a challenging mystery, but there’s a difference between figuring out a clever puzzle and wandering around because a vital clue is tucked away in an obscure corner.
Thankfully, those frustrating moments were exceptions rather than the rule. Most of the time, I enjoyed slowly piecing together the island’s history and discovering what had happened to its former inhabitants.
The story is also compelling enough to encourage continued exploration. Alan’s search for his father provides a personal reason to investigate Godstone, while the island’s dark history gradually becomes more important as the adventure unfolds. I won’t spoil those discoveries because uncovering them is a major part of the experience.
The Occultist isn’t a perfect adventure. Its movement can feel sluggish, some puzzles could benefit from clearer clues and players expecting constant action or traditional combat may find its pacing too slow. But for those who enjoy atmospheric horror, supernatural mysteries and careful exploration, it offers an excellent experience. Developer DALOAR has created an unsettling world that rewards curiosity while making players question whether investigating every strange noise or abandoned building is really such a good idea.
And that may be the title’s greatest achievement. The Occultist rarely needs to rush players forward or overwhelm them with danger. Instead, it lets the mystery, environment and threat of the unknown do most of the frightening work.
For Halloween week, I can’t think of a much better adventure than spending a few evenings exploring the haunted island of Godstone. Just remember to keep that mystical pendulum handy because the things you can’t normally see may be the most terrifying things of all.
