TEST Decarnation: a confusing and exciting French horror adventure

The young French studio QDB workshop has a completely blank CV for now, but has been developing for a while Decarnation, a psychological horror adventure game with a retro aesthetic, who has had the luxury of calling on Akira Yamaoka to compose certain music. A project that arouses the curiosity of fans of narrative games, and we were able to play it before its release. A French title already essential?

The player is often uncomfortable with the horrors that Gloria faces.

Decarnation takes us back to the Paris of 1990, alongside Gloria. The cabaret dancer is plagued with many doubts, her career does not really take off as she approaches 30, her relationship with her mother and girlfriend are not ideal, but she tries to keep her head out of water, notably by posing nude for a sculptor. The work is exhibited in a gallery in the capital, but while Gloria take her friend Joy to admire him, she has an encounter that will terrify her. It’s only the beginning ofa veritable descent into hellthe young woman will rebuild herself to escape her demons (but not only) over the chapters that make up the game.

Saying too much about the screenplay Decarnation would do the game a disservice, as the narrative aspect is at the heart of this title. Just know that the warning card at the start of the game is not there by chance, the game succeeds brilliantly in establishing a heavy and heavy atmosphere in a few minutes, tackling realistic and serious subjects while immersing us little by little in a much more horrifying universe, the player evolving as well in the real world as in the nightmares of Gloria, the boundary between the two is often very fine. Perfectly mastered psychological horror, QDB workshop knows his subject, the screenplay is partially inspired by The Blind Beastbut the French studio will also draw on the side of Perfect Blue And Mulholland Drive, the player is often uncomfortable with the horrors faced by Gloriathanks to well-written dialogues (even the translation will be entitled to a patch at launch to correct some typos) and above all the very well thought out artistic direction.

The developers opted for 2D graphics in pixel artAnd the rendering is beautifully disturbing. The environments are full of details, the player’s eye wanders to admire them until often noticing many symbols, and QDB workshop sometimes enjoys distorting them to make us doubt reality, reinforcing this suffocating atmosphere.

A successful artistic direction, with good ideas.

But it is especially on the characters that the developers let go, with here a true tribute to body horror. The bodies are deformed, tortured, exaggerated, both fascinating and disturbing, the faces go from innocence to horror in a fraction of a second in the pure spirit of Junji Ito’s drawings, the game rarely leaves us breathless. A successful artistic direction, with good ideaseven if sometimes, we weren’t sure if they were real little visual bugs or rather strange voluntary effects.

And to let us admire these sets, we are entitled to a few puzzles, which are not too much of a headache, but which fit perfectly into the story. It takes a bit of judgment and reflection, sometimes a few unsuccessful attempts, but QDB workshop use these puzzle sequences to cue terrifying moments, when the player least expects it. Yes, there are rare truly horrific effects in Decarnationit is subtly well brought and it is not vulgar jump scaresbut many disturbing things, making the player even more uncomfortable during his game. The title manages the feat of being sometimes quite tryingbut the player still has a hard time letting go of the keyboard or the controller.

The keyboard, precisely (we tested the game on PC), will casually be put to the test, because Decarnation is not just a simple exploration game with text bubbles, the developers wanted to transcribe the dive into Hell of Gloria thanks to a gameplay varied.

Disturbing atmospheric layers, but also bewitching.

An excellent idea to break the monotony of gameplaywith rhythm game sequences, button mashing, skill, etc.. The studio isn’t reinventing the wheel, it’s all been seen and reviewed elsewhere, but it’s integrated well enough into the whole thing to make it all cohesive and refreshing.

Finally, a quick word on the soundtrack of Decarnation, which is often at the heart of the game and which has shed a little more light on the title recently. Because yes, Akira Yamaoka composed some tracks for the gamethe legendary Japanese musician known for his work on the saga silent Hill delivers music here as he knows how to do so well, these are disturbing atmospheric layers, but also bewitching, sublimating major sequences of the adventure. His style is perfectly recognizable, but other music has nothing to envy him. The French composers Corentin Brasart (Night Call), Alt 236 And AL9000 (Leviathan, Anemoia) have created other music to accompany the more classic moments, with discrete curls that once again manage to keep us in this gloomy atmosphere. In total counterpoint and intradiegetically, we finally have some pop songs from the band flower and bluecompletely different, playful and catchy music which punctuates certain passages of the adventure, and which offers a breath of fresh air in this suffocating atmosphere.

For his first achievement, QDB workshop hit hard with Decarnation. The intelligence of its scenario is perfectly highlighted by a neat artistic direction, for a retro-minded psychological horror game that delights fans of the genre. The title grabs us with its disturbing atmosphere, the player follows with horror and passion the adventures of Gloria over the chapters, hoping, like her, for a positive outcome to this descent into Hell. Decarnation is a real successthe player is captivated throughout the six hours of play, it may seem short, but given the atmosphere that emerges, the title is already rich enough as it is.

Clint008 Writer – Tester