The Occultist Review – Make mine a medium

Investigative horror is one of those genres that ebbs and flows in its prevalence and popularity, but it seems to be having a bit of a resurgence at the moment, with The Occultist due to be followed by Cthulhu: The Dark Abyss and The Sinking City 2. Having been relatively starved of such games for a while I’m glad to see such a return and I’m looking forward to the unique charms of exploring spooky environments and putting clues together. Unlike the modern Lovecraftian focus of Cthulhu, The Occultist goes for a supernatural bent with protagonist, Alan Rebels, using his innate ability to tap into other realms to solve the mysterious disappearance of his father.

The Occultist begins in medias res as Alan makes his way to the isolated village of Godstone, a place that feels stuck in time around the 1950s (not unlike many British villages, to be honest). In order to uncover what has happened to his father, Alan must use his paranormal potential powered by his pendulum to reveal hidden truths and connect various clues. Along the way he’ll face ghostly threats, treacherous environments, and even a couple of tone-altering boss fights.

The Occultist is at times a beautiful game, with environments ranging from forests to gorgeous architecture and even a haunted carnival. There is a great deal of detail and it’s making good use of Unreal Engine to do so. Performance is mostly solid on my PC – equipped with an RTX 4060 – which is not always the case with Epic’s latest game engine. Exploring the various locations is enjoyably signposted as well, aside from occasional deliberate maze sections. I’ve played so many horror games where finding your way around is unnecessarily difficult, so it’s always a bonus where navigation makes sense without needing an explicit map function.

All conversations in The Occultist are fully voiced and performances are good, aside from a dodgy accent here and there. Alan has a lot to say throughout the game and the familiar voice of Doug Cockle (best known for being Geralt of Rivia) ensures that this never becomes tiresome or annoying. Whether through monologues, musing about puzzles and eventsm or engaging in well scripted conversations, Alan is a compelling character and really adds to the game’s immersion.

Aside from the two aforementioned boss fights there is no combat in The Occultist with any enemy encounters requiring Alan to sneak and hide. Getting spotted is generally not a disaster fortunately as the enemy AI is on the forgiving side and allows you to run away – a welcome aspect compared to many similar titles with frustrating instant death scenes. That being said, I did encounter a couple of frustrating moments where I got stuck on the scenery and couldn’t avoid ghosts from killing me.

Alongside exploring and investigating the various locations in Godstone (with a lot of notes and newspaper articles to read) Alan can use his magical pendulum to unlock his own innate potential. From the beginning he is able to scan for echoes of hidden items to find secrets and uncover events from the past. As you progress other skills are unlocked, with one letting you rewind time, another allowing you to control an ethereal raven to collect distant objects, and the final one taking a leaf from Hugo’s books in A Plague Tale to let you control groups of ravenous rodents. These are mostly well balanced with puzzles requiring you to switch between them, although the latter is only used a handful of times.

The aforementioned boss fights feel a little out of place and are the only moments that require quick reactions and give a more gamey feel. The first is mostly a matter of avoiding powerful attacks whilst the final encounter is at least a puzzle in and of itself. I think the game could easily have avoided including these, as well as some QTE moments. That being said, The Occultist isn’t a particularly lengthy experience, with my playthrough instantly unlocking the speed run achievement for completing it in under six hours. While this may be a negative for some, I always prefer a game that doesn’t pad out its runtime and overstay its welcome, and it felt like the right sort of length for the story being told.