Caligo

About

"Caligo" is a single-player Horror Adventure game with an intriguing story, excellent graphics, and a sensational soundtrack. As a "walking simulator," it offers a unique atmosphere and 100% voiced dialogs that form the protagonist's full story. With various characters, unusual settings, and a choice to help understand yourself better, the game provides a thought-provoking experience, although it is poorly optimized.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

66%

Audience ScoreBased on 463 reviews

story108 positive mentions

optimization21 negative mentions

The graphics are stunning and beautifully designed, creating an immersive atmosphere.
The game features a unique and thought-provoking story that explores themes of life and death.
The soundtrack complements the visuals well, enhancing the overall experience.

The voice acting is poor and detracts from the narrative, making it hard to engage with the story.
The walking speed is painfully slow, which can make the experience tedious.
The game is very short, lasting only about an hour, which may not justify the price for some players.

story
307 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
35%
58%
7%
The story in "Caligo" is a mixed bag, with many players finding it intriguing yet ultimately unsatisfying. While some appreciate its philosophical themes and atmospheric presentation, others criticize the dialogue as convoluted and poorly executed, leading to confusion and a lack of emotional engagement. Overall, the game is visually stunning but often feels like it prioritizes aesthetics over a coherent and compelling narrative.
- “Caligo is a decent walking simulator with a deep and interesting story.”
- “The visuals are stunning & the storyline made a really intriguing adventure.”
- “I completely immersed myself in this interesting story and was engaged until the end.”
- “The story is vague, which is not a bad thing, but it didn't hold my interest well enough, although this aspect is highly subjective.”
- “The story is just pretentious waxing philosophical with regards to life and death though not really saying anything important or original.”
- “The story was very unfulfilling, and when you play a walking simulator, the story sort of has to make up for everything else.”
graphics
195 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
38%
2%
The graphics of the game have received widespread acclaim for their stunning beauty and imaginative design, often compared favorably to high-profile titles like Skyrim and Oblivion. However, many players have reported significant performance issues, including lag and stuttering, even on high-end systems, which detracts from the overall experience. Despite these technical drawbacks, the visuals remain a major highlight, making the game worth considering for those who prioritize aesthetic appeal.
- “The visuals are gorgeous and surreal, and interesting to look at.”
- “The graphics are beautiful, nice worlds and environments.”
- “The visuals are stunning, and the soundtrack - the soundtrack is to die for.”
- “The graphics look like Oblivion on low res on a GX7800, and it runs like feces thrown on a wall.”
- “Many players have reported incredibly low performance even with strong, up-to-date graphics cards.”
- “The game is visually really beautiful but not very optimized; it really tanked my graphics card even in standstill positions, so that was a bummer.”
music
137 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
63%
35%
2%
The music in the game has received widespread acclaim for its atmospheric quality and ability to enhance the overall experience, with many players noting its beauty and fitting nature across various environments. The soundtrack is often described as a standout feature, complementing the stunning visuals and contributing significantly to the game's immersive atmosphere. While some players found the music to be occasionally repetitive or overshadowed by other elements, the general consensus is that it plays a crucial role in creating a captivating and emotional journey.
- “A very atmospheric game with gorgeous environments and musical design.”
- “The music adds to the scenery very well.”
- “The soundtrack is to die for.”
- “The music isn't anything to compliment.”
- “Each chapter plays one song, and each song ends much faster than you complete the chapter, which makes it a very boring experience once the song is over.”
- “I don't want to say bad things, since a lot of time and effort goes into making games, but I basically had to turn the sound way down so that the voice acting and music wouldn't annoy me as much.”
atmosphere
67 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
28%
4%
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its stunning visuals and immersive musical design, creating a captivating experience that enhances the overall gameplay. Many reviewers highlight the combination of beautiful environments, atmospheric soundtracks, and unique settings, although some note that the voice acting and story can detract from the experience. Overall, the atmosphere is described as a standout feature, effectively drawing players into its mysterious and often haunting world.
- “A very atmospheric game with gorgeous environments and musical design.”
- “The atmosphere is incredible.”
- “The world is very atmospheric, detailed, some areas being very bright, beautiful and cheery while others are very dark, eerie and disturbing.”
- “Even worse, voices are plain and unremarkable, too often they destroy the atmosphere created by the scenery and the music.”
- “Can't recommend it because different from other reviews not even the atmosphere did it for me, unfortunately.”
- “The atmosphere would get uncomfortable at times, like there could have been something behind me in a hallway (sadly there wasn't), but that was as scary as it got.”
optimization
48 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
13%
44%
44%
The game's optimization is widely criticized, with many players reporting severe performance issues, including low frame rates and stuttering, even on high-end systems. Despite its visually appealing graphics, the lack of proper optimization detracts significantly from the overall experience, making it difficult to play smoothly. Overall, the game is deemed poorly optimized, with many users expressing frustration over its performance inconsistencies.
- “It's unfortunate that it has optimization issues, which distracts not only from how well-crafted of a tale it presents, but also from its lavish scenery.”
- “Although this game looks beautiful, it is poorly optimized.”
- “The game is visually really beautiful but not very optimized; I experienced it really tanking my graphics card even in standstill positions, so that was a bummer.”
- “The game is so poorly optimized that you will not get high framerates even on a high-end computer.”
- “Unfortunately, this game is very unoptimized.”
- “While it never crashed and frames were decent, it was still noticeably optimized poorly and the controls for this game are garbage.”
gameplay
36 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
11%
78%
11%
The gameplay is primarily characterized as a walking simulator, with minimal interaction and a linear progression from point A to point B. Many players expressed a desire for additional features, such as sprinting or dialogue skipping, to enhance the experience, while others noted the slow movement and lack of engaging mechanics made the gameplay feel tedious. Despite its beautiful visuals and atmospheric storytelling, the gameplay is often described as lacking depth and variety, appealing mainly to those who enjoy leisurely exploration rather than traditional gaming challenges.
- “The gameplay is easy to learn; we go and occasionally pick up drawings that are scattered throughout all our memories of our hero.”
- “Interesting and beautiful locations, good atmosphere, story with deep philosophical overtones, and good music help to immerse yourself in the plot of the game with very simple gameplay, which will help you while away one evening.”
- “Since it is obviously not the most exciting kind of gameplay, games like this aim to win someone over by their atmosphere, created by the visuals and audio (which the game definitely did!) and its story.”
- “An hour of gameplay isn't worth the 6 dollar price tag, and even if you get it on sale as I did, it isn't worth it to waste an hour of your life on.”
- “But the gameplay is nearly completely linear, with hardly any room for exploring a bit or to get lost for a while.”
- “Gameplay-wise, there's not much going on - walk around, find some optional collectibles, trigger the next story piece, repeat until you get to the end.”
replayability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
75%
Overall, the game's replayability is largely criticized, with many users noting a lack of meaningful choices and content that leads to a single playthrough experience. While some appreciate the simple controls, the consensus is that the game offers little incentive to replay due to its short length and limited variation in gameplay.
- “Simple controls, and total replay value.”
- “Cons: no replayability, distracting voice acting, graphics sometimes become choppy and that can cause a headache fast, very short, only one choice that does anything.”
- “No replay value whatsoever.”
- “As such, it offers zero replay value.”
humor
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game has received largely negative feedback, with many players finding the writing and dialogue cringe-worthy and reminiscent of a middle school assignment. While some appreciate the comedic value in the voice acting, particularly praising the character Caligo, the overall consensus is that the humor fails to engage and often distracts from the experience.
- “The voice acting is distracting at best; I often found myself just totally zoning out or laughing at it instead of being pulled into the story.”
- “And the Rambo for most hilarious voice acting goes to..........”
- “Caligo is great, and at a price tag of $6 (you can probably get it for $3 on a sale) I think it's kind of funny to see complaints.”
grinding
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and boring, often exacerbated by interruptions during dialogue that hinder progress. This leads to a frustrating experience, especially for those who have already invested significant time in card farming before playing.
- “This was more tedious and boring.”
- “The acting, along with the need for the player to stop moving when dialogue is sometimes spoken, creates an almost tedious experience when trying to progress the game.”
- “By the way, long before I played the game, I was card farming, so that is why the time is so long.”
stability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Overall, the game's stability is mixed; while some users report few bugs and glitches that are not easily encountered, others highlight significant issues such as buggy controls, slow movement, and frequent glitches that can detract from the experience and test players' patience.
- “It also has a few bugs and glitches, but you don't really encounter them unless you actively seek them out.”
- “Bad voice acting, many glitches, super slow movement, too short, and a story that fails to make the player understand or care about it.”
- “Mix that with buggy controls, and you have a game that may test a player's patience.”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional aspect of *caligo* is highlighted by its touching and thought-provoking dialogue, as well as its experimental approach to storytelling. Despite criticisms regarding its length, the game effectively uses silence and walking to enhance its humanity, creating a unique and impactful experience.
- “Caligo seems to have come under fire from some for its length, but in an age where games are overstuffed and quite often artists seem to find silence less and less useful, Caligo retains its humanity by ensuring that the walking is used, for, well, walking, and the dialogue is touching, mysterious, or thought-provoking.”
- “A bit experimental approach, touching story, and beautiful graphics make it special.”