Crimson Hell

About

Crimson Hell is a single player survival role playing game with horror and anime themes. It was developed by The Vanished Moths and was released on May 4, 2024. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Crimson Hell is a survival-horror game where you play as Sae Yabe, a journalism student from Alethea University determined to seek out the truth about the various missing persons cases in Japan. Several years earlier, Sae’s older sister, Mayumi, went missing under strange circumstances and was last seen investigating a lead in an abandoned school. Together, with several notes from her lost s…

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67%

Audience ScoreBased on 27 reviews

graphics3 positive mentions

music3 negative mentions

The game's art style, voice acting, and level design are strong and clearly show a lot of care and effort, especially impressive for a student project.
The atmosphere is spooky and atmospheric with good sound design and music that enhances the horror experience.
The combat concept using throw vs place mechanics with salt is interesting and adds a unique twist to the gameplay.

The game suffers from numerous bugs and glitches, including inventory interaction issues that can make progression impossible.
There is no save or checkpoint system, forcing players to restart large sections after dying or encountering bugs.
Poor optimization and UI design issues detract from the gameplay experience, including performance problems and awkward item management.

graphics
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
43%
14%
The graphics in Crimson Hell are praised for their detailed and thoughtful art style, strong thematic direction, and appealing UI design, contributing significantly to the game's atmosphere. However, technical issues such as stuttering, lack of vsync, and bugs affecting item interaction occasionally disrupt the experience. Despite these flaws, the game runs smoothly at high frame rates and features well-executed visuals that enhance the narrative journey.
- “Crimson Hell is a great example of all the right things that should go into a game regarding its artwork, voice acting, 3D assets, and level design.”
- “I can tell that a lot of love and care went into the themes and aesthetics of the game, and seeing each section unfold as more of the story was uncovered and Sae’s journey came to its resolution from the school to the shrine was worth the wait.”
- “The game moves well, the music is nice, the art style and graphics are really well done, and it actually runs above 100 fps, which is always a plus.”
- “The whole time I was playing, the graphics were stuttering (no vsync option) and a few bugs such as the red cloth mission that causes everything you examine to refer to the red cloth, but other than that it was ok.”
music
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
60%
The music is generally well-received for complementing the game's atmosphere, though some find it short and repetitive, suggesting a preference for more ambient sounds. Overall, the soundtrack is appreciated and desired by players.
- “The game moves well, the music is nice, the art style and graphics are really well done, and it actually runs above 100 fps which is always a plus.”
- “Gonna need the soundtrack.”
- “The music is very short and repetitive; it might be better to have some creepy ambiance instead.”
- “There is no save point, which kinda sucks, and the music is copyrighted on YouTube, which also sucks.”
- “Music?”
gameplay
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
20%
60%
The gameplay is plagued by numerous bugs and design flaws, including game-breaking issues like unclickable inventory items and lack of save functionality, which severely hamper the overall experience. While some core mechanics could have been passable, these technical problems significantly detract from the game's quality and enjoyment.
- “Whoever worked on the design and programming of the mechanics and game flow should definitely review their work or improve their skills in the future.”
- “There are just a lot of issues with the gameplay.”
- “After some gameplay, I found a few bugs.”
story
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
75%
The story of "Crimson Hell" shows evident passion and thematic care, following Sae's journey through various settings, but it is delivered too quickly and can be difficult to follow. While the narrative progression holds some appeal, technical issues and poor optimization detract from the overall storytelling experience.
- “I can tell that a lot of love and care went into the themes and aesthetics of the game and seeing each section unfold as more of the story was uncovered and Sae’s journey came to its resolution from the school to the shrine was worth the wait.”
- “"crimson hell" is a third person horror adventure game with a spooky atmosphere, fetch quests, and lightweight inventory management, elements that could be appealing in a professionally developed, polished AAA game.”
- “The story is brought onto the player rather quickly and is fairly hard to follow.”
- “"Crimson Hell" is a poorly made, badly optimized and mostly Unity kitbashed third person horror adventure game with a little running around, spooky atmosphere, fetch quests and lightweight inventory management; all of which could be appealing in a professionally developed, polished AAA game... none of which applies to this.”
- “The graphics were stuttering (no vsync option) and a few bugs such as the red cloth mission that causes everything you examine to refer to the red cloth.”
atmosphere
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
33%
The atmosphere of "Crimson Hell" is widely praised for being delightfully spooky and very immersive, effectively creating a fantastic horror vibe despite the game's poor optimization and lack of polish.
- “Delightfully spooky and very atmospheric.”
- “The atmosphere is fantastic.”
optimization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game suffers from poor optimization, with consistent graphics stuttering even on high-end hardware like a 7700x CPU, RTX 3080 GPU, and 64GB RAM. Additionally, the lack of a V-Sync option contributes to performance issues.
- “Poor performance on a 7700x/RTX 3080/64GB RAM.”
- “The whole time I was playing, the graphics were stuttering (no VSync option) and a few bugs such as the red cloth mission that causes everything you examine to refer to the red cloth.”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game suffers from significant stability issues, including frequent bugs, lack of save points, and persistent inventory glitches. These problems lead to a frustrating and unreliable gameplay experience despite strong artistic elements.
- “It's janky, buggy, and unpleasant to play.”
- “Art is so good, but the janky gameplay, no save points, and inventory glitches make it a pain to play. How do you even finish this if it glitches out and you have no save?”