Pestilence

About

Pestilence is a single player action adventure game. It was developed by Green Trouble Games and was released on December 1, 2023. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Pestilence is a first-person stealth game in which you play as the Lord of the Pestilence, a betrayed God who seeks revenge against his brothers. To accomplish this, you will need to kill your brothers' Judges, the ruling caste of the city of Trumana. You will traverse the town's shadows as a malevolent force, using your uncanny ability to possess and sow chaos between its people. FEATURESFind y…

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Single-Player

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71%Audience ScoreBased on 24 reviews

gameplay4 positive mentions

optimization1 negative mentions

Unique and creative stealth mechanics involving possession and infection that encourage strategic gameplay and environmental manipulation.
Strong and captivating art direction with a dark fantasy aesthetic and memorable atmosphere.
Impressive achievement for a student project with solid ideas and enjoyable stealth elements.

Janky animations, glitchy mechanics, and poor optimization that impact gameplay smoothness and overall polish.
AI enemy behavior and level design can feel inconsistent or less challenging, with bugs like enemies spotting the player through walls.
Audio quality, especially AI-generated voice acting, detracts from immersion and feels unpolished.

gameplay
25 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
16%
72%
12%
The gameplay centers on stealth and creative manipulation, featuring unique mechanics like possession and infection that tie into the game's theme of a god of pestilence seeking revenge. While the mechanics are innovative and encourage strategic planning, the overall experience feels somewhat limited and occasionally rough around the edges, likely due to its origins as a student project. Despite some technical issues and a constrained scope, the gameplay provides a distinctive and challenging stealth experience with thoughtful design.
- “The mechanic of only being able to go places that belong to your social class is excellent—clearly inspired by Hitman, but the execution here is outstanding.”
- “Gameplay revolves around stealth and manipulation rather than direct confrontation, encouraging creative approaches to challenges.”
- “The infection mechanic reinforces the theme of the protagonist as a god of pestilence, using sickness and decay as weapons against those who oppose him, adding depth to the gameplay.”
- “The number of environments, enemy types, and mechanics is somewhat limited compared to larger stealth titles.”
- “The idea follows the lord of the pestilence, a betrayed god seeking revenge by infiltrating a city and infecting its leaders, who are the judges of the ruling caste, and you get your revenge through some okay-ish stealth mechanics.”
- “Gameplay-wise I believe that it offers a wide variety of tools to encounter stealth though I did feel like it wasn't much of a choice rather than an obligation.”
story
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
29%
21%
The story offers a unique and intriguing premise, focusing on a corrupted divine force seeking revenge, conveyed through environmental storytelling rather than traditional cutscenes. While the narrative is relatively simple and not deeply fleshed out, it provides a compelling dark fantasy atmosphere that complements the gameplay. However, some feel the plot feels underdeveloped and could have been expanded further to enhance the experience.
- “The game follows the story of the lord of pestilence, a god who has been betrayed and imprisoned by his divine siblings.”
- “While the narrative remains relatively simple, the concept of playing as a corrupted divine force gives the story an interesting perspective rarely seen in stealth games.”
- “Story is nothing to write home about, and the music is fine.”
- “I feel that this has the roots of a great game, but the lag, useless powers, and reduced plot hold it back.”
- “Rather than delivering the story through traditional cutscenes, the game reveals its lore through exploration, environmental storytelling, and the gradual progression through the city.”
graphics
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
36%
37%
27%
The graphics feature a stylized, dark fantasy art direction with a comic-book and low-poly cartoon aesthetic that many find visually appealing and unique. While the overall design and art style are praised, the graphical quality is considered somewhat low and the game may have performance issues on even high-end PCs.
- “Visually, Pestilence uses a stylized art direction that combines dark fantasy themes with a somewhat comic-book-inspired aesthetic.”
- “The theme and plot are quite cool and unique, the artstyle is awesome, and the music is pretty damn good too.”
- “I love the art of the game, from the menus, storyboards and overall aesthetic.”
- “On the important subject of visuals, this features fairly low quality stylized/cartoony low poly 3D graphics.”
- “I love the aesthetic and I was kind of getting into the gameplay, but it ran remarkably poorly on a 3080/10400f.”
- “However, I have a decently beefy PC that can play Red Dead 2 on max graphics with no problem, so people with computers that don't have as good processing may have issues.”
music
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
25%
The music is generally praised for its atmospheric and tense qualities, effectively supporting the stealth gameplay with subtle and consistent background tones. It maintains a mood of secrecy rather than being overly dramatic, and is considered a strong and enjoyable aspect of the game.
- “The audio design supports the stealth gameplay with subtle environmental sounds and tense background music.”
- “The music remains atmospheric rather than dramatic, maintaining a consistent tone of tension and secrecy throughout the experience.”
- “The theme and plot are quite cool and unique, the artstyle is awesome, and the music is pretty good too.”
atmosphere
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's atmosphere is notably strong, characterized by a distinctive visual style and consistently tense, secretive music that together create a memorable and immersive experience despite modest technical presentation.
- “The overall presentation is not technically advanced, but the strong visual identity helps create a memorable atmosphere.”
- “The music remains atmospheric rather than dramatic, maintaining a consistent tone of tension and secrecy throughout the experience.”
- “Cool idea for a game with great atmosphere.”
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is largely unintentional, stemming from jokes that feel poorly matched to the characters, resulting in an awkward but amusing experience.
optimization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game features impressive art and world-building but suffers from poor optimization and clunky mechanics, which detracts from the overall experience.
- “Some genuinely neat art direction and potentially interesting world-building unfortunately does not make up for the poor optimization and janky game mechanics in my opinion.”