Kingdom of the Dead is a planned “old school FPS” in which you must defeat Death—and his armies—in a black and white, pen-and-ink version of 1867 America.
If you’re worried about simply shooting deathly monsters in a gorgeous atmosphere, the shop page is rich with its backstory. You play as a professor-turned-Army-General in the aftermath of the American Civil War, for a clandestine government program committed to conquering Death and its troops.
The aesthetic style is a little lost in static images, but it looks amazing in action, with the video employing a lot of dramatic lighting (and lightning) to highlight the path and dip in and out of high contrast.
I can only stare at that dark, questionably-limbed thing scuttling towards me over a ground piled high with skulls and bones and say, “Thank you, I hate it!”
Dirigo Games is just as interested in FPS gameplay as they are in horror and style, promising “classic FPS gameplay with different objectives at each difficulty level,” eight different weapons, over 22 undead enemies, and “a never-ending onslaught” in its endless gameplay mode—which doesn’t sound sinister at all.
Dirigo Games previously appeared in the third Dread X Collection, a collection of short indie horror games highlighted by Andy Kelly as one of the reasons why indie games do horror better than anyone else: “These zine-like compendiums of quirky games are full of imagination, and have become a welcome space for indies to experiment with what a horror game can be.”
Kingdom of the Dead is available for pre-order on Steam, with a release date of early 2022.
