Allogloom is a delightful, macabre point-and-click adventure game

Allogloom is delightful and horrific. These two descriptors don’t usually go together but apply perfectly here, in this game of carnivorous moths, mysterious cults and oozing monsters.

In the vein of other macabre point-and-click games starring intrepid young girls (Fran Bow, Little Misfortune), this is a dark, cutesy adventure all about overcoming fears while diving deeply into a strange world of monsters and mythology.

Headstrong Nora leads this dark adventure

Protagonist Nora lives within the realm of Gruesome Grove, a siloed town in a forest guarded by magical, carnivorous moths and plagued by a mysterious sap that can (and often does) preserve townsfolk like statues. Stay too long in one space, and the sap will descend from the trees to freeze you alive. Put a foot wrong, and the moths may eat you alive.

To the people of Gruesome Grove, this world is normal. They have a working relationship with the moths and understand their place in the pecking order. Allogloom weaves in this mythology and the relationships between members of the grove in artful fashion, with discoverable items fleshing out this uncanny world in a way that allows for constant new discoveries.

The best fiction allows you to live and breath within its world. Allogloom allows immediate entrenchment, with its story never leaving room to question its oddities. You begin in Nora’s home, in the wake of the disappearance of her mother, and you must simply accept the world you find yourself in.

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With lovely, painterly illustrations and a storybook-like art style, playing Allogloom is a lot like being told a riveting fairy story. You’ll swiftly find yourself swept up in its world, even with all its oddness.

As the layers of the story unfold, the feeling of being swept away is only strengthened.

Nothing is as it seems in Allogloom

What’s most intriguing about Alloogloom is how it hides its secrets. Once you think you know what’s going on in Allogloom, the world is pulled out from under you.

In dairy entries, you discover that perhaps Nora isn’t entirely of this world, and that Gruesome Grove is stranger than you might think. As Nora pursues leads to discover what happened to her missing mother and whether she truly was able to escape the inescapable grove, darkness and monsters are unleashed in a way that completely and fascinatingly evolves the tone of the game.

What begins as a light-hearted, charming adventure with a touch of weirdness eventually becomes a full-blown horror as the secrets in Gruesome Grove spring to life, in a way that would make any Resident Evil fan very, very happy.

As monsters descend from the forest and massive amounts of sap starts to leak out, Nora must take on a quest to discover what’s really going on in her town, and whether the secrets of the moths include lies about their provenance and intention.

Tied together by a whimsical array of logical puzzles

In Nora’s quest to chart Gruesome Grove and save her family from monsters and magic, players will usher her along through various point-and-click style puzzles, charting key areas of the grove.

Anyone familiar with the genre will find a sense of logic here. You spend your time searching across illustrated rooms for interactive elements and discover clues and items to serve your quest. There’s a novelty in how each linked puzzle plays out as you search far and wide for solutions.

The further you travel through the game’s eight chapters, the bigger and more interesting the game’s puzzles become. You’ll find hidden switches, hidden items and hidden sequences of events, all of which require you to scratch your head and work out the best possible solution to what comes next – and how not to put a foot wrong.

There are no hints in Allogloom, which may be a challenge to some. There were puzzles that stumped me during my time with the game. But as long as you keep your eyes open, observe everything around you, experiment with anything you can find and keep your head on straight, you will eventually be able to puzzle your way through each challenge, in a way that proves entirely satisfying.

Figuring out how best to use a squirrel to obtain a string of lights to electrocute a roving monster proves to be a lovely, creative journey. Figuring out how to use a telephone to explode another monster is also a joy.

In its logic strings, Aloogloom is so satisfying. There’s victory in discovering exactly which item works with another, and that’s what all good point-and-click adventures should aspire to achieve.

Pair this system with Allogloom‘s lush, moody artwork and its layered, macabre themes, and it’s an entirely unique experience that is rich and beautiful in approach. It’s a very strong debut from developer Galactic Ghosty, and one that deserves your attention.

A PC code for Allogloom was provided for the purposes of this review.

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