‘Vlad Circus: Curse Asmodeus’ is a glorious prequel to 2023’s ‘Vlad Circus: Descend Into Madness’, a game developed by Indiesruption and published by Blowfish Studios. This survival horror adventure is a trip into the past of its predecessor, setting up a twist narrative that never fails to embrace the bizarre and downright weird.

Set in the roaring 1920s, this iteration opens up with you playing as Josef, the brother of the illustrious circus owner, Vlad Petrescu. This prequel follows the lead-up events of Josef’s descent into insanity before he famously burns the circus to the ground from the previous game.

With burns charring most of his body, he finds himself locked up in a twisted infirmary, as he navigates rooms to unravel the plot of nefarious nuns. The general drive of the narrative is the bread and butter of this game, as the gameplay is mostly the same; however, the ins and outs of the cult of Asmodeus are a captivating ride overall, and another well-formed and morbidly gloomy story.

Recommended to play with a controller; gameplay is familiar. Side-ish scrolling, but moving into and out of the foreground to interact with glistening objects, you must move from room to room, collecting and combining items to solve puzzles.

Puzzles are very simple, and solving them unlocks new secrets and areas of exploration. There is the incorporation of cool little mechanics like jump-starting your heart, punting rats, and a pushing quick timer, but the game needed way more of those quirky little instances to be more fulfilling.

The inventory is slightly more refined this time around, something I was very thankful for. You have more space to carry objects around you, instead of having to dump them in areas to be forgotten about. A journal continues to log events for you, a great touch to reflect on the narrative as it spirals out of control.

Visually, Vlad Circus: Curse of Asmodeus is just as interesting as the first game. With dark hues painting the grim scene under flickering swinging bulbs, despite running a 16-bit art style, each environment is very characterised and detailed. The cutscenes are fabulously gritty, with each one putting you on edge with a sense of miserable contentment.

The audio complements it well. Both atmospheric and jarring, the music casts an eerie shadow over the scenes, and the sound effects cut through the tension, snapping you back to attention. Coupled together, it is really a subtle albeit enjoyable experience, especially without the need to fall back on too much tacky ‘over-the-top’ gore.

At the end of it, I still can’t believe Indiesruption dropped a follow-up title, let alone a prequel. Indiesruption does such a great job of developing a well-fleshed-out, grotesque story; I just wish the gameplay had a little more, even if it is just instances of snap-burst action. I hope they continue to put as much love and care into their next games or even turn this into a series.

Written by: Stacey