Fobia - St. Dinfna Hotel Reviews
A great horror that packs most of the experience into its clever puzzles.
Review in Italian | Read full review
You will not be afraid with it, but you will feel like in the old days of survival horror, thanks to its worked puzzles and its mysterious story.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Slightly above average or simply inoffensive. Fans of the genre should enjoy them a bit, but a fair few will be left unfulfilled.
Anyone who has played Resident Evil: Village and is looking for an inexpensive, well made horror game that was clearly made by fans of the genre will likely find a lot to enjoy. I also still think anyone who likes metroidvanias should give this a shot too. I can’t wait to see what Pulsatrix Studios does next.
Unfortunately though, it all adds up to a survival horror experience that is hard to recommend. You may enjoy some of the puzzles and how the game looks. But other indie games have done it better. There’s promise underneath all the cruft, and I do hope there’s another crack at this from the team, but I can’t say I enjoyed much in Fobia outside of the visuals. Fobia reminded how hard it is to pull off a tight survival horror experience. I kept waiting for something to truly surprise me or show me a twist I hadn’t seen before. Ultimately, I wanted something more.
Fobia St. Dinfna Hotel does a lot of things right but it falls just a tad short of matching the greatness of many other games in the genre. I loved exploring the Hotel and solving puzzles that are reminiscent of classic titles like Silent Hill and Resident Evil. It's just a shame that combat is not only boring but lacks any real challenge, and the story doesn't provide much resolution or explanation to what's really going on.
We’re giving Fobia - St. Dinfna Hotel the benefit of the doubt. It’s flawed for sure. But the ten or twelve-hour playing time is mostly a good time thanks to the effectiveness of the titular guest house as a setting and the oppressive atmosphere it manages to conjure during your stay there.
If you enjoy modern Resident Evil titles such as Resident Evil 7 and Village, then you will feel right at home with Fobia - St. Dinfna Hotel. It's an obvious love letter to the franchise that contains plenty of lore, mystery, horror, and puzzles. Unfortunately, the janky controls take away from what otherwise is an indie game with lots of heart and promise.
Let's imagine that apart from this analysis there is another. A similar one, but with a different approach in its approach. It could be that, instead of analyzing the work developed by the people of Pulsatrix Studios, he focused, that he left aside the annals of terror to deal with many other genres. That is the theory of parallel realities. Wandering along the steepest paths of consciousness, FOBIA – St. Dinfna Hotel gets lost in the dark limits of reason looking for the most hidden fears, to offer us a descent into madness where terror, suspense and fiction converge to sow multiple unknowns.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Phobia: St. Dinfna Hotel is a good debut for Pulsatrix Studios: in four years they have managed to package an aesthetically and playfully pleasing horror, with the right mix of puzzle-investigative and shooter elements.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Fobia: St. Dinfna Hotel is not a terrible game. While it has its flaws, horror fans will find plenty to like about it and will likely love the majority of their time spent with it.
With an interesting environment packed with puzzles and mysteries but a distinct lack of enemy variety and scares, Fobia should only be checked into if you can overlook its detriments.
Fobia - St. Dinfna Hotel delivers a great story and innovative concept, but poor combat, cumbersome inventory, and gameplay holds it back from being a great indie horror entry.
Fobia – St. Dinfna Hotel offers an embarrassment of riches for horror game fans, but throwing all of the best scary game mechanics into one title and hoping they make for a great game doesn't quite pan out. Still, this hotel should satisfy those players looking for some old-school scares, even if others may want to consider spending the night elsewhere.
A great entry into the survival horror genre, Fobia - St. Dinfna Hotel serves up the frights good and proper.
Everything that Fobia does has been done both worse and better by other titles. There’s potential in the concept, providing some of the rougher edges are smoothed off, however as it stands Fobia is the horror game equivalent of a plain bagel.
Fobia – St. Dinfna Hotel lifts liberally from the best of the horror genre but its unsatisfying core gameplay loops leave you out in the cold. A nifty camera mechanic allows for some entertaining time-bending exploration and the game has a solid grasp on 2000s grunge aesthetics, even if the story at its heart is a little old hat.
Fobia - St. Dinfna Hotel seems like a mere Resident Evil 7 clone, but shows a unique and distinctive soul thanks to brilliant puzzles and a game structure that reminds us of old horror classics.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Ultimately, Fobia – St. Dinfna Hotel is a bit rough around the edges. Its voice acting isn’t great, which ruins the tension at times, as do its poor enemy animations and sub-par combat. But in an age where new, half-decent survival horror games are few and far between, this isn’t worth writing off completely. Its puzzles are enjoyable, and it does a good job of creating an eerie atmosphere. Particularly if you’re a fan of the classics like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, it’s worth checking into St. Dinfna Hotel.