INTRODUCTION
Roots of Insanity is a first-person action horror game that puts players into defending themselves against zombies, making sure they have enough battery for their camera to be able to see in dark spaces and finding out what you’re seeing is actually real or not.
If you like horror games solely based on combat than Roots of Insanity is your kind of game but be warned, it can get extremely repetitive and unfair.
You can purchase this title on Steam for $9.99.
STORY
Roots of Insanity is about a doctor named Riley McClein who one night has to work the night shift. Unfortunately, Riley has to also deal with his epilepsy attacks which can happen at any time. This leads to strange things happening around the hospital that he has to investigate and find out what’s going on. The only question is, what’s real and what’s not? That’s what Riley has to, unfortunately, deal with. I thought this was a unique concept in theory but it’s execution was very lackluster and typical, you can see what’s going to happen from a mile away and nothing really surprised me, especially at the end of the game.
GAMEPLAY
Let’s talk about the combat because it was the worst aspect of this game by far. Riley is armed with a knife and even then the game states that he’s a doctor and not a fighter which was stupid because you will be fighting so much till the very end of the game. The fighting in this game feels very luck based and not skill based, which means that sometimes you might win and sometimes you will lose. There is no in between and it made me even more frustrated when two enemies would attack you at the same time. Riley isn’t equipped to fight two enemies at a time, he’s more of a one on one fighter so having two people fight you at the same time was completely unfair and unbalanced.
There is also no variation in enemies, you will be fighting the same typical zombie over and over again, they may look different but practically attack the same. The only other enemy in the game that was different were the crawlers that had no body and would crawl towards you from which you had to kill them using your foot. Don’t even get me started on foot combat because all you do is a simple kick and it took at least 8-12 kicks just to kill them. I generally avoided them and just ran past the crawlers so I wouldn’t have to fight them.
It should be mentioned that the animations for the zombies also looks hilarious. Sometimes they will run at you and when they attack they do what looks like they’re trying to hug you, I couldn’t explain it in words, in the video review you will see what it looks like a lot better than me describing it here but it looks absolutely terrible.
GRAPHICS
The only redeeming quality of Roots of Insanity would definitely have to be its graphics. It looks really well and it made the game look a lot more realistic which I appreciated. It actually felt like a horror game when first starting the game but of course falling flat later but they did a good job here in the environments. Everything felt pretty detailed for the most part, I’m glad they put in the effort to make the game look nice at least. The game also runs really smoothly, I didn’t have any problems regarding crashing or glitches.
SOUND
CONCLUSION
Roots of Insanity is a terrible horror game that does nothing to change the horror formula at all. The fact that this game is completely revolved around combat was a terrible idea in the first place and don’t get me started on the lackluster story that was predictable from the very beginning until the very end. While it did look good at times, that doesn’t make up for the lack of unfair gameplay that this game has. You can finish this game in about 2 hours also which makes paying $10 for this game complete nonsense. If you like horror games that are solely based on combat than you might like this game but be warned that it can be repetitive and you might lose your mind.
| PROS | CONS |
| + Graphics can look great | – Terrible combat system |
| + Genuine horror moments at times | – Boring story |
| – Extremely Repetitive |
