Dread Delusion Critic Reviews

After a while, I forgot I was sick of pixels. I look at Dread Delusion and I don’t see part of a trend. I see a game that set out to capture a particular tone and succeeded wildly. It’s not that playing Dread Delusion is like going back and playing those old games. Dread Delusion allows us to delude ourselves into remembering those games through magenta colored glasses.

My time with Dread Delusion left me with so many questions… I’ve just thought of another one: The experience points you earn for completing quests, then use to level up your skills, why are they called delusions? Like, what does THAT say about where all this is really headed? So, so many questions. Following its progress through Early Access should be fascinating. You should dive in and see if you can touch the bottom.

Though some aspects of the game may be polarizing, Dread Delusion is undoubtedly a unique and exciting title, built for fans of classic RPGs to enjoy. Some will love it, and some will hate the game’s retro aesthetic, but no RPG enthusiast can deny the game’s excellent world-building and engaging stories.

Dread Delusion is an old-fashioned RPG that focuses everything on exploration and freedom, hitting the mark. Exploring these magical and strange flying islands is fun and exciting and is an experience we recommend, unless the only thing you want is to run straight and fight all the time. In fact, the melee system and AI of enemies is trivial, just an extra in the middle of the rest of the game. We would also have liked a bit higher difficulty level, but overall with its never-too-large map and interesting missions, Dread Delusion is an excellent adventure that you should not ignore.

Dread Delusion succeeds where it counts, even if bits and pieces still have some polishing left to do. For a crowded year for RPGs, Dread Delusion can still stand out from the crowd.

Dread Delusion is an homage to the open world RPGs of the past, in which many times intuition and correct interpretation of texts were worth as much as skill with swords, bows and fireballs. A question arises, however: does this still apply today? Certainly not for everyone. Low-resolution textures and models with very few polygons certainly work well in boomer shooters, slightly less in games in which the environments are key components of the experience. Still, the story is very interesting to follow, and if you get past the overly basic combat system it can engage you for a fair amount of hours.

Dread Delusion is a fun romp in a fleshed-out world, definitely worth undertaking for the meagre price of admission.

Dread Delusion brims with an exhilarating sense of discovery that starts to wobble in the final act.

While the throwback graphics and simplistic combat won't appeal to many, the authentic and original story and endlessly fascinating world make Dread Delusion feel like a long-lost cult classic.

Dread Delusion offers an interesting universe and a gorgeous art style, but both are thoroughly wrapped up in a mechanically thin and ultimately unsatisfying RPG experience. The Oneiric Isles capture the spirit of the RPG worlds of the past, and there’s a wide breadth of content and characters to learn more about throughout them, but Dread Delusion’s decided lack of difficulty, one-note combat, and widespread balancing issues actively distract from its highly enjoyable world.

Dread Delusion has launched into early access and this shows. There are some bugs, only a handful of central areas and some of the game's mechanics could do with a little more depth. This being said, it is a great blueprint for what could be an excellent game. With some good community feedback and an attentive ear, it has the potential to capture an audience as weird as the game itself.

Dread Delusion is yet another breath of fresh air in the tough 2024 video game industry that comes from the medium/small development. It is a title that takes advantage of a visual hook to rewrite the RPGs of two decades ago and provide an experience that is not outstanding, but surprising, fun and engaging.