Note: The playtime in this review is incorrect, due to my Steam Deck being out of sync at the time. Correct play time at review: 14.9h
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This will be a long one, so grab your cane-sword and get ready.


Gloomwood is a stealth-focused immersive-sim that takes inspiration from the Thief-series among other games of that genre. In my own perspective, it succeeds quite well in this and does so much more along the way. Immersion and atmosphere are in fact some of Gloomwood's strongest aspects. World-building and narrative play an important part here but I musn't fail to mention the importance of audiovisual design of the game. The world of Gloomwood feels dark and gloomy (ha ha...) and is filled with tiny secrets around every corner. There is a deeper story / lore in the game but we'll get to that in a moment. What I absolutely love about sneaking my way through the maps of Gloomwood is to listen to the nightly sounds of the surrounding areas, as well as random conversations of the game's enemies.

Whenever there is an absence of music, the atmospheric soundscape around the map blends perfectly to the nearby and more distant areas. Crows croaking, wall supports screaking and wind humming, etc. The rasping breath from the enemy NPC type: The Hunters is also sure to stay in your head for a good while. The compelling sound design is met with equally fitting visual style and lighting effects. While I would have stylished the game's graphics style a bit further to get rid of some sharp edges and polygons, I think the style overall fits the game's early 2000's ps2-esque graphical direction. The game naturally plays with a lot of shadows, which share a fundamental part of the game play as well.


Before I dive into my assessment on the general game play, I have to mention that I played through the whole Early access build with my Steam Deck only, so consider this somewhat of a technical report as well. The Steam Deck information for Gloomwood describes the game as 'playable' with the yellow icon next to it. While I think this is quite representational, I managed to do something amazing here.

The Steam Deck has a lot of buttons and I do mean A LOT. The good people at Valve's Steam Deck software development department made it possible to remap every single Steam Deck button entirely without restrictions. While it did take me a good half an hour or so to think it all through, I managed to create an amazing layout that had all my important actions and tools bound in a sensible and logical manner, thus making Gloomwood one of the best experiences I've had on the deck thus far. Aiming in FPP games on the deck is of course a bit tricky but thankfully the Steam Deck has adjustable haptic controls that make the ordeal substantially easier. I did notice the frame rate tanking in some areas, but I turned down the graphics a notch and it got back to the Steam Deck's 60fps cap.


Now that my Steam Deck report is out of the way, I can move on to my opinion about the general game play. I have a fair amount of good things to say about it too. Gloomwood's progression is very linear but the maps are quite open and filled with different places to explore. It rewards the player for observance and offers multiple different routes to progress and to find secrets if you just pay attention. I have always loved this kind of level design where you are given many different routes and options to choose from without punishing the player for a specific choice.

There is some amount of back tracing in the game and I did get lost quite a few times only to realize that there was yet another way to access something. That made me feel a little stupid sometimes, but I learned along the way :D. Another great thing about this Hub-like linear, yet non-linear level design is that it makes you perceive the game area in a whole new level (pun not intended). Eavesdropping conversations or just reading pieces of text scattered around the levels gives great insight into Gloomwood's lore and just genuenily useful information to help with your progress. There are no obvious quest markers or arrows to tell you where to go, but instead if you read text and pay attention to your surroundings, you should figure out a way to move forward and access different areas. This is how proper questing and progression should be done. Take note Bethesda!


I now have to unfortunately talk about an issue that impacted my overall enjoyment and immersion with Gloomwood. While the world and enemies of Gloomwood feel unique and alive, the behavior with the enemies is unfortunately a little troublesome. Enemies such as The Hunters are not very smart and are in fact very easy to cheese through. One aspect that should definitely be buffed is their detection. Their sight is very poor, to the point where I could crouch in a tiny dark spot in the middle of the road just a few meters from their presence without creating any sort of a reaction. When an enemy's detection turns yellow, indicating suspicion, it is very easy to just walk back or at the side and just carry on without any further ramifications.

When an enemy does give chase, they are absolutely relentless and I do like that fact. Unfortunately here too I could just cheese it by climbing behind a pile of boxes and taking cover in a box filled corner in the dark. Other times I saw enemies clipping through doors or just bumping into each others while patrolling. I played the game on the Full Moon-difficulty but for this part it didn't feel like it was at all challenging. I am sure that they will iron this out eventually but right now it feels very janky. Maybe decreasing the amount of guards and making them more perceptive would help this issue. For the most part the challenge was the amount of the guards and not so much their individual senses.


Gloomwood tells it's story through it's environment, in-game narrative and text. I think the whole 'Thief with guns' aesthetic hits hard and was just what I had wanted all along. Gloomwood is very Victorian in it's setting but unlike Thief, adds actual firearms to your arsenal. While Gloomwood isn't exactly a shooter either, it provides you with these options to fight back hard when, dare I say; the ordure hits the flabellum. The Gentleman's case was a nice idea, since it limits the amount of firepower you can carry but also gives you a nice little Tetris minigame to sort your inventory with. Gloomwood can be a slow-burner but it doesn't mean that the game cannot get hectic. Indeed, fighting is very tough and bloody and can get out of hand easily. Overall it is better to take time to observe the world of Gloomwood since there is a deeper story at play here. The doctor, the plague, the ever enigmatic Countess... Gloomwood is filled with bits of lore in every corner.


Gloomwood is the kind of patient and murky stealth-game that I had missed a lot. This review was based on v0.1.232.16 Early Access version of the game and I have high hopes for the game's future content. Some rough edges here and there but that's what the Early Access is for. I have a lot of respect for all the imagination and hard work that has gone to the development of Gloomwood thus far and I cannot wait to get my hands on more of that good stuff later.