Title: Horripilant
Developer: Alexandre Declos
Publisher: Black Lantern Collective
Release Date: Console: Aug 27, 2026 / PC: Feb 20, 2026
Platforms: PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and XBOX Series X|S
Reviewed On: Nintendo Switch 2
Some video games abide by one strict genre or blend two together. Then you have Horripilant, an incremental dungeon crawler that has autobattling, RPG, rogue lite, point-and-click, and puzzle-solving all sprinkled in. You are a knight who wakes up beaten and bloodied in a dungeon with no memory. You fight to stay alive by mining resources and descending a monster-riddled dungeon floor by floor. This eerie, yet mesmerizing title scratches that dungeon crawler itch, yet provides fresh aspects that will keep you coming back for more.
Author’s Note: A review key was provided. Thank you!
Synopsis
Horripilant starts the player with little information, planting you directly into the shoes of this battered protagonist. You are a knight, beaten and bloodied with no memory of how they got there, and so, you must stumble from room to room as you prepare for your first descent into this long-forgotten dungeon. The deeper you go, you seek the truth by solving puzzles, interact with bizarre characters and creatures, and battle fearsome foes. A chilling mystery awaits you in Horripilant.
Analysis
Gameplay
Gameplay is the heart of Horripilant. At face value, you are looking at a point-and-click layout, and to some extent, it plays like one; however, there is a lot of autobattling and incremental aspects. You start at camp, and from there, you may mine for materials such as wood and stone, interact with a creature to procure a familiar, interact with the mysterious face in the darkness, and enter the dungeon—the meat and potatoes of the game.
The dungeon crawling aspect has you battling several enemies and one final boss per floor, and if you defeat them all, you may collect your spoils, primarily meat, then select one boon before descending to the next floor. If you are focused on grinding, you can set the battling into a loop with the same floor. You can also set an exit point at a floor number that you’ve reached. If your health is depleted or give up, you crawl back to camp and lose some of the meat you collected.
Battling enemies are intentionally simple. Everything happens automatically with the occasional quick time event. The QTE is not a requirement to survive a battle, but it helps deal more damage and can be useful with more difficult enemies. The QTE is also simple—at least at the start of your journey—with a button to push when the prompt appears somewhere on or around the monster.
Image Source: Alexandre Declos
Meat and materials (e.g. wood, stone, and iron) are your currency to upgrade your armor, storage, and much more. Upgrades reflect the RPG part of Horripilant, where you formulate your level up strategy of defense, attack, attack speed, evasion percentage, and more. You can also spend your materials to hire creatures to mine for your while you chip away at your dungeon progression.
Lastly, there are a handful of puzzles scattered throughout the camp area, many of which you can’t solve right away. It takes time, resourcefulness, and sometimes starting from scratch (here’s the rogue lite portion), to uncover what lies in the darkness.
Art Style and Music
The art style is reminiscent of the older point-and-click and dungeon crawling games of yesteryear. The graphics are intentionally gritty, and the colors are muted, dark, and muddy. The creature and monster designs are delightfully horrific and/or grotesque. The music is creepy and atmospheric, mixing synergistically with the graphics, and it fully immersed me in the world within Horripilant. It made me feel like I’ve got nothing else to lose as I navigate my way through hundreds of floors.
FINAL SCORE:
Horripilant is a clever mix of several genres with a solid foundation in dungeon crawling and clicker/autobattling. Thankfully, there’s enough of other aspects like RPG-like leveling up and rogue lite elements that keep players that may not be as keen on the other genres engaged. Moreover, the graphics and sound flesh out the game to result in more than the sum of its parts. The game does require patience, and I do wonder if the QTE is necessary (note that there is an option regarding the QTE which is nice).
Overall, this is a bright indie gem that is worth trying. Horripilant has the character and grit that calls to any explorer worth their salt.
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Featured Image Source: Alexandre Declos
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