Hallsteen: Play this amazing pixel – 5 reasons to play art survival horror game
Blog Andrew Joseph 03 Jun , 2025 0
I don't think I'm craving a game like Hallsteen this year. This survival horror immediately caught my attention with its gorgeous pixel art, perspective-changing gameplay and creepy Polish setting.
So I felt so lucky to be able to practice hands-on with a brand new two-hour PC demonstration and slice it from the ominous start of Hallsteen. While previous Steam demos captured Holstin’s “feelings” with simulated puzzles and shooting weapons tutorials, this new building blends them with a meaty (pun) story.
My friends, you have to pay attention to Holstine – here are some reasons.
#1: “Disgusting” has never been so good
Here's the first thing you need to watch out for – Holstin is really nice looking, from the sudden drop of you into a shabby train station with some weird yellow substance on it. Art already looks great in screenshots, but you need to see and feel Hallsteen in motion to really understand what these graphics are accomplished. Even the title screen is great.
Once you learn that you can move the camera to four different angles, it looks like 2D top-down pixel art is truly impressive in 3D. Even if you realize this before you start the game, the first swing is one of the most surprising moments for Hallsteen – yes, right there to meet the enemy!
(As a side note, Holsteen's top-down motion is great for dual-bonding action on the controller, but it plays well on the mouse and keyboard, too.)
While most players don't necessarily choose Hallstin because of their skill level, this is really what makes this aesthetic work. The reason for this is why graphics like this are not manifolds in the industry – it builds on the studio's custom internal technology, which makes it very likely to solidify Holstin as an outstanding game in graphic form.
#2: Fascinating Views
OK, so you can rotate that third person, top-down camera, and browse the world from multiple angles – but it's more than just a head that looks great. These angles go hand in hand with Hallsteen’s environmental challenges. If you are not looking behind the box or checking out alleys around the corner, you may (and possibly) miss something that can help you find your way forward in the strange world of Hallsteen.
But wait! And more!
There are aggressive mutants everywhere. This means you need to shoot them. However, unlike other double-stick shooting games, you won't stay in that fixed camera's field of view and get your own vision ready. Entering AIM mode transforms you into a third-person view on your shoulder, thus releasing the camera to determine the accuracy of your avatar.
These two very different views do add to suspense – for example, in top-down view, you might miss the enemies who are quietly lurking around the corner. I find myself constantly guarding, even switching between two perspectives in battle. (Sometimes it didn't even save me from being attacked by human terror and struggling hard.) The only part of the battle that confused me was melee because that wasn't in target mode – but I quickly got used to it.
Holstin also plays with other camera perspectives, although the atmosphere is more than for gaming reasons. Think about it: In a frustrating, unwelcome region, the perspective of God's eyes. Your cursor disappears, suddenly removing your primary defense. You may not be switching to AIM mode here, but you will certainly feel that some ominous power is watching your every move.
#3: Meat, Tentacles and Gorgo
Survival horror fans will wonder how creepy the weird environment can be, but don't worry – Hallsteen will certainly represent the soft midstream of the genre. After all, the overall goal of this demonstration is to find a way to the slaughterhouse.
The town radiates into the world of types, first appearing in the form of “Malaria parasite”, the above-mentioned yellow substance. At first, it looks like someone is crazy with foam spray – but when you get close, the tentacles lift up and sway you. Are they saying hello or laughing at you? Either way, it's weird and adds to the feeling of uneasiness.
Then there are the mutated enemies. Imagine glowing orange spheres taking over your body, their tendrils replacing your tendons. Imagine those spheres buried in the Plasmodium, which slowly spread in the streets and parks, such as an aggressive, sinister fungus.
I also find the unsettling thing to be the implicit Gore. While you can’t see the actual slaughterhouse in this demo, you’ll learn how it goes into the overall narrative by scattered worldwide conversations and smeared scraps. Something evil happened to that place and when you finally get there it won't be pretty.
#4: Adventure Game Difficulties
As a classic click adventure classic gamer, I was impressed by Holsteen’s puzzle method. Maybe I'm getting older, but in recent years I've been disappointed by the confusing linearity in adventure games. Receive one target, figure out how to resolve it, and then receive the next one.
Although Holstin is strongly narratively oriented, it never feels like a linear story with different puzzles on it. In fact, I almost forgot about a well-designed puzzle tree. At Holstine, you won't complete your goals in the order listed. You can achieve multiple goals immediately and figuring out which goals that can be solved at any given moment are almost a difficult problem in itself. You may need to trace your steps, which feels realistic (for example, searching the house three times for car keys).
As for the puzzles themselves – they make sense (in this crazy world, something may make sense). Survival horror fans are familiar with some of the most boring challenges of the genre – from the horrible sliding puzzles to the need for in-depth knowledge of Shakespeare to the right shelving books to get the door code (*cough*Silent*Silent Hill*cough*).
No nonsense here. Holsteen's question is simple: How will you open this trap door? Which twisted road do you need to forge to get to the playground? How you solve these problems feel organic and does encourage you to explore your surroundings thoroughly.
#5: Poland was a trip in the 1990s
The Polish environment forms a very specific and unique narrative bone. It's not a great travel ad for Poland, but even covered by weird tentacle quality, the town of Jeziorne-Kolonia still feels like a distinctly foreign experience compared to other games set up in a more vague place.
This demo only has a Polish dubbing, and as an English speaker, I find this adds credibility and atmosphere – like watching a foreign flick. Although I don't have a background on how the Polish language is structured, the sound performance sounds terrible.
There is a woman who commits suicide and her voice is filled with failure when she gives you the gun. Large, childish man, screaming, speaking with riddles, only one plot reversed completely lost it. The actors of the weirdo here are much wider than your usual survival horror game, but their convincing creepy doesn't hurt the suspense. (I definitely hope they can help me in the fight.)
When Holstin was set in the 1990s, it wasn't the boy band and the earth. For example, your save checkpoint is an aging phone booth – you need to find a physical phone card to actually save (like a real-life outdated digging change for a laundry room). Our hero Tomasz definitely has no phone to track targets. Expect all the inconveniences of the pre-Internet era – Another stumbling block in a strange journey in this frightening town.
All in all, this demonstration honestly shocked me – I rarely say anything about any game. If the rest of Holstine were polished and well-crafted, it would be considered a survival horror classic for a decade. I've been impressed by what I've seen and played with so far.