Pulpergeist
Pulpergeist understands that, with spooky stuff, it’s important to draw out the tension. As its name suggests, it was made in Pulp (Playdate’s free, in-browser game development tool), so it does this by not just… showing you a ghost. Instead, you hit roadblocks, and find items with logical uses, and you see places on the edge of the screen that you can’t quite reach yet. Pulp games have a certain speed you can walk, so Pulpergeist finds ways to slow you down (complimentary).
You play as a detective called out to a weird house, and there are some good-looking cutscenes to set up the story. The front door is locked when you get there, of course, so you’re sent around back. You meet one living person. You find a shovel. You can interact with and will receive a detailed, written description of almost everything on the walls. It’s almost got a Hugo’s House of Horrors thing going on. The deliberate pacing means that it doesn’t have to be a huge house, but each setpiece leads to the next in a way that makes sense, and you’re not just wandering aimlessly too much.
When you finally meet the ghosts, it’s clear that it’s your job to help them, and each needs something specific to get the closure they seek. Unlike The Keyper and its huge, often-confusing map, Pulpergeist is pretty concise with its world. The items you find have sensical uses and disappear from your inventory when you’ve used them, so it’s very obvious when you’re done with something. It does so many early-90’s adventure game tropes better than the early-90’s adventure games. There aren’t any unearned deaths or softlocks because you missed an item hours earlier. Pulpergeist deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Saturday Edition, the best game of Season One.
Later in the game, you’ll get a few puzzles that reminded me a bit of Myst, with a weird glyph or a movement pattern to memorize. Pull out your handy notebook (or, like me, just snap a quick picture with your phone) and you’ll be able to pass them without too much frustration. That’s my favorite thing about this game: the puzzles make sense while still having a bit of a challenge. Most people should be able to beat it without a guide (although there is one available to download on both Itch and Catalog!), but you might not unlock everything in the gallery (a sort of achievement system that unlocks game art). There are also a few parts where you need to dodge enemies later in the game, but don’t feel bad if you fail – there’s an instant-restart right before the spot you died, so you can try as many times as you need.
After the main game, there’s also an epilogue… which is basically the size of the rest of the game by itself, and really raises the stakes. Great surprise, I thought it’d just be a little postscript. Nope! It’s imperative to get the full story, and even has a final boss fight which is well done within the Pulp limitations.
So yes, pretty cool game, and not too expensive, either. Spooky without being too scary (perfect fit for our Halloween Playdate Games video!), it will really get you in the Halloween mood, and it’s safe to say this is one of the best Pulp titles out of an already stacked category.
(Released June 1, 2022, on Itch and September 26, 2023, on Catalog.)