I wanted to check out a very unique horror experience for this year’s Halloween season. Between the many positive (Silent Hill 2‘s remake comes to mind) and negative (too much shovelware to count) outings out now, Faith: The Unholy Trinity stood out. Not only because it was the chance to test out a brand new Switch port, but also due to some elements that might not exactly sound like things that would mix well: Atari-esque visuals and serious, religious horror conotations. Is it even possible to come up with an actually decent, and above all, scary, experience like this? Well, sort of.

Who? My GrubHub? About damn time.

There’s no denying that Faith: The Unholy Trinity‘s graphical limitations are a hindrance to any semblance of immersion at times, but the game actually managed to convey a sense of unease with such a minimalistic approach. At first, I thought that the game would be nothing more than a joke. I was stranded at a forest, some silly spider-like enemies would quickly run away from me if I ever decided to show them a holy cross, and the overall premised seemed rushed and confusing. I was enjoying the fact all menus were written in Latin, giving an extra layer of religious conotations, but at first, the game just felt silly, not scary.

Upon reaching some specific checkpoints, as well as collecting documents, Faith began to show it was a lot deeper than what I initially thought. First of all, these documents are impeccably well-written. This game’s world building is actually pretty impressive. Furthermore, there were some unsettling cutscenes, rendered in the same graphical style, but going for a bit more realism… it actually felt creepy. I am not one to easily feel scared with a horror product, with the exception of The Exorcist. Anything that manages to capture a fraction of that movie’s atmosphere can actually give me the creeps. Case and point, Faith: The Unholy Trinity, as silly as it looked, was achieving just that.

The power of literally half a dozen pixels compels this spider-ish chupacabra.

Then I got killed by an enemy, and got sent back to an earlier checkpoint. With that, all tension vanished in an instant. I proceded to correct some of my mistakes, collect more documents, and move to other chapters, but knowing that being caught by an enemy would do very little in terms of losing progress just turned tension into a mild nuisance. Faith: The Unholy Trinity went from being an actually creepy experience to being just a trial-and-error indie experience with some occasionally annoying enemies… and spectacularly good writing.

Not gonna lie. This cutscene was actually quite creepy.

The main takeaway is that you will probably enjoy Faith: The Unholy Trinity not because of its gameplay or (lack of) scare factor, but because of its excellent worldbuilding and writing. At first, the game actually felt foreboding and tense, even with its intentionally limited presentation. Upon reaching its occasional boss encounters, and finding out a good chunk of the experience could be summarised as risk-free trial-and-error gauntlets, all tension was thrown out of the window. I kept playing it because of its amazing atmosphere and creativity, not because of any horror-related elements. It’s still worth a try on the Switch, if you haven’t played it elsewhere. Just be aware that it won’t be the ultimate scary event of 2024, of the highlight of your Halloween gaming binge.

Faith: The Unholy Trinity is available now on PC and Switch.

Reviewed on Switch.

A copy of Faith: The Unholy Trinity was provided by the publisher.