Who doesn’t dream of someday, after our mortal bodies are spent, of going to heaven? A place where we can be at peace, interact with angels who have been relegated to low-level office jobs, and all the non-offensive graffiti you can imagine? Then there’s the bonus of knowing that all dogs go to heaven… except you can’t pet any of them. Oh, right, this is the heavenly afterlife as presented by Perfectly Paranormal, the developers behind Manual Samuel and Helheim Hassle. Ah, this is making a lot more sense now.

In The Holy Gosh Darn you play as Cassiel, an angel who is tasked with preventing the afterlife (and all existence as we know it) from total annihilation. Using a magical clock gifted to her from Death (yes, the same Death as the other games), Cassiel has the ability to both rewind and fast-forward time in order to gain valuable knowledge and insights on how to stop the apocalypse. You don’t need to have played the other games from Perfectly Paranormal to understand and enjoy The Holy Gosh Darn, but there are a lot of fun references, cameos, and easter eggs from those games to further enrich your experience if you’re already familiar with them.

While mostly a point-and-click adventure, The Holy Gosh Darn also has a metroidvania feel, thanks to the time-altering factor. Being able to rewind and fast-forward through time allows you to correct mistakes, obtain new items, and unlock new areas. You can also skip past tedious conversations after hearing them the first time, which is something that most of us would love to have the option for in real life.

It’s also important to note that the entire game is set on a timer, only giving you six in-game hours before the all of existence is wiped out. The Holy Gosh Darn is very much a race-against-the-clock situation, much like The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. You are free to rewind time as often as you need to accomplish your goal, but the clock is always looming.

That said, you’ll usually acquire whatever information or item you need well before time runs out. Whenever Cassiel learns something new, it stays with her permanently, meaning she won’t have to go through the same ordeals or conversations once she’s rewound back to the start of the cycle. She can either cut to the important parts of exchanges with characters, or even skip them all together, greatly reducing the unnecessary interactions that waste precious time. Be careful though, as skipping through all dialogue options or running past an eager NPC can occasionally cause them to become insulted and angered by your nonchalance, resulting in them not wanting to help you when you need it most. Choose your rudeness wisely!

As far as the visuals, if your familiar with Perfectly Paranormal’s other games, then you know what to expect here. The cartoonish art style allows for some hilariously creative “biblically accurate” interpretations of various beings and entities. There are plenty of multi-eyed, multi-winged creatures to entice everyone. There are also a surprising amount of locations to visit, ranging across Heaven, Hell, Earth, and Helheim. A bit of something for everyone!

A game like The Holy Gosh Darn wouldn’t work without a solid voice cast to sell the absurdity. It has great vocal performances that deliver the right amount of frustration, determination, and batshit craziness that you’d expect in a game like this. The soundtrack also does some heavy lifting, matching the full range of tones, from the banality of labor work to the epic frenzy of the end of existence. The radio that plays each time you restart a loop Groundhog Day-style can be annoying, but thankfully, you can shut it off immediately… no radio smashing required.

I absolutely loved my time with The Holy Gosh Darn. The puzzles were mostly straight-forward, with a few that did have me scratching my head for a moment, but never outlandish or obtuse in their solutions. The characters are also wonderfully varied, and I found myself enjoying their drama and flaws about as much as I did the main questline. If you like time-bending adventure games with a lot of quirky characters, ridiculous quests, and a little bit of blasphemy, then The Holy Gosh Darn is definitely worth your time.

 

Graphics: 8.5 The cartoonish art style allows for some hilariously creative “biblically accurate” interpretations of various beings and entities.	Gameplay: 9.0 A point-and-click adventure with a twist: the ability to rewind and fast-forward through time at will. It’s also a race-against-the-clock situation, much like The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.
Sound: 9.0 Great vocal performances that deliver the right amount of frustration, determination, and craziness that you’d expect in a game like this. The soundtrack matches full range of tones, from the banality of labor work to the frenzy of the end of existence.	Fun Factor: 8.0 While this game might offend some of the most devout followers of the Christian faith, it pokes fun at some of the more antiquated aspects of the Bible in a very delightful tongue-in-cheek manner. It’s silly, wacky, and an all-around good time from start to finish.
Final Verdict: 8.5

The Holy Gosh Darn is available now on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

Reviewed on PC and Steam Deck.

A copy of The Holy Gosh Darn was provided by the publisher.