Spain is becoming an amazing place for indie horror games in pixel art. If in the previous years Blasphemous and Yuppie Psycho were two representative examples, this year is the time of Lamentum. Created by the two-persons team of Obscure Tales, Lamentum is a jump back to how an old-school survival horror should be designed. Starting from a giant mansion to freely explore, to puzzles that often will need pen-and-paper to be solved, a proper fighting system, and even limited saves, Lamentum has everything that a survival horror fan should dream about. And every detail is portrayed with amazing pixel art.
Lamentum also offers a very unique setting inside the Victorian ages, with a huge and decadent mansion to explore. So forget about torchlights and automatic guns and be prepared for lanterns and slow muskets. This setting is totally fitting for a horror game, enhancing all the terrifying aspects of the atmosphere. And of course, the mansion where the game takes place is not empty, but full of disturbing creatures roaming the corridors and the gardens.
Lamentum’s enemies are definitively inspired by Lovecraft, but always showing personality and an original design. From snail women to grotesque abomination of flesh and tentacles, every enemy of the well-variegated pack is an intimidating discovery. Luckily, the main character can avoid most of the enemies, without carefully depleting the stamina in the worst moment, or can rely on melee weapons and rare firearms to kill the threat.
The pixel art makes an amazing job to animate each disturbing enemy, from the smallest creatures to the gigantic bosses. But what is even more amazing is that each creature has also a detailed concept portrait, providing even more details to the grotesque designs. The official art book that is available on STEAM shows many of the creatures, and even more concepts about the game and the setting.
In the following article, I will analyse the most grotesque creatures of Lamentum, using concepts provided by Obscure Tales. I will also briefly describe unused creatures, so if you want to discover more about Lamentum’s bestiary, you should check the article.
Fly Spreader
The disturbing creature is a skeletal figure moving on four legs. The face is similar to a mosquito, with a long pointy nose and glowing eyes. On the back, the creature carries a disgusting mass of red flesh and gray eggs, which are probably used to breed flies. In fact, the creature is a living hive for flies, a mass of flesh where the insects breed. Its main weapon is literally coughing the mosquitoes, which will then hunt the player. It will be very common to listen to the sound of its coughing while wandering in a dungeon, long before seeing it, to then being hunted by the flies after few seconds. The creature is probably the most bothering enemy of the game due to its ability to constantly generate flies. For this reason, finding and killing the creature will become a priority, but without forgetting that the Fly Spreader is also a strong and tough melee fighter.
Walking Famine
The gigantic abomination is probably the most grotesque enemy in the game. Tall and disturbing, Walking Famine gives credit to its name by showing an emaciated and sick body. The belly is abnormally swollen, while the legs and neck are thin and fragile. For unknown reasons, the arms are missing, but the creature relies on a more disgusting weapon to harm the player. Because Walking Famine will literally vomit on top of the player caustic and deadly bile. Luckily, the extremely tall enemy is also slow, so it is quite easy to avoid without a direct fight. Can it be killed? Probably, but I never tried. And as you can check in the official interview HERE, this is one of the favourite enemies of the developers.
Whip Tongues
A common enemy at the beginning of the game, these abominations that could be part of Carpenter’s The Thing are infesting the mansion. Whip Tongue’s appearance is pure nightmare-fueling: a raw mass of flesh, tentacles, and faces fused together in a scream of agony. Whichever evil god created this thing surely knew what it was doing. The creature has a sort of dormant phase, where it appears only as a mass of flesh on the ground. However, if the player will get too close, the Whip Tongue will emerge to fight. There are many of these creatures guarding the anxious corridors of the mansion, but luckily, with a bit of timing, the creature can be easily defeated.
Corrupted Butler
Every detail in this design is brilliant and terrifying. The pale face is horribly mutated, like a sort of ghoulish mask, with a huge and grotesque tongue coming out of the wide-open mouth like a tentacle. It still dresses in human clothes, but twisted fingers coming out from the sleeves remind how alien the creature is. Even if the Corrupted Butler appears smaller than a human, moving like a sick henchman, it is an adversary that should not be underestimated. Fast and aggressive, the Corrupted Butler is a rare and deadly enemy inside the mansion. It can quickly attack in a close fight with its claws, but can also rely on the long tongue to unexpectedly attack the player from a medium distance. Due to how fast every attack is, I highly suggest you avoid this creature. The enemy reminds me of the “Masked Attendants” from Count Lucanor, another pixel-art horror game developed by a Spanish team (Baroque Decay) and under the same publisher (and if you are curious you can check more here: Pixel art monsters: the enemies of Count Lucanor, the complete bestiary).
Bulbous Head
A late-game enemy, this hideous abomination roams in an evil dimension existing behind a mirror. The gigantic and grotesque creature looks like a sort of alien colony of fungi, a design that would make Lovecraft proud. The limbs are thin and long, with an arched spine full of bones. The head is a disturbing mass of bulbous flesh, while the only physical trait on it is a huge vertical mouth full of teeth. And it is not a surprise that the Bulbous Head will easily use that mouth to brutally devour the main character in a festival of pixelated gore. Of course, the creature is a tough fight, but luckily it is also slow and easy to avoid.
Poisonous Tuber
These walking flowers are common enemies in the gardens around the mansion. The bodies are made of a vegetable substance, looking skeletal and fragile, including almost atrophied arms. The head is a flower that the creature can open to release a deadly gas, harmful for the player. The creature wanders on the thin and fragile limbs around the garden, opening the flower if the player approaches to release the deadly poison. Rarely, the player will need to fight the walking plants since they are easy to avoid.
Rooted Corpse
The corpses infesting the garden don’t look so disturbing in-game, but everything changes when looking at the portrait. The rotten corpses are completely invaded by roots, which move them around like decomposing puppets. The roots brutally rip out from the bodies, especially from the mouth and eyes, creating different pixel varieties based on how the roots violate the bodies. The Rooted Corpses are the most common enemies outside the mansion and are quite slow, predictable, and easy to defeat.
Snail Lady
Another enemy wandering around the gardens outside the mansion. The Snail Lady is a big and intimidating enemy, at least when encountered for the first time. Everything in the design is creepy and disturbing, from the void face to the emaciated body. But for sure the most creepy detail is the slimy substance covering a mass of breasts, creating the connecting interface between woman and snail. However, the Snail Lady is one of the easier enemies in the game. Usually, she is static around, like a statue, but can be activated if the player gets too close. She will then create a sort of damaging aura, a slow attack that is easy to avoid, except when trapped in a small space.
First Guardian
The first boss of the game is without its official name to avoid spoilers. The creature is a gigantic spider-like abomination, with four legs and two long arms with claws in the end. The face exhibits a disturbing grim, and multiple green eyes cover the long forehead. The First Guardian is huge and deadly, dwelling in a dungeon full of dead ends and giant spiderwebs. Escaping through this dark maze is a possibility to survive the giant chasing arachnid, but fighting is also an option.
Unused Enemies
According to previous images, Lamentum had more enemies that are not part of the game. In old images, you can see really disturbing creatures, for example, the mysterious Red Queen, a cooked chicken full of maggots, or grotesque creatures more connected with religious elements, such as a sort of worm-nun (you can see some of them in the last image in the interview HERE). While hoping that these creatures will become part of a future DLC, some of them are too creepy and interesting to not be described here.
Let’s start with the Old Man and The Deer. This creature sends pure dark-fantasy vibes, and everything is truly fitting in the design. The contrast between the emaciated old man riding a fierce and athletic deer creates a really unique enemy. I can already picture the creature charging at the main character while he wanders around the gardens of the mansion.
The second creature is the Pustule Devourer, definitively something far more creepy and disturbing. The monster is an obese mass of pink flesh covered in fat and pustules. The abomination is walking on four short legs that look like gigantic thumbs, creating a sort of twisted spider. But the most disturbing and dangerous detail is the huge mouth opening in the middle of its belly. Early screenshots showed the creature in-game, especially the gigantic size when compared with the main character. Probably, it was a good idea to avoid the creature, since it could probably instantly kill the player by devouring him in one bite.
Surreal and Creepy 