This gruesome RPG is combining biological horror with the claustrophobic labyrinths of PC gaming’s past

First reported on by Gaming on Linux (opens in new tab), Enter the Hibernaculum (opens in new tab) strikes me as one of those videogame “two great tastes that taste great together” that really should have been acted on by now: combine the inherent claustrophobia and challenging navigation of old first person dungeon crawlers like Eye of the Beholder with an industrial sci-fi atmosphere and gruesome biological horror sensibility.

The result is absolutely captivating. Hibernaculum has one of those mondo-chunky ancient UIs that take up half your screen real estate. No abstract white lines or tasteful transparency in sight, it’s rendered like some tactile, metal piece of technology⁠—think the Fallout series’ various takes on Pip Boys, or the way Baldur’s Gate’s menus all look like they were hewn from stone. Your gameplay screen is squeezed into the top left, and I feel like this enhances the claustrophobia already inherent to Hibernaculum’s rusted hallways and other, more esoteric-looking environments.