Pneumata Review — Lofty Claims

I want to open this review by giving readers some context behind the development of Pneumata, as well as writing something of a cover letter to the developer himself.

Pneumata is a game developed by a solo developer. A self-described passion project, it can’t be understated how difficult it is to make a game as a solo developer, much less with a whole team. I want the developer, should he be reading this, to know that I want to see more games from him in the future. I hope you take the constructive criticism in this review as simply that, and I hope you learn and show us all how much you’ve improved in your next title. As a creative myself, I know better than anyone that you often have to make something mediocre before you learn to make something great.

That being said, you have chosen to market Pneumata as “one of the scariest psychological horrors in years” according to the Steam page as of 9/18/2024 and “one of the most original, scary, and atmospheric horror games of 2024” according to the email I was sent. While I hate to be the one to burst your bubble, Pneumata is not even close to one of the more atmospheric horror games I’ve reviewed this year, and it most certainly is not one of the scariest psychological horrors in years.

I usually like to open these reviews with a synopsis of the story, but Pneumata makes that incredibly difficult. The game opens abruptly with someone, apparently, breaking into our protagonist’s house and leaving him a videotape that shows… something. It’s kind of an incoherent mess, but it shows a lighthouse, which then leads our protagonist to exclaim that someone he is apparently searching for must be in that lighthouse, prompting him to go search for her there.

Something Pneumata especially struggles with is its protagonist, who will not shut the hell up. Any moment where the game has the chance to build tension or allow players to use some admittedly nice visuals to piece together clues is interrupted by the doofus protagonist bluntly explaining the plot. If our protagonist isn’t explaining something, conveniently placed radios give sloppy exposition that our protagonist then explains in case maybe you were too stupid to understand what they were hinting at.

This, frankly, sucks, especially because Pneumata has some really interesting visuals at times. Some really great scenes can be found in spots of the game, and if the developer would just let the protagonist shut up and allow the player to take the scene in—something they clearly want you to do, as the gameplay is constantly interrupted by sloppily done cutscenes or camera pans to the scene they want you to pay attention to—then the game could really build up something of an atmosphere.

That really is the reason Pneumata doesn’t live up to the hype it wants to give itself. It completely lacks an atmosphere.

There is something of a catch-22 when it comes to indie horror games. Being an indie developer, you unfortunately don’t have access to the resources needed to create, say, compelling cutscenes or great voice acting. While most indie games can get away with having bad dialogue, amateur voice acting, and cutscenes, a horror game including these can absolutely demolish any sense of tension the player might be feeling. That is why most of them make up for their lack of voice acting or cinematic cutscenes with great atmosphere and worldbuilding.

Not only does Pneumata constantly take you out of the moment with characters spouting poorly performed exposition (I hate to be mean to amateur voice actors, but the line deliveries were downright comical, with our character sometimes slipping into a California surfer dude accent), but any chance the game has to build an atmosphere visually falls flat when you realize there is no substance behind the set design.

I have spent a couple of years working as a Scare Actor in local haunted houses. Often, these places build compelling sets that, while cool to look at, have no narrative connection or contextual logic. This is fine for a haunted house, but it also feels exactly how Pneumata was set up.

The game feels as though the developer got really good at designing visually interesting spaces and decided to put a game around them. There isn’t really a correlation between why areas look the way they are, why you are fighting so and so specific monster, or what said monster is wearing a pig on its head or is reciting prayers; The game just goes, “this is the creepy church area” and “these are the pig monsters” without ever giving you a satisfying reason why.

At times, this set design can make it hard to navigate a level with no obvious path forward or wants you to backtrack to previously explored areas without explaining why or giving you a convenient path that way. Other times, it can be downright ridiculous; we don’t have double-decker buses in the American South, and we usually don’t build forestry cabins in the parking lot of hotels.

A lot of the game feels like the developer thought, “This looks scary, so I’m going to put it here,” without any thought as to why it fits into the story or why it should be where it is. This fights the game’s atmosphere, making it even worse when Pneumata relies on cheap jumpscares with no buildup and random loud noises to scare you.

Enemies have some pretty neat designs. However, like I said, they often feel out of place with where you are, and it takes you out of it. So does their incredibly stiff, jilted animation, which screams “early 2000s arcade horror shooter” you might find at a Round Table Pizza.

On top of all of this, the game, at times, just flat-out didn’t work. The only time I could say I was genuinely scared was when I started to hear the sounds of enemies that weren’t actually there because they failed to load in properly. During one point, a boss-type monster with no pursuit limit managed to chase me entirely out of bounds of the map, which then caused the rest of the game’s buildings not to load in.

There were times in this review when I felt like I was being too mean. After all, the game was developed by a solo developer, and I should give them more credit, right?

I was then reminded that this game claims to be the scariest game in years and that just last week, I reviewed Hollowbody, a horror game also made by a solo developer that was genuinely the best horror game I’ve played in years.

Try Hard Guides received a PC review code for this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Pneumata is available on Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation.