Roots Devour is a game of Eldritch horror, but it’s not a horror game. Like many games in the Eldritch subcategory, in this one, you play as the horror, specifically, as a sentient mass of roots trying to drink up enough blood to…do something. It’s not clear what that something is yet, but that may just be because, at the moment, the game is only a demo, or it may be something that isn’t clear until you get past a few more maps.
Much like in the last game I wrote an impressions piece on, in this game you play as a nascent intelligence. Unlike in Heart of the Machine, though, this time you’re a) not mechanical and b) you pretty much know how you became intelligent. You’re a baby Eldritch abomination brought to life by the rituals of a Lovecraftian cult who absolutely did not expect this to work.
Feed Me
The tutorial explores you developing your intelligence as you consume the blood of any nearby living thing small enough to wrap your roots around–including, most importantly, the cultists who panicked and ran away when they saw you actually forming. (Two of them abandoned the one who froze up so badly that he couldn’t run. My baby-Eldritch-abomination heart was delighted that my next objective was to chase them down.) In the end, you meet a being, called “Flora,” that sort of tricks you into leaving the tutorial and drags you down to what I assume is a place beneath the surface of the world and/or reality at large, where it tells you about “MOTHER” and explains the mechanics of “MOTHER’s” gifts and how you’ll progress and unlock upgrades and abilities. And, basically, the secret ingredient is blood.
Blood is a fascinating resource because you have to spend it to get to any objective on the map. And, granted, most of the objectives will give you blood, but often it’s less than it takes to get there. It leads to a game that’s more resource management than horror, where the map becomes a puzzle of seeing if you can stretch your blood stores far enough to get to the next blood stores. If a stretch of roots is too long, then instead of blood, you’ll use water–and water, unlike blood, is very hard to find more of. It’s kind of zen in its single-minded focus on this gameplay loop of stretch, drink, explore, repeat. I almost fell into a trance playing–although that could be because I was playing well past the point where I should have been asleep. (It’s kind of addictive, okay? Don’t look at me like that.)
That is Not Dead Which Can Eternal Lie
I’m a fan of Eldritch horror, and by that I don’t just mean tentacles (which, by the way, are totally in the game, but they’re not part of you). I mean the strangely, eerily, unknowably, unsettlingly, inhumanly weird.
This is something that Roots Devour absolutely excels at, from the almost innocent way your baby Eldritch abomination picks up words from the humans who summoned you, to the “lost gifts” that you find when you corrupt an altar, and to MOTHER and her lair where you progress between runs. The writing, story, and design of the game, down to the harsh lines and minimal color palette, all combine to give the feeling of a place that you–the player–are not supposed to be, a place where humans are prey. It’s effective, and it’s very cool.
Whither Do You Wander?
The only real “problem” I had with the game was that I’m not really clear what my end goal is. That could easily be because it’s still a demo, or it could be because I haven’t progressed far enough. I did find a location I wanted to get to, which I can see unlocks more progression options; but I ran out of blood without getting there, so I don’t know how much else it unlocks.
But with that said, I still plan to keep playing. There’s a lot left to devour, after all.