One-Eyed Likho is a first-person horror game and tells the story of the old Slavic tale of with the same name. Morteshka, the devs behind this reimagine, released a demo back in the Steam Next Fest. That’s what caught my eye to begin with (no pun intended). The game is out today (the 28th of July 2025) on Steam.
Warning GIFs used may contain flashing images!
Let’s go in blind together.
Gameplay
The demo covers the beginning of the game with a man called Smith and his friend Tailor, who both decides to venture out into the dark forest. Smith aims to find evil, while I think Tailor wants a kaftan, which is a type of clothing — similar to a robe — worn by Slavic men. If you’ve played enough horror games, or hell any style of game, you’ll know it’s never that simple! Although you mainly do just walk around, there are puzzles for you to solve. Some are story progression based, while the others are for chests. Chests usually have a hint right next to them that will help locate the answer.
A tool you get throughout the entire game is your faithful match box. It’s infinite, and provides amazing lighting to the dark and spooky world. You’re also able to burn specific things, such as books or dry bushes, to uncover hints or progress. Fun little detail: you can change the box’s symbol. Prompts for dialogue will appear, in which we can pick our response by holding the “R” button and using the mouse wheel. I wasn’t a fan of this style.
Graphics & Audio
One-Eyed Likho is all in grey scale, adding to the dark, otherworldly atmosphere. There are filter options available anytime in the main menu, such as Sepia or Cursed Film. I opted for Sepia as it was easier on my eyes, and for my personal taste, suited the game’s overall look better. Stylistically, One Eyed-Likho’s visuals are reminiscent of the similarly eerie game, Inscryption. Textures aren’t perfect, but lighting and environment detail stand out far more, along with enjoyable voice acting that suited the characters. As I don’t speak the language, I couldn’t comment on the quality of the voice acting, but personally, I enjoyed it.
Longevity
The game spans over sixteen chapters, and I ended up finishing it in close to five hours. There are two types of collectables to collect. One is a small Russian doll with a skull design, which I didn’t know until I accidentally burned one. The other collectable are the tales which are given after solving the chest puzzles. In total, there are thirty-four achievements to unlock, so an additional play through of One-Eyed Likho might be needed. I replayed the last few chapters to see if there was another ending. From what I could tell, no, but some choices early in the game might change the ending.
Final Thoughts
I wish One-Eyed Likho leaned a little more into the horror aspect of things. Such as more attempts at scaring the player. But overall, the story telling was excellent and did really well with keeping my attention. Especially with the tales and puzzles within the game. I had some minor frame drops when entering a new area of the Refectory. But nothing that ruins the experience. Puzzles are fun and don’t require you to know all the world’s knowledge. Smith and Tailor are enjoyable as characters, and Morteshka has done a great job of bringing them to life.
One-Eyed Likho deserves the Thumb Culture Gold Award for successfully breathing life into an old tale. I would have given it a platinum, but as I already mentioned, I wished there was a little more horror. Since that’s what grabbed my attention when playing the demo.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
