Senara: The Sacrament

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I’m checking out Influsion Inc. newest game Senara: The Sacrament, a first-person horror game, set on the ship Senara. Why are we here, who knows. But what I do know is that you can pick up the game on Steam, and there is also a demo available.

Why are we always unconscious at the start of these things?

A small room filled with white chairs branded with a religous cross. The walls have red curtains, and boxes are sat on a wooden table. A gun is being held in the hands of the player, with aforementioned hands being covered in sweat with little bits of blood. — Well, you are all probably wondering why I have gathered you here?

Gameplay

Upon waking up on the Senara with no clue as to why we are here, we quickly find out there is a cult onboard. This leads to use having to find a mean of escape which goes as you would expect in a horror game. Now, fair play we do get to explore the entire ship as we look for a way off it. Meanwhile, you won’t be alone as players will have to fight or hide from the various stalkers that Senara: The Sacrament will through your way. You will face crew mates gone mad, however you will get a couple of weapons to aid in fend them off. Firstly a knife which uses stamina, just don’t get caught low on it after running around. There are firearms too, but ammo is limited.

A torch is being illuminating a large aquatic creature just outside the door. The door itself has a red decorated curtain with gold design. — I would highly suggest avoiding the fish dinner.

Money has also become a resource for players, as you can use them at the shop onboard the Senara. Not everything will be available at once, since some items need a special coin first. Senara: The Sacrament is rather action heavy than puzzle or horror focused like I thought. Yes, there are some puzzles for players to do, but most of the game is looking for notes that aid in finding passwords.

Graphics & Audio

Senara: The Sacrament surprised me in a lot of ways. This isn’t to say the graphics are top tier; they’re decent, but the character models aren’t perfect. However, the flashlight is surprisingly realistic with how it lights the surroundings, without comprising your vision. But what gets me is the many qualities of life details that dramatically improved gameplay. For instance, the map rooms indicate via red and green colouring whether a door is locked, and if a room has fully been explored. It also shows icons in each room for what items lie in there, save points etc.

A large lifeboat is hanging off on one side, while the other holds it up. There is a spotlight beaming down onto the lifeboat. In the hands of the player is a knife. — Welp, there goes one option to escape.

One of my favourite visual feature however is highlighting key information in notes. While I’m more than capable of extrapolating things from a note, it was refreshing to see a succinct approach that doesn’t leave me wondering aimlessly and ultimately getting frustrated and bored. So instead of remembering a room that has no relevance, the highlighted parts allowed gameplay to roll smoothly without holding your hand to the extreme. There was even a point where a piano puzzle was there, and I instantly thought oh boy, this is going to suck, as I don’t know piano notes. However, every key press highlighted green on the notes so I could see what the correct one was.

Longevity

Senara: The Sacrament, is not too long of a game, with me reaching one conclusion by around four and half hours. With the game having other endings to obtain. I did die a lot to the stalkers as they seem a little unfair but in the end guns blazing worked for me. For the achievement hunters out there, you will have 45 to collect with most being around the story and some for collectables and other choices.

Final Thoughts

It starts strong with great gun-play, and exploring the ship, but I do feel like the Stalkers take too much away from the game. Senara: The Sacrament quickly loses the horror atmosphere once the second threat begins to appear, mainly because of the damage output. They also love to camp around nearby making navigating corridors a little bit challenging. Overall though the game runs great, with only a couple of visual bugs when it tried to load things in.

I did enjoy exploring overall, and that Senara: The Sacrament, makes it really clear when you will need to make a choice key. I found saving is a must since endings like the helicopter one, does seem a little unforgiving, but I won’t spoil it. Well, I am giving it the Thumb Culture Silver Award.

Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.

About Author

Kyle McGrath

I’ve enjoyed video games for as long as I remember and I don’t think there isn’t a game I wouldn’t play. For reviews, I try my best to make them simple and easy to understand. With so many games released daily, I attempt to play them all.

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Senara: The Sacrament – PC Review