Gore Doctor Review

Physician, Heal Thy Game

HIGH There’s got to be something, right?

LOW Having a boss chase me for fifteen minutes while I plinked away at his health.

WTF We’re still doing first-person platforming?

There’s a kit that people can buy to help them jumpstart their game development journey. It’s advertised as a complete framework on which to build a horror game and offers an inventory system, interactable objects, a way to include text files, and even light combat elements. It costs twenty-five dollars. I’ve played dozens of games built with this kit used as a starting point, but until now, I’d never seen one on the PS5.

Set in a decrepit hospital, Gore Doctor has the player wake up confused by their surroundings and expects them to find their way out by doing the standard first person horror things — pushing shelves aside, climbing on boxes, crawling through vents, fighting bosses – all of the expected elements are here, almost as if someone was ticking items off of a checklist.

That, in fact, is what I find most intriguing about Gore Doctor – the way each design element is used just a single time. As the player moves from one area of the hospital to the next, looking over rusted-out furniture familiar from a hundred other titles (likely purchased as part of the ‘Abandoned Asylum Mega Pack‘) they’ll encounter a few obstacles that they need to overcome.

First, they’ll have to move a box to be able to climb over a vent. Then they’ll have to sneak past some enemies while looking for a key. First person platforming follows a sequence where they have to seek out body parts to complete a set, and then a ride down an elevator while dodging buzzsaws that emerge from the ceiling of the car. Why is this followed by a series of image-spinning puzzles? Who can say, maybe the ‘puzzle wheel’ mechanic was on sale?

Once players have completed a challenge, they won’t have to worry about seeing anything like it again, making Gore Doctor feel almost like an audition reel or work sample – as if the developer is showing off the kinds of things that can happen in a horror project, which they could then go on to employ in a larger, more robust version of the title given the proper funding. In Gore Doctor‘s running time of less than one hour, the only repeated element are boss fights…

…Singularly awful boss fights.

In perhaps the greatest sign that the whole affair is cobbled together from whatever premade assets the developer found creepy, two of the three bosses are clown-themed despite the fact that the campaign is set in an evil hospital.

Those bosses, ‘Freaky Lady’ and ‘Killer Clown‘ (available on two-for-one sale, perhaps?) offer the most annoying gameplay Gore Doctor has to offer — they charge straight at the player until they’re close enough to swing their weapon (which they’re kind enough to stand still while doing) making it a simple matter to back up and avoid all damage. The player will quickly run out of ammo while trying to wear down their absurdly large pools of health and be forced to rely on an axe with a criminally short range and miniscule attack power to finish them off. I can’t imagine anyone playtesting Gore Doctor and finding that spending ten minutes backing up and swinging an axe was a worthwhile experience, but somehow it ended up in the final version anyway.

To the game’s credit, at least the final boss ‘Crazy Doctor‘ (another premade asset) has a medical theme, and there’s enough ammo lying around his lab to make this last fight is a lot less painful than its predecessors.

Anyone with a few hundred dollars and a couple of months of free time could build Gore Doctor for themselves. The only thing that it has to offer which didn’t come from the Unity store is the plot, and that’s so threadbare as to be nearly incoherent. As a sample designed to demonstrate how a variety of different assets can be assembled into a playable experience, Gore Doctor is functional. As something that people are expected to pay for and enjoy, it doesn’t clear the very low bar set to call something a real game.

Rating: 2.5 out of 10

Buy Gore Doctor – PC – PS – XB

Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Salient Games. It currently available on PC/PS5/XBS-X. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 1 hour of play was devoted to the single-player mode. The game was completed. The game contains no Multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game was rated M by the ESRB and features Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, Nudity and Strong Language. The game wallows in its horror vibes, offering buzzsaws, body parts, and blood splattered on every surface. There’s also a naked woman suspended in a liquid tank. Not for children in any way, shape, or form.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: I played almost the entire game without sound and encountered zero difficulties. All information is provided via text, which cannot be resized. The game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, the game’s controls are remappable.

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