The Elder Scrolls Morrowind and classic Diablo are both obvious inspirations behind Dread Delusion, but the RPG from Lovely Hellplace is much more than a mere homage. Visually, this is the most striking open-world adventure of 2024, and maybe longer. Frightening, colorful, imaginative, and fueled by a great narrative, despite incredibly good Steam reviews, Dread Delusion still deserves a lot more love. Imagine a '00s RPG played on a haunted computer, a glitched-out, stuttering world of bizarro magic and New Weird phantasms. Thanks to a huge new update, if you haven't played it already, this is the perfect time to try Dread Delusion.
You build your character, you choose your class, you pick a faction, and you complete quests. By that description, RPG. But while it encapsulates all the best genre traditions, it also flips your memories of Morrowind and Diablo 2 upside down. In Dread Delusion, the world itself has been broken by an unknown curse, and its aesthetic follows in kind. Pixelated, neon, and warped, it's as if the whole planet has been hit by a texture or rendering bug. What follows is a trippy and subversive twist on the RPG, but without compromising the core mechanics we recognize and enjoy.
Of the more than 2,000 player reviews posted on Dread Delusion's Steam page, a supremely impressive 89% are positive. Nevertheless, since it launched back in May, even at its highest peak, it's attracted just over 1,000 concurrent players. This is an open-world game that deserves more love, and the new Dread Delusion update, Creature Island: The Final Frontier, is the perfect excuse to give it a try.
There are two major additions here. First, there's a new zone in the form of the Cephalok, a gigantic squid that has swallowed you whole, and whose innards you must now explore using an airship. Dread Delusion now also has a hard mode. Enemies are more dangerous, they come in different formations, and every spell and attack requires a greater amount of your resources.
This final update for Dread Delusion is completely free, and the game itself is now available at 20% off. If you want to play one of the most overlooked games of this year, head to Steam now.
Otherwise, take a look at some of the other best old games that are still brilliant to this day.
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