Quite possibly the most evil game ever created
This game is something else even though it's a familiar genre. As you play you may recall such movies as The Omen, The Shining, The Exorcist and Final Destination, among others. Also, if you like Hitman and Death to Spies series, then this game is definitely for you.
Anyways, I believe that Shiver Games is onto something here. This could easily be made into a movie. You play as the son of devil who wants you to harvest souls for him by killing people, or by rather making it look like freak, deus ex kind of accidents. You live in a huge manor along with a congressman (your fake father), his family and about a dozen of staff.
You play through 18 chapters (even though four separate chapters are molded into two missions, so it's essentially 16 chapters).The game may take you at least 6 hours to beat if you don't use any help online (which I quite often did).
This game requires your utmost attention, there are no abstract objectives as to what you are supposed to be doing. You have to read between the lines. You have to use your Ouija board and your notebook to try to figure out who is the next target. It may take you a long time to figure out which tool to use and on whom. After the sixth mission or so, you get access to the rest of the manor and you can pick up items that you are going to need for the rest of the game, making the job easier later on.
You also get to do around 7 menial chores to increase your behavior level in order to get three presents from your parents.
As far as the killings go, well some of them are absolutely atrocious and were it not for the somewhat mediocre engine, they could look even more gruesome. The ambiance is awesome, the soundtrack is outstanding, the voice over decent enough (by male actors mostly, I found female voice acting weak).
One thing that bugs me is that Lucius doesn't speak, although they admit that in the game itself.......There are also numerous crosses spread throughout the house that are nailed to the walls. These crosses take away your abilities of which there are 5 (telekinesis, pyro-control, mind control and forgetfulness spell). So you have to turn them upside down to be able to do your black magic tricks.
The story and the pacing of the game are amazingly well put together, the "freak accidents" get more and more, well, freaky, and the detective investigating the murders narrates the entire story with a small preamble before each mission. Your parents also start getting suspicious to the point of them being scared of you, so every murder has an effect in the game. This kind of story telling sucks you in to say the least.
I was going to give this game a higher score until I had to do play the last buggy-as-crap mission. That, coupled with some graphical glitches like (people warping ahead or you getting stuck in doors) was slightly annoying but it wasn't anything game breaking. In the end, I feel that this game needed slightly more polish.
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This is definitely an adult game, made by a confident studio. If the religious Right had GTA in their cross-hairs for all these years, then I would not be surprised if this game got the same treatment. That would be awesome so the game could get more publicity resulting in more sales. So please don't forget to support this new and bold Indie Developer, this IS a PC-exclusive after all.