PC release has answers to What Have You Done, Father?

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Demo also available for psychological thriller from the co-creator of Last Days of Lazarus

One of the ten commandments makes clear that "thou shalt not commit adultery," but it's a good bet that the consequence for breaking it was never intended to be "lest you be brutally killed in the house of God for your transgression." But the latter makes for a much more compelling game premise, as we can now discover for ourselves in What have you done, Father?, the newly released psychological thriller from solo Romanian developer Darkania Works.

It's Christmastime in a quaint, picturesque Transylvanian town when the "revered priest" Father Mathias Marton receives a call from a troubled woman named Marina. After granting her request to see him in person to discuss a private matter, it turns out the stunning young temptress confesses her love – or at least lust – for the priest. Despite Mathias's devout initial resistance, one thing leads to another, and ... mistakes are made. Fatal mistakes. When the woman turns up dead in the priest's own bed, gruesomely murdered in cold blood, the horrified Mathias becomes "caught in a web of forbidden desires and sinister events." As you attempt to figure out what happened, you must not only "confront your own demons and navigate the blurred lines between sin and salvation," but gradually "unravel the mysteries of a corrupt rectory" in the process. Redemption for your sins are within your grasp, but it's up to you to "emerge cleansed or succumb to the shadows that lurk within."

What have you done, Father? shares more than a few things in common with the developer's previous co-production, 2022's Last Days of Lazarus. Like its predecessor, this game is a free-roaming 3D thriller with realistic graphics but a surreal storyline steeped in supernatural mystery and religious iconography. Taking inspiration from Alfred Hitchock and the "classic noir movies popular in the 1940s," it promises a "short narrative journey that seamlessly blends exploration, cinematics, light puzzles, and immersive dialogues." As you scour the "shadowed corridors of the rectory" where the action takes place, you must watch out for journals, notes, and "old photos of the former priests alongside their life story," as well as "spicy magazines" that may just reveal more unexpected secrets. 
 
Anyone ready for lurid tale of "lust, wrath, murder [and] despair" can get started right away, as What have you done, Father? is available now exclusively on Steam. If you'd like just a bite of the forbidden fruit first, a playable demo is also available to download for Windows PC.

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