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Review for Saint Kotar

Saint Kotar review
Saint Kotar review

Some settings are so bleak that it is scarcely believable that people would still inhabit such places. Saint Kotar’s town of Sveti Kotar is a prime example of this, especially when viewed through the lens of its two devout protagonists. It is such a hopeless, wretched place that it becomes an imposing character in and of itself. But is it a fun place to visit, even if you’d rather not live there? That depends on what you have the stomach for. Red Martyr Entertainment’s debut project is a dark and twisted point-and-click adventure game brimming with a confusing plot and grotesque imagery but contains only one instance that I felt met the criteria of counting as a “puzzle.” It definitely won’t be for everyone, but I found charm in the sincere clumsiness present in almost all aspects of the game. 

Saint Kotar features two playable protagonists: Benedek is a deeply dedicated Christian monk, a short and unthreatening man who believes his family suffers from a curse that can cause them to renounce God and turn to unsavoury ways. Nikolay is Benedek’s brother-in-law, having married Benedek’s sister Victoria. He is also a self-described man of God possessing a somewhat foggy backstory, having been raised in an orphanage with an extremely dark history. The game begins when they both wake up in a mysterious house on the outskirts of Sveti Kotar. The two men were lured to the town by Victoria under false pretences, but now Victoria is nowhere to be found. They are soon brought in for questioning by the local law enforcement and told that Victoria is suspected of having committed a series of heinous crimes through the night. Benedek is convinced that his sister is the latest victim of the family curse and is guilty of what she has been accused of, but Nikolay is adamant that she is innocent.

It quickly becomes clear that Sveti Kotar is shrouded in pure evil, an accursed place that the sun rarely touches. The protagonists learn that it has been slowly picked apart by a cannibalistic cult known as the Saboren, who seem to be heavily involved in the events surrounding Victoria. Benedek and Nikolay work together in an attempt to find Victoria and discover the truth, and there sure are a lot of mysteries to uncover. The town has a rich but lamentable background dating back several generations, conveyed through heaps of dialogue and via the objects you’ll examine, and many have their own opinions on the past and its traditions handed down. With so many characters and historical tidbits, the narrative becomes a convoluted tapestry that can be very difficult to follow. The lore can often be exciting and interesting, but it suffers from the writers having bitten off more than they could chew. Certain story beats can feel unnatural and almost silly, some events may seem too strange to make sense, and characters may act out in unbelievable ways. And yet the surrealness of it all was part of the charm for me. I wasn’t too impressed with the abstract and bizarre ending, but I’d like to believe I got the worst one. There are reportedly multiple endings requiring different decisions along the way, and surely there must be at least one better ending than I got.

Benedek initially comes off as completely docile. His devotion to his religion means he doesn't like violence and it's interesting to watch his world shatter as he's forced to do things that contradict his moral code. His true colours come to light over time, and his appeal wears off as his views are revealed to be more … militant, his comments on Inquisition-style justice denoting a staunch, old-fashioned zealous viewpoint on how sinners should be dealt with. Nikolay is a taller, more patient man than Benedek, and is convinced of Victoria’s innocence. You do not get to spend anywhere near as much time with Nikolay as you do Benedek, making him almost feel like a secondary character rather than another protagonist. Nikolay sometimes experiences visions of a mysterious woman he calls “mother,” though her macabre appearance and demeanour don’t quite suggest a maternal presence.

Other unique characters populate the town of Sveti Kotar. There’s Detective Mostov, who sports a deep dent in his head from an old injury that badly affects his memory – how he is still a detective, I’ll never know – and whose allegiance seems to turn on a dime whenever it suits him. An aloof bellhop works at the lodge, complicit in the bizarre idiosyncrasies concerning the building and its owner but somehow oblivious to the utter strangeness of it all. An unsightly fisherman lives on the shore of the lake, with a paternal attachment to the leech that hangs from his neck and perpetually sucks his life force away. These are all very interesting and well-realised characters, and they are all so beautifully strange.

I was completely on board with the themes of religious horror prevalent here. While it’s not the best portrayal I’ve seen, by a long shot, it still manages to define “god-fearing fanatic” in a powerful way. Benedek’s righteous attitude coexists perfectly with the town, which has its own judgement system and shamelessly persecutes and tortures those deemed unworthy. Nobody is the good guy in Sveti Kotar, and it seems to make a villain out of anyone who goes there, either literally or at least in the eyes of the community.

Mechanically, Saint Kotar is a pure point-and-click adventure. Hovering the mouse over something interactive will turn the cursor into an icon that signifies what you can do with it. Holding the spacebar will highlight hotspots. You can look, use, or pick up, but only one of those actions is available per hotspot with any given click, though examining something may then change the way you can further interact with it. When brought up the inventory is displayed along the bottom of the screen to select items for appropriate use in the environment. You can run with double-click, and you will be using this a lot, as there is plenty of back-and-forth travelling.

Indeed, there are many tasks to do, a list of which can be accessed by clicking the brain symbol in the bottom left of the screen. As soon as you have the freedom to explore part of the town, objectives start to build up, whether venturing into the woods to look for clues or uncovering the fate of an old woman’s lost love, who went missing long ago. The latter isn’t important to the main story, but rather a side quest you can choose whether or not to pursue. Some tasks are optional and only serve to reveal more about the world, while others potentially contribute towards a better ending. At first, my list of goals was updated regularly as I experienced new events and conversations, and it was always clear what I had to do, but as the game progressed it felt as if the updates became fewer and farther between. A map can also be accessed by clicking on the brain icon, but it’s an old map of the town and the surrounding area that doesn’t hold your hand when trying to navigate, showing only landmarks and basic topography. I didn’t have any trouble finding anything, though.

This is a very dialogue-heavy game, and even with the presence of an inventory, there are essentially no puzzles. Yes, you can use items on other objects but their uses are always obvious. Since there are no challenges to get stuck on and slow the pace, this helps the plot move at a relatively breakneck speed, but the downside is that there’s a lack of engaging activities. The only real exception is one puzzle at the very end of the game, but this is not an improvement because to this day I have no idea how to solve it without using trial-and-error tactics by failing and trying again. This game also includes my biggest adventure game pet peeve: a maze where you have to figure out which side to exit the screen over and over. Enough of these please, I’m begging all developers.

That’s not to say that the player has no agency. Saint Kotar has dialogue options that can change aspects of the story as well as the ending. In fact, I was quite impressed by the amount of optional content and secrets, which all contributed to a sense of mystery. There’s also a system that allows you to “denounce” certain characters. The town has a no-tolerance policy towards those they consider heretics and has a handy post box at the police station door where citizens can anonymously report their neighbours; those found guilty are sentenced to torture and death. I tried this with one particular person that I felt had wronged me, but there seemed to be no consequence until it was mentioned in passing at the end.

It is very possible for you to die in this game as well, and the wrong decisions are rarely telegraphed and can often come out of nowhere. I was quite annoyed the first time it happened to me, but quickly decided it was worth it just to see the delightfully grotesque animation of poor little Benedek's flayed corpse swinging from a hook. Deaths are almost treated as endings, in that the credits roll and you are taken to the main menu. Worry not, though, as the game autosaves often so you won’t have lost much progress when you restore to try again.

In terms of presentation, Saint Kotar is an awkward game. Its 3D models, dialogue, and especially the voice acting are all the very definition of “Eurojank,” but it’s all so consistent that it worked for me. The animations are often slow and unnatural, and the script can be clumsy at times, but it also makes expositional information dumps feel natural. The voice-overs are incredibly hit-or-miss: children are very obviously voiced by adults, enthusiasm varies between different actors, and I loved it all. The original European accents were perfect for the setting, in my opinion, which is why I was quite upset when an update switched some to American-sounding ones. The aloof bellhop lost his sleepy demeanour with the change, and the game lost some of its quirky charm and its sense of place in one fell swoop.

The pre-rendered backgrounds are all very nicely illustrated, and there’s a great parallax effect when travelling across screens as the backdrops move at a different speed from objects in the foreground. The game gets the majority of its atmosphere from environments jam-packed with melancholic detail, such as the graveyards (yes, more than one), the gothic church, and the quiet lake. Each environment is lovingly crafted and would perhaps be considered beautiful in another context; the lake is scenic enough but you’ll feel nothing but dread once you hear the legends about it. The overall eeriness is further reinforced by a bleak colour palette, almost exclusively grey and black as every dark stone building is lit by the ever-present moon, save for the occasional warm glow of a torch or fire. All are places you would never want to visit in real life but are enticing from behind the safety of your computer screen.

The music is very competent from a compositional standpoint, appropriately arranged with rustic folk instruments along with electronic ambient rumbling when circumstance calls for it. There is a particular piece featuring synth pads that I found very pleasant, though it seemed somewhat out of place, and that’s the thing with the score overall: although the individual tracks are good, they aren’t always appropriate within the context of the game, sometimes being way too intense for what the situation calls for.

Saint Kotar will surely be a polarising game that shouldn’t be written off but is impossible to fully recommend. It’s unpolished in many ways, but like other Eurojank games these qualities can actually make it more endearing rather than less. I think the reason it works so well here is that the town and its inhabitants are so bizarre already that any other weirdness just slots right in. There’s not much in the way of puzzles to speak of, but the game makes up for it with branching paths, optional content, and a plot that whips along at a satisfying pace throughout its six or so hours, never feeling like a slog. The atmosphere is impeccable (reinforced by the aforementioned oddness), with moments of solid writing and stylish art occasionally shining through. Even with all its flaws I enjoyed my time with the game, but for those averse to sitting through an onslaught of conversations without being challenged mentally, it will probably require the patience of a saint.

WHERE CAN I DOWNLOAD Saint Kotar

Saint Kotar is available at:

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Our Verdict:

With its lack of puzzles, unapologetically bleak atmosphere and ungraceful presentation, Saint Kotar, will not be for everyone, but embrace it for what it is and you may just find it endearingly janky every step of the way.

GAME INFO Saint Kotar is an adventure game by Red Martyr Entertainment released in 2021 for Linux, Mac, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. It has a Illustrated realism style, presented in 2D or 2.5D and is played in a Third-Person perspective.

The Good:

  • Hauntingly atmospheric environments
  • Detailed world and nicely realised cast of strange characters
  • Quick-paced story progression
  • Lots of optional content and multiple endings

The Bad:

  • Patchy presentation makes everything feel just a little bit off. Clumsy and slow animations
  • No real challenge, and what puzzles do exist aren’t very engaging

The Good:

  • Hauntingly atmospheric environments
  • Detailed world and nicely realised cast of strange characters
  • Quick-paced story progression
  • Lots of optional content and multiple endings

The Bad:

  • Patchy presentation makes everything feel just a little bit off. Clumsy and slow animations
  • No real challenge, and what puzzles do exist aren’t very engaging
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