Shadow Sacrament: A Resident Evil Inspiration with Untapped Potential

A Playtest Analysis of Design, Progression, and Survival Horror Fundamentals

Recently, I had the opportunity to play the playtest version of Shadow Sacrament: The Roots of Evil. According to the developers, this playtest contained only Act 1 of the game. Therefore, this article focuses on my experience with the playtest, my analysis of its systems, and my expectations for the final release.

The game was completed twice, once using a controller and once with keyboard and mouse. Both playthroughs took approximately 1 hour and 7 minutes to complete Act 1.

A New Horrorvania Inspired by Resident Evil

I first discovered the game while looking for freelance opportunities on Discord, where I came across an invitation to participate in a playtest in exchange for a game key. What immediately caught my attention was its clear inspiration from Resident Evil and its 2D Metroidvania structure.

After doing some research, I found that the game appears to be developed by Eldritch House, an indie studio composed mostly of Brazilian developers, in partnership with publisher DANGEN Entertainment. The studio previously contributed to the development of the RPG Elderand, and Shadow Sacrament itself has reportedly been in development since at least May 2024.

Their project aims to be a “Grim Horrorvania” focused on combat, puzzles, horror, and exploration. It heavily draws inspiration from Resident Evil, particularly in its inventory management and limited inventory space. Players take control of a detective sent to investigate a mysterious incident. As events begin to spiral into the supernatural, the protagonist is forced to explore an increasingly disturbing world while uncovering its dark and visceral side.

According to its Steam page, the full release is scheduled for 2026. However, based on posts shared on Discord and information available through SteamDB, the game is currently seeking playtesters, and a public demo may become available in the future.

Entering Hell

Upon starting Shadow Sacrament, the player learns about the disappearance of a nun. The protagonist, a detective, arrives at a church to investigate the incident. The narrative setup appears relatively simple: what initially seems to be nothing more than a missing person case quickly spirals into a nightmare, placing the detective in the middle of a growing horror.

• Your first task is straightforward: investigate the nun’s disappearance.
• Shortly afterward, the objective changes when you hear James screaming. Your coachman has vanished, leaving only a trail of blood behind, and now you must search for him inside the church.

One criticism I have concerns the lack of reactions and observations from the protagonist himself. Despite being a detective, he arrives at a locked church with nobody waiting for him and expresses no suspicion. Likewise, investigating James’ carriage does not trigger any meaningful commentary regarding the blood or what may have happened. While the game is still unreleased, these details concern me considering the currently projected launch window.

Teaching the Player and Establishing Core Systems

With the church locked and James missing, the player must find a way inside. During this initial section, the game introduces healing leaves and leaf upgrades, which function similarly to Resident Evil’s herbs by allowing players to combine them into more effective healing items. Players are also introduced to Resident Evil-style item combinations through a puzzle that requires combining two broken plier pieces to cut a chain.

Although the game is 2D, some areas use a closer camera angle that reminded me of Resident Evil’s fixed-camera presentation, even if that may not have been the developers’ intention. Regardless, I feel this perspective shift had the potential to greatly enhance the horror atmosphere, and I found myself wishing it had been used more often during tense moments.

As the game gradually teaches its systems, I noticed some Level Design and Game Design issues. The player receives a considerable amount of healing items and ammunition before there is any actual need for them. In my opinion, it would be more effective to force unavoidable damage early on, perhaps through a fall to naturally introduce healing mechanics and demonstrate the effectiveness of recovery items.

The same applies to ammunition. Giving the player nearly twenty bullets before obtaining a revolver with only five rounds of capacity feels like a major mistake in a game whose core revolves around inventory management and resource scarcity. I would still provide ammunition early on to build anticipation for a future weapon, but subsequent ammo pickups could remain inaccessible until the player obtains another tool, such as the axe or a key, creating more rewarding backtracking opportunities.

Crouching is another mechanic available in the game, serving three specific purposes that I identified: crawling through tight spaces, stealth, and avoiding attacks.

This is perhaps my biggest criticism of the entire game.

Neither the traversal, stealth, nor dodge mechanics are implemented in a satisfying or enjoyable way. Tight passages feel less like opportunities for interesting gameplay and more like artificial movement restrictions. I expected to use crouching to access hidden rooms, squeeze through holes while escaping enemies, or create tense moments during chases. Instead, these sections merely slowed down movement between rooms and made exploration more tedious.

Playing with a controller made the experience even worse. The developers mapped crouching to both the directional inputs and the analog stick. As a result, even slight movements on the analog stick often caused the character to crouch unintentionally, which repeatedly interfered with movement and combat.

Stealth presents another major issue. Its rules are confusing and somewhat unintuitive. To explain it as clearly as possible, enemy awareness appears to rely on two states:

• Open Eye: In this state, enemies gradually detect the player based on movement and proximity.
• Closed Eye: As long as the player is crouching, enemies seem incapable of detecting them, regardless of movement or distance.

Besides being confusing, the system lacks strong visual feedback. For example, the character does not visually blend into the background or communicate that they are hidden in any meaningful way. Furthermore, stealth does not allow for stealth kills or finishers, nor does it feel particularly rewarding.

During my first playthrough, I barely used it. It was only in my second run, after learning which enemies were annoying to fight, that I began using stealth simply to avoid combat altogether.

Safe Rooms Without the Tension

Like Resident Evil, Shadow Sacrament features Save Rooms containing interconnected storage chests, typewriters for saving progress, and, in some cases, puzzles, items, and weapon upgrade stations. These rooms clearly take inspiration from Resident Evil’s iconic safe rooms, but they are missing what I consider their most important aspect: rarity and cost.

In classic Resident Evil titles, players would usually encounter a Save Room roughly once every hour. This created tension during exploration, and combined with the Ink Ribbon system, saving progress itself became a strategic decision. Players had to think carefully before spending a valuable resource.

In Shadow Sacrament, I found four Save Rooms during Act 1 alone. This likely stems from the lack of efficient shortcuts, forcing the developers to compensate by placing more save locations. Combined with the absence of any saving cost, death simply becomes an inconvenience rather than something truly frightening. Instead of creating tension, it only creates the feeling of having to repeat content.

The main solution I envision would be improving shortcut design. Few things are more rewarding than traversing a large section of the map and suddenly finding yourself back near the beginning, right next to a Save Room. Another possibility would be allowing unlocked shortcuts to persist even after dying and reloading a save.

Simple Yet Effective Puzzle Design

Puzzles are one of Shadow Sacrament’s greatest strengths. They are relatively simple, yet executed effectively. I believe the developers also drew inspiration from Resident Evil’s puzzle design, which has always been one of the series’ defining strengths.

Shadow Sacrament includes straightforward puzzles, such as reading a note to determine which piano keys to play, as well as more elaborate interactions, like lighting a fireplace to reveal hidden mechanisms.

However, I found myself wishing the game made greater use of the player’s tools, such as the lantern or the pliers, when designing puzzles. Hopefully, future acts will explore these possibilities further.

High Risk, Low Reward Combat

Shadow Sacrament features a relatively simple combat system. Players can switch between weapons using the number keys or the controller’s directional inputs. Throughout Act 1, there are four forms of attack available: a stomp attack, the revolver, the shotgun, and the axe.

In my opinion, the stomp attack is almost unnecessary. Its main uses are killing rats and hitting enemy corpses, but neither action rewards the player in any meaningful way. At most, the protagonist will complain about ruining his shoes.

Combat constantly asks the player to choose between spending ammunition and risking running out of resources or engaging enemies up close with the axe. My biggest issue, however, lies with melee combat itself. Although the game includes a parry system, relying on it comes with significant drawbacks.

The player possesses three stamina bars that determine how many times they can parry. Once depleted, the player becomes completely unable to perform defensive actions, leaving them extremely vulnerable. This is frustrating because no amount of player skill can compensate for the lack of resources. Stamina can only be restored through consumables such as apples, which recover a single bar and become scarce if the player frequently relies on parries.

I feel that stamina recovery should be tied to combat itself, either through successful attacks or enemy kills. Interestingly, the game introduces rats that can be stomped on, and I couldn’t help but imagine a system similar to Dishonored, where killing rats restores mana. Such a mechanic would make combat considerably more rewarding.

The lack of alternative defensive options becomes particularly problematic against flying or ranged enemies. During my first playthrough, these enemies proved especially frustrating. Their projectiles are too fast to react to consistently with parries, and ranged weapons suffer from limited attack angles, making retaliation difficult. Technically, crouching can also be used as a dodge, but it often feels too slow, and attacks originating above the character frequently connect regardless.

Promising Encounters Held Back by Static Worlds

Enemy variety in Shadow Sacrament is relatively straightforward. Players encounter small creatures reminiscent of Half-Life’s Headcrabs, humanoid enemies resembling Resident Evil’s Las Plagas, flying variants, and a boss encounter during Act 1.

The boss itself is particularly interesting. Initially, it behaves as an invincible pursuer, chasing the player across multiple rooms. However, 2D games often face limitations regarding how enemies transition between areas. As a result, every appearance of the creature is accompanied by a ritual animation and dramatic music. Unfortunately, this effectively warns the player that the enemy is already present, reducing the surprise factor.

To increase tension during these sequences, I would prefer to see the creature lurking within dark areas, opening doors before the player can interact with them, and forcing route changes during escapes. Tense music should only begin once the player has actually been spotted. Such an approach would dramatically increase the adrenaline and suspense associated with both stealth and chase sequences.

Eventually, the boss is defeated using the church bell as its weakness. Once again, however, the parry system becomes the encounter’s greatest weakness. The creature attacks very quickly, and lacking parry resources almost guarantees taking one or two hits. The absence of any invincibility-frame movement further exacerbates the problem. The boss constantly retreats to prevent players from easily reaching the bell, creating a situation where the lack of a true dodge mechanic becomes painfully apparent.

Another aspect that bothered me during backtracking is the fact that enemies never respawn. I miss unexpected encounters that create fear or force difficult decisions when resources are low. In Resident Evil, players must burn corpses with kerosene to prevent them from returning later in more dangerous forms. Shadow Sacrament lacks that layer of uncertainty.

Similarly, enemies remain static throughout the game world. There is a memorable moment when an enemy crashes through a window to attack the player, but I wish the game took this idea further. Returning to previously cleared areas and discovering that new enemies have entered over time would make the world feel much more alive.

A Strong Foundation with Untapped Potential

Like most survival horror games, Shadow Sacrament revolves around limited resources and constrained inventory space, forcing players to constantly evaluate their next decisions. Act 1 introduces an eight-slot inventory, while promotional material has already shown inventory expansions that increase the number of available slots. Resources are distributed throughout the map, encouraging exploration and rewarding combat, stealth, and puzzle-solving.

However, I believe the game struggles with weapon progression, enemy rewards, and inventory management.

By the time players obtain the axe, they have already collected revolver ammunition. As mentioned earlier, this creates anticipation far too early. Worse, the revolver itself is acquired only minutes later, making the axe feel quickly overshadowed. Ironically, the revolver also suffers from the opposite problem: it consumes valuable ammunition without offering enough utility in return.

Its damage is acceptable, but firearms could provide additional effects, such as knockback, or perhaps even solve the previously mentioned issue of enemy persistence. Similar to kerosene in Resident Evil, bullets could function as a costly but permanent way of preventing enemies from returning.

Another major issue is the complete lack of rewards for defeating enemies. In Shadow Sacrament, combat simply allows players to cross rooms more safely, often at the expense of valuable resources.

A recent example of a more rewarding system can be found in Resident Evil Requiem, where Grace Ashcroft uses a Blood Collector to extract blood samples from enemies and combine them with other materials to craft ammunition, healing items, or permanent upgrades. Such a system would complement the protagonist’s detective identity, as specialized equipment and sample collection would feel natural for someone in his profession. The protagonist could carry specialized equipment used during investigations, introducing interesting choices between collecting samples, burning corpses, or even allowing enemies to return later in exchange for more valuable samples.

Inventory management also feels heavily inspired by Resident Evil Code: Veronica, but without incorporating the evolution introduced by later entries. One of the most satisfying aspects of Resident Evil has always been inventory organization, and Shadow Sacrament currently lacks that freedom. Players cannot rearrange items manually, removing much of the charm that even inspired countless memes surrounding Resident Evil 4’s iconic inventory system.

Item sizes and shapes, while perhaps unnecessary, would further enrich the management aspect and add another layer of strategic decision-making.

A Confusing Narrative

Shadow Sacrament’s narrative felt strange and somewhat unfinished. Perhaps this is simply a consequence of experiencing a playtest build, but the current result raises some concerns.

The protagonist is supposedly a detective, yet he rarely behaves like one. He makes almost no observations, asks few questions, and contributes little to the investigative aspect of the story. In many ways, the player feels more like the detective than the character himself. This is not inherently bad, but if the player never becomes the detective through gameplay, then the story effectively lacks one.

At one point, James finally speaks directly to the protagonist, and only then do we discover the main character’s name. The fact that such a fundamental piece of information is introduced so late feels concerning. It gives the impression that the detective archetype exists primarily for aesthetic purposes rather than being fully integrated into the narrative.

This conversation also presents an opportunity to emphasize the protagonist’s investigative skills, but that aspect quickly disappears when James admits that he knows nothing useful.

Another issue emerges immediately afterward. Once James dies, the story seems to lose its sense of direction. Initially, the player enters the church to search for him. Later, the objective becomes rescuing him, only for him to die shortly afterward. From that point onward, the boss begins stalking the player, yet no clear objective replaces the previous one.

Eventually, the game culminates in a battle atop the tower and the opening of the gate seen near the beginning. However, the story never explicitly states that defeating the monster is the player’s goal. The confrontation occurs simply because the player is trapped in the arena, and the church bell, the boss’s weakness, happens to be there.

After defeating the creature, players must discover and memorize the three symbols required to unlock the gate. Yet anyone who failed to discover that area earlier may end up wandering through an almost empty world, made even emptier by the lack of enemy respawns, searching for a destination they were never properly informed about.

Final Thoughts

Despite its flaws, Shadow Sacrament possesses tremendous potential, and I sincerely hope the final release lives up to its foundations. Given its clear inspiration from the classic Resident Evil titles and the passion already evident throughout the project, I hope to see it become one of those indie success stories that stand alongside the classics that inspired them. If Eldritch House manages to refine and fully capitalize on the systems already present, I believe Shadow Sacrament has the potential to become a memorable title among modern survival horror games.

Everything discussed here is based entirely on my own experience, opinions, and understanding of game design. I may be wrong, and my intention is not to discourage either the developers or potential players. On the contrary, this article aims to provide constructive criticism while introducing what is, at the end of the day, a remarkably ambitious project from a newly established indie studio.

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Play Act 1 of Shadow Sacrament too = https://dangen-entertainment.itch.io/shadow-sacrament-the-roots-of-evil-demo

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