Forgive Me Father 2 — A Sinister Shotgun Ballet in Lovecraftian Hues

TL;DR

Forgive Me Father 2 is a bloody, Lovecraft-infused retro shooter that occasionally aspires to psychological horror but mostly leans into chaotic, visceral fun. It won’t terrify you like the classics, but it will make your bones rattle, your gun jam, and your jaw drop at the grotesque designs. If you like horror with a shotgun and don’t mind a bit of “rubber-suit cosmic nonsense,” this is a wild ride.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSb1AsnaAeU

You want horror, but not the kind framed in tasteful darkness and “artful ambiguity.” You want ugly monsters, dread, mayhem, and a narrator who whispers, “Hey, maybe the monster has better jokes than you.” You want CRIMENET siding with the monsters. This review is for people who like their fear garnished with sarcasm and served with a side of “did I just die again?”

Scare Factor

Let’s be honest: Forgive Me Father 2 is not going to make you soil your pants in the way Silent Hill 2 might. It knows it’s a shooter first, horror second (or horror on the side). Jump scares exist, but they’re more “pop-out cultist with tentacles” than “your own reflection whispers your name.” The dread comes in waves — flickering lights, grotesque mutations, and that creeping thought: “What did I just shoot, and is it going to shoot back?” While there are “dark sections with enemies popping out from nowhere,” the focus always pulls you back to the guns and gore.

If you expect deep psychological horror, you’ll be disappointed; if you expect eldritch mayhem, you’ll be pleased.

Atmosphere & Immersion

If visuals were a crime scene, this game would be overkill. It uses a hybrid hand-drawn/comic-book aesthetic with strong black outlines, stylized gore, and twisted architecture — everything looks like it was sketched by a Lovecraft-obsessed tattoo artist on acid.

Lighting and sound are good accomplices. The ambient tracks lull you; then the guitars and drums thunder just when you think you’re safe. The flashlight mechanic (you crank it manually) is a clever little tension-switch: you can’t just keep it on forever, so darkness looms.

Sometimes pacing drags — a long corridor, no enemies, too many notes to read, and your finger hovers over “skip.” But then the madness comes crashing back.

Monster / Enemy Design

This is where CRIMENET begins to side with the monsters. The enemies here are not cute. Tentacles, mutated limbs, grotesque heads, creatures that reattach body parts — they’re all over the place. In the sequel, enemy sprites now respond from multiple angles (not just fixed 2D facing you) and get a facelift in color and exaggeration.

Some are memorable, others feel like “generic spawn.” But overall: far from rubber-suits. They’re weird, they bleed, they slither, and sometimes they stare back with too many eyes. They’re the kind of monsters you’d invite to dinner — then scream when they cut the potatoes wrong.

Story & Writing

Don’t come here expecting Lovecraft’s greatest hits. The plot roughly places you as a tormented priest in an asylum, haunted by visions, trying to stop cosmic insanity.

The game leans heavily on notes, environmental storytelling, and fragments. If you like mystery and filled-in blanks, that’s your bag. If you want a coherent, linear tale, you'll feel like you’re chasing shadows in a funhouse mirror. Still — it does enough to support its horror and make you wonder: Is this real? Is this me? Did I miss a secret page?

Gameplay vs. Fear

Here’s the balancing act: you’re armed, upgraded, upgraded again, leaping into fights — but the enemies are many, relentless, and unpredictable. The game wears its “power fantasy in a horror skin” banner proudly.

You have the Dark Tome system: collect pages (active and passive) and use madness you accrue from killing to activate special powers.

That said, some encounters feel less “horror” and more “arena of bullets.” In those moments, fear recedes behind adrenaline. The horror element never quite overpowers the shooter mechanics.

Still, that tension between “am I powerful?” and “I might die in one hit” is present and meaningful.

Replayability & Variety

Do you get multiple endings? Not exactly — but you can play differently by choosing different upgrades, mixing Dark Tome pages, exploring secrets, and going for optional paths.

It’s not a roguelike with random scares, but the level design encourages exploration and deviation. Want to replay with a different build? Go ahead. Want to hunt every hidden room? Good luck, monster-enthusiast.

Length & Pacing

The main campaign is about 5.5 hours, with side content pushing it to ~9 hours; full completionist runs may take ~15.5 hours.

That’s modest in horror terms, but the intensity helps. The beginning is slower, building dread; mid and late game are fever-dream gunfights. The ending rush might feel abrupt to some.

Performance & Stability

Mostly solid, but not flawless. When many enemies, effects, gibs, and lighting clash, framerate stutters or dips.

On Steam Deck, users report framerates can drop into the 20s during heavy scenes.

Optimization isn’t perfect, but it’s playable enough so that you don’t rage quit — unless you’re picky.

Multiplayer / Co-op Factor

There is no co-op mode, — this is a single-player affair.

For a horror game of this style, that’s probably fine. Horror gets diluted when friends shout “behind you!” But imagine the monsters would laugh if you brought a buddy.

FAQ

Q: Is Forgive Me Father 2 scary enough to keep me up at night?A: Maybe, if one of your nightmares is “giant tentacle monster with a shotgun.” If your horror threshold is low, those dark corridors and sudden screams will haunt you — especially in the dark (no pun intended).

Q: Does the game work well on my crappy laptop?A: It’s playable, but when the screen is engulfed in monsters and effects, your machine might start sobbing. Try medium settings. Some users reported framerate drops especially during chaos.

Q: Can I cheese the game by staying in one room and unleashing the Dark Tome repeatedly?A: Ha! The developers thought of that — tome energy is limited; fights force you to move, manage ammo, and sometimes retreat. You’ll learn that standing still is a ticket to grotesque death.

Q: Is this just Doom with fancy monsters?A: Good question. It’s a “boomer shooter” lineage — fast, corridor-based, pickups, secrets — but with a dash of Lovecraftian flair. Some critics say it doesn’t reinvent the wheel. But for fans of that style, this is Doom meets cosmic insanity.

Q: Will I get lost in corridors and not know where to go?A: Occasionally yes — some levels are labyrinthine. There’s a switch-hunt level late in the game that reviewers flagged as confusing. But wandering is part of the scary fun.

Q: Should I skip this and play Bloodborne again instead?A: If you love elegant, polished horror, yes. But if you secretly want to be the monster, blast your foes, feel absurd fear, and mock your own death — no, you shouldn’t skip it.

CRIMENET’s Verdict

Forgive Me Father 2 is not “the next psychological horror masterpiece,” nor does it pretend to be. It is a ludicrous, bloody, atmospheric, tentacle-ridden, gunpowder-soaked homage to horror and retro shooters. It teeters between fear and fun, and often lands on fun — but that’s okay. Sometimes you want to blast cosmic horrors instead of tiptoeing through dark houses.

If you’re a monster sympathizer (as CRIMENET encourages) you’ll love watching enemies mutate, bleed, and scream as your bullets find purchase. If you like your horror served with irony, absurdity, and a soundtrack that makes your brain vibrate, this is a winner.

Will it terrify you like the best horror games? Probably not. Will it entertain you and make you say “what the hell was that?” more than once? Almost certainly. For the adult horror fan who wants something bold, weird, and chaotic — it’s worth stepping into the asylum.