There is something immediately captivating about Allogloom. It was the macabre art style that first caught my attention, with its peculiar marriage of storybook whimsy and grotesque imagery promising an adventure that might be as enchanting as it is unsettling. Developed by solo creator Galactic Ghosty, this point-and-click adventure wears its influences proudly, recalling a time when games were content to let their strange little worlds do the talking. Yet beneath its hand-painted beauty lies something altogether more sinister, a dark fairytale about the things we inherit, the secrets we keep, and the terrible cost of remaining somewhere you no longer belong. It is an inviting sort of unpleasantness, and one that makes stepping into Gruesome Grove difficult to resist.
Release Date: October 13th 2026
Developer: Galactic Ghosty
Publisher: Iceberg Interactive
Price: £12.99/ $14.99 USD
Reviewed On: PC / Steam Deck
* Access Provided For Review *
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Beneath its grotesque exterior, Allogloom tells a story about disappearance, belonging and the unsettling secrets that can take root in seemingly familiar places. Playing as Nora, you find yourself drawn into the mysteries of Gruesome Grove, a peculiar town whose eccentric inhabitants and decaying surroundings suggest that something has gone terribly wrong. What begins as a personal search gradually opens onto a stranger tale, inviting you to piece together the history of this curious place through conversations, environmental clues and the stories its residents are willing to share. The writing balances dark humour with a lingering sense of melancholy, ensuring that the town’s absurdities never entirely obscure the sadness beneath them. Although its narrative occasionally favours atmosphere over clarity, there is an undeniable pleasure in slowly uncovering the truth, with each discovery adding another layer to a world that feels as tragic as it is macabre.
At its heart, Allogloom is a wonderfully old-fashioned adventure game, built around the simple pleasures of exploration, observation and the satisfying click of a puzzle finally falling into place. Playing as Nora, whose search for her missing family draws her beyond the familiar confines of her home, you are encouraged to investigate every corner of the world around you. Objects are gathered, peculiar inhabitants questioned, and seemingly insignificant details committed to memory for some later purpose. There is a reassuring rhythm to it all, a sense that progress comes not from reflexes or elaborate systems, but from paying attention. In an age when games can be reluctant to leave players alone with their own thoughts, there is something refreshing about Allogloom trusting you to work things out for yourself.
The puzzles themselves capture much of what made the genre so enduring. Items rarely exist simply to be collected, and the pleasure comes from understanding how the various pieces of a problem might fit together. Solutions can be delightfully peculiar, occasionally demanding the sort of lateral thinking that once defined the point-and-click adventure, but they generally feel rooted in the eccentric logic of the world rather than arbitrary game design. Conversations, environmental clues and objects found along the way gradually form a web of information, rewarding those who take the time to listen and look. There are moments when the intended solution remains frustratingly elusive, and some stretches of backtracking threaten to interrupt the adventure’s otherwise agreeable pace, but these are familiar shortcomings of a genre that Allogloom otherwise understands remarkably well.
More importantly, the mechanics never feel detached from the story being told. Each new location introduces its own peculiarities, characters and obstacles, ensuring that the journey remains more than a procession of locked doors and missing keys. The mysteries of Gruesome Grove gradually give way to stranger discoveries, and the world expands in ways that encourage curiosity without losing sight of Nora’s personal quest. Its puzzles are not always particularly demanding, nor does the game attempt to reinvent the form, but that is rather the point. Allogloom understands that a good adventure need not be revolutionary to be rewarding. Sometimes, all it takes is a well-constructed mystery, a handful of curious objects and the freedom to follow a hunch into somewhere you probably shouldn’t be.
Visually, however, Allogloom is anything but ordinary. Its hand-painted environments possess the delicate intricacy of illustrated fairytales, drawing on Art Nouveau’s flowing shapes and ornamental flourishes before twisting them into something altogether more grotesque. There is a lovely tension between the beauty of its compositions and the unpleasantness of what they depict, with rich colours and carefully arranged details giving even the most repulsive creatures a strange sort of elegance. It is the kind of art direction that invites you to linger over a scene, only to reveal something deeply uncomfortable once you have looked a little closer. The result is a world that feels lovingly assembled by hand, its imperfections and peculiarities contributing to a personality that a more conventional horror aesthetic could never quite achieve.
That contrast between the charming and the macabre extends to the game’s inhabitants, whose designs are frequently as amusing as they are unsettling. The grotesque is rarely presented without a little whimsy, allowing Allogloom to find humour in its darker imagery without diminishing the strangeness of its world. Its creatures and environments feel as though they have wandered out of a storybook that has been left too long in a damp cellar, their beauty gradually giving way to something more disturbing. There is a particular pleasure in discovering how each new setting distinguishes itself from the last, although the sheer density of detail occasionally makes it difficult to pick out the objects that matter. Even so, this is a world worth exploring for its own sake, rather than simply as a backdrop for puzzles.
Complementing the artwork is a soundtrack that understands the importance of restraint. The music lends the adventure a quietly uncanny atmosphere, shifting between playful eccentricity and more sombre, unsettling passages as Nora ventures further from home. Rather than insisting that every encounter should be frightening, the sound design allows the imagery and writing to establish their own mood, giving the world room to breathe. Dialogue is presented through text rather than full voice acting, but the characters retain enough personality to make their conversations enjoyable, their peculiarities emerging through the writing and visual expressions. There are occasional stretches where the music’s absence becomes noticeable, interrupting the otherwise cohesive atmosphere, but the overall presentation remains one of the game’s greatest strengths. Art and sound work together to make Gruesome Grove feel like a place with a life, history and peculiar sense of humour all its own.
On Steam Deck, Allogloom feels particularly well suited to the handheld format. Its point-and-click foundations, relatively sedate pace and illustrated environments lend themselves naturally to shorter sessions, while the ability to investigate each scene at your leisure makes it an appealing companion for playing away from a desk. The interface remains readable, the default controller configuration is supported, and the game’s modest visual demands make it a comfortable fit for the hardware. There is something especially fitting about carrying this peculiar little fairytale around with you, dipping back into its unsettling corners whenever the opportunity presents itself. For anyone who prefers their adventures on a handheld, it is a welcome reminder that an engrossing world and a good puzzle can be just as effective on a smaller screen.
Verdict
Summary
Ultimately, Allogloom succeeds by understanding what makes a classic point-and-click adventure so enduring. It offers a compelling mystery, puzzles that reward patience and observation, and a macabre storybook world whose beauty is matched only by its strangeness. Its occasional bouts of backtracking and moments of obscured puzzle logic prevent the adventure from maintaining its momentum throughout, while its familiar mechanics rarely venture beyond the conventions it so clearly admires. Yet there is a genuine warmth beneath all the grotesquerie, and a clear affection for the sort of adventure game that trusts its audience to explore, experiment and occasionally get things wrong. Galactic Ghosty has created something with a distinctive personality, a game that finds wonder in the unsettling and comfort in the bizarre. Allogloom may not redefine the genre, but it understands its peculiar magic, and that is more than enough to make this journey worthwhile.
