Thank you Winking Entertainment for sending us this game to review!

Devotion is another rare title in my Steam library that’s no longer available. The game was launched and pulled from Steam a week later due to some artwork that insulted China’s leader, Xi Jingpin. Hopefully, it will be re-released someday as the two-hour story is quite intriguing.

Most of this adventure-styled horror game is played from the perspective of Du Feng Yu, a Taiwanese father whose daughter, Du Mei Shin, is suffering from breathing troubles. Du Feng Yu was a successful screenwriter, but nobody is interested in is recent offerings. The mother, Gong Li Feng, was a successful singer, but retired to raise her daughter.

Between the medical issues, bills, and lack of income, there is some friction between the parents.  The mother wants to return to the film industry to help financially, but by doing so will hurt her husband’s pride.  She also wants to pull the family away from the religious cult that’s in the same apartment building as them.  When Western medicine was unable to help their daughter, he consulted Mentor Heuh and followed her advice since it worked once already.

The story is told by hopping between the apartment through three different years: 1980, 1985, and 1986. By piecing together the past, you can see a better future. Items you gather between the years can be carried through and used to solve various puzzles. For example, a combination lock is found on a photograph of a picture that you have to retake since the current version is blurry. Once the picture is perfected, you’ll have the needed combination.

Some of the story is told through the daughter’s perspective. She looks up to her mother and wants to be a professional singer like her. She’s obedient to her father but dislikes some of the medicine and religious practices done to her. She also considers him a liar because of a family trip that was canceled.

One of the more unique gameplay aspects was playing through her favorite children’s book. The visuals in that segment were very colorful and happy compared to the dreary and dark overtones of the rest of the game. In fact, the game is very unsettling and managed to jump scare me at least once.

Though most of the characters are depicted as dolls and mannequins, they’re still pretty creepy. Lots of blood is shown. Towards the end of the game, you control the father while he plucks out an eye and pulls out his tongue to appease the god, Cigu Guanyin. Such offerings should not be required from a god of compassion.

Other than those gruesome scenes, and an annoying chasing scenario, I enjoyed my time in Devotion. Though I’m not a fan of survival horror games, this one’s story was worth experiencing. Hopefully, it will become available again so others can see it too.