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I played this horror game on twitch and YouTube. Some of my viewers left because it was that scary to them. Let’s hop in our Wayback Machine and journey to a land that few developers venture to in video game settings. We are traveling to 1980’s Taiwan in Devotion, a first person psychological horror game by Red Candle Games. It was banned on Steam within 2 weeks of its release. More on that later. 

Devotion is set in the run down apartment of troubled screenwriter Du-Feng-Yu. He hasn’t penned a decent project since dinosaurs roamed the earth, and it shows. As a once award-winning writer, this is a real fall from grace as he struggles with the inability to be a provider for his family.

His internal struggles of possessiveness of his once successful, entertainer, wife, lack of income, ego, and conflicting views on parenting to his small child have caused a huge breath in his marriage. Not only do you play as him as he fights, his own internal demons, but you play as his wife, daughter, and something more sinister. The real horror is the breakdown of this dysfunctional family, where the home life is strained, as they deal with their own personal issues at various times in their lives. Thoughts and prayers. 

You also play as his wife, a former singer and actress by the name of Gong Lifang. She was that girl back in her day. It’s painfully obvious that her control freak husband is not only possessive, but he is jealous of her previous success as an entertainer. He doesn’t find it appropriate for her to wear so tree dresses now that she’s a mom and a wife, leaving her to abandon her career and take care of their ill daughter. She and her loved ones know that she could return to performing to get them out of this sinking financial ship, but his pride won’t let her. Next time, don’t marry the Taiwanese version of Beyoncé.

His constant struggle to write anything of value, let alone secure a job to support his spending habits also affected his daughter. It’s bad enough that his mother-in-law is sick of his mess, but now his daughter is physically ill from it. Literally. 

You all play as his aforementioned bedridden daughter, Mei Shin. She’s inherited her singing ability from her talented mother, and has hopes and did following in her footsteps as a singer. She’s even appeared on television in a singing competition, but has missed out on a lot due to her illness that her parents are having a hard time coming to terms with. She’s stuck at home with a creepy doll, feels as if she is constantly alone, and all of this has taken its toll on her. 

The family falling on hard times and beefing with each other is the real Jim’s pace, but there’s plenty of those in this masterfully done game as you explore the apartment building during various years to unlock the real story. Especially when it comes to a head, and his wife is ready to move on after giving up fame and a check to stay married to a loser. The things we do for love. 

He’s not only broke as a joke, but he’s hardheaded and bad with money. Instead of being a responsible provider and parent, he’s buying stuff they don’t need, and ignoring the recommendation to send his daughter to a therapist for her anxiety. All induced because of his grocery list of issues that he refuses to properly address as a mature adult with mouths to feed. Feng-Yu begins to follow the teachings of a cult leader, who’s not only a quack but a scammer. 

The fun doesn’t stop there, because it becomes apparent that her teaching that he’s been doing to improve his daughter’s health not only put a strain on his marriage and pockets, but it welcomes some unwanted presence into their home. It’s not the bill collector.  

The player explores the same apartment, only it’s labeled as different years on the same floor, and are found to be in varying conditions.  You can tell when his money started getting funny, based on the condition of each time period. 

You interact with random objects and collect some as you wander from apartment to apartment, solving puzzles as you try to get a better understanding of what’s really going on. It can be a tad bit difficult to figure out what apartment you are meant to be in at the time, and that can be a real time waster for the impatient.  

Then the s#%! Hit the fan, and things went from bad to “horror-fically” worse as he has to fight to save his daughter, while his wife has to make some decisions on her own, all in an odd turn of hellish events that seem to come from left field. Or from the shadows, and will scare the bajesus out of you.

I won’t ruin the rest of the fun for you in this review of Devotion the video game, but I do recommend that you give it a try. You can buy it straight from the developer’s website and download it for PC and Mac. 

This Game Was Banned on Steam 

The video game developers at the Taiwanese-based Red Candle Games drew their inspiration from the likes of P.T., and the award winning What Remains of Edith Finch—my personal favorite and first game that I streamed when I started my journey as a streamer. 

Devotion got banned from Steam a week after it went for sale due to its reference to the Communist Party’s General Secretary as Winnie the Pooh, and calling him some not so nice names. You know they don’t play that over there. 

The developers stated that their intent of this psychological creep-fest was about religious fanaticism, but its storyline touched on some real-life topics that are bound to scare the lights out of anyone who has a family that they love.  

I get asked if it’s on my YouTube channel often. Listen. There’s nothing on my new channel, but I will definitely stream it again, and toss some gameplay of this eerily stressful psychological Asian horror game on it like burgers on a grill. Here’s the official trailer, though!

Have you played Devotion? Devotion is an excellent horror puzzle game that doesn’t involve shooting. My aim is spotty, anyways. What’s your favorite horror game?

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