Oct 262026
Sometimes it takes me a while to get around to games. You might have noticed.
All the way back in 2017, I watched a video from Game Informer in which they played the start of a horror game called Unforgiving – A Northern Hymn.
I was hooked, especially by the ending, and I immediately put the game on my Steam wish list.
And then I played it… this October… for the first time… All right, so it took me a little longer to get around to it than I expected back when I first saw it in 2017. Nevertheless, I remembered the start of the game when I started playing, and I was excited to see the rest.
This is the style of horror game where you can’t fight back, which I found a little frustrating during some of the parts where roaming enemies can chase you (because they are persistent) but even more frustrating during a mandatory stealth section near the end. That section frustrated me to the point where it was no longer scary, just annoying.
Aside from that, it has some good scares and creepy moments. Although there isn’t anything too complicated in terms of puzzle solving, there are some simple puzzles and a mechanic with a harp that I really liked.
Once you get the harp, there are points where you have to play a melody based on runes. The major ones are stored so you don’t have to manually play the melody each time, but for some you need to look at the runes and then select the matching strings. It’s simple, but it adds a nice touch.
Your light source also comes in the form of matches, with a matchbox you can pull out to actually look and see how many matches you have left. Matches are plentiful enough that I rarely felt in danger of running out, so I ended up liking this mechanic, too.
(And it’s a good thing they’re plentiful, because I kept forgetting that left-click was “strike match” instead of “interact” so I lit a few matches by mistake.)
Meanwhile, the story is… fine. I wish it had multiple endings, and it felt like more could have been done with it. More interesting than the story itself is the lore. It has a lot of Nordic inspirations and folklore, with collectibles to find that shed more light on the creatures you encounter.
Unforgiving – A Northern Hymn isn’t a perfect experience, and it frustrated me at times. However, it’s got some nice lore and interesting features, so I’m not sorry I played it.