Betrayer

This game made by former Monolith employees had everything going for itself
Striking visuals, original gameplay blending elements of stealth, RPG and FPS, a unique setting, a wonderful narrative
You can tell a lot of effort went into this
It flopped and got delisted
sometime I wonder if we don't deserve the industry we got after all

All I really ever knew about this game was that it was in black and white and had some cool spooky skeleton artwork for its teaser materials. Well, now that I finally got to it a decade after buying it (finishing my other doctoral backlog), I do have a much fuller understanding of what Betrayer is and what it has to offer, though in some ways the game does not seem to know whether it wants to be a short hybrid adventure/FPS or a moderately involved RPG/FPS, The combats are more numerous and difficult than you would expect from anything less than a dedicated shooter, yet that kind of conflicts with the overall vibe that the game is really about exploring a surreal and disturbing 17thish-century world and uncovering the secrets and sorrows all around you.

Though I will say that the game either does not explain or I just totally missed that there is a healing system, so little surprise that I felt like I had to turn on my peak FPS commando abilities just to survive since I was not using one of the primary abilities to mitigate combat difficulty until the very end of the game when I discovered it by mistake. Oops!

Another thing that struck me as fairly weird is that the game missed the opportunity to drop its black-and-white vibe at the end of the game when it would have been really effective (in my opinion, obviously, which I formed by the fact that I experimented with reducing the black-and-white effect and found the ending very dramatic as a result), but overall I do appreciate its effort to integrate its style with substance, more or less succeeding overall. Plus the sound design is phenomenal; I cannot think of many other games where I almost feel a breeze when hearing the wind picking up (helped by the foliage only moving in response to said wind), or where the antagonist sound effects are genuinely disturbing, or indeed where the simple act of ringing a bell is so fundamentally impactful that I looked forward to it every time.

Inspired by a question from someone who saw me playing Betrayer and asked if it had any similarity to games like Alan Wake, I thought to myself that there was definitely something to that--like Alan Wake, the game featured intriguing narrative and mystery and was dripping with atmosphere and really absolutely 100% needed someone to cut down on the combat or make the game shorter (or possibly both). But I would still overall recommend anyone check out Betrayer who is into spooky atmospheric FPSs, as elements of the game will certainly stick with you. Though reading the discussion forums makes it sound like the game is no longer available on Steam which admittedly makes picking it up a little more challenging.

It is sad you cant get this game anymore. It plays a lot different than most games and the stories give you that one more mission feeling. It is like a detective style in some ways, a open word action, an actualy great shooter, and a sneaking game. Not much is handed to you and the missions can get hard and confusing/challenging. But it is an amazing style and game overall and could have gone pretty far.
Update 9/7/24: I just finished it. About 30 hours to 100% without the kill grinds which I will mop up today.
The story was awesome. Don't skip anything, read everything and try to invest yourself into the characters. It touches some dark topics and really hits thing like grief, depression, and sorrow well. And many other dark situations of cowardice and abandonment. I don't know if there are multiple endings, it seems like there is a choice but I couldn't make that choice. I did cry at the end, but only for a minute... It is obvious they had plans for a second game. But the ending I got can be taken a few different ways. After some research I found the game if free on GOG. The combat is really well done and feels tight like CS with bows. The game did crash multiple times and one time crashed in the middle of my save yesterday when I was almost finished. It corrupted the save but I was able to fix it by just renaming the corrupt save to "game.sav".
I would recommend it to anyone who want a nice open world game with lite detective work who can handle dark tones. If you like to read and like more psychological horror than jump scare horror this game is awesome. The only real 'jump scares" are sounds at first but once you understand how important sound is for combat and gameplay the sounds become more mechanics than scares. Headphones recommended for sure.
Great game! I hope somehow they can build off of this idea to make a bigger game but seeing as its ten years old I sadly don't know. But for a single game experience it holds up well and has replay potential.

Betrayer is a different sort of game, a good balance of difficulty and an interesting story. There is a fair bit of fetch quest and running around but on the whole i quite enjoyed it. It would be nice if there was more variation or a reason to play it again once completing it, but actually there's not enough short enjoyable games. It is what it is. I would recommend it if you're interested in something different and a short, quick to pick up and play game.

Of all the Games in my Steam Library, this is the only game I've ever bothered to score every single Steam achievement. Maybe Steam achievements mean nothing, but that's how into this game I was back when it came out. I would be playing it anyways, so the harder Steam achievements gave me arbitrary specific goals to chase after.
Don't expect cinematic cutscenes, award winning dramatic guest appearances by A-List Hollywood actors, or a fuck ton of game mechanics. You won't understand what the hell is going on if you're a person who can't or doesn't have the attention span to read.
But the game looks great, if you bother to read it out, the story leaves me satisfied, the stealth combat gives you goals and sets you free to go after them.
Yes, it is a bit repetitive, you are sorta playing the same game in several different maps, that's not unfair. Each time it gets harder and the level of resistance increases though. Several really bad enemies show up by the end, and there are a couple of situations where you have to fend off overwhelming assaults on your position. Betrayer is a gem of an overlooked indie release and I feel this game should have gotten a bit more time in the sun than it did. I would love to see a sequel.

Finally got around to this game, and wow... It's fun, and immersive to play it in the black and white and red mode, but you will be doing yourself a disservice if you don't adjust the color saturation at least at the end. Such gorgeous scenery and sounds! This is a must play, and the story is amazing.

Solid game with good setting & spooky vibes. Combat was a bit janky & it did crash a handful of times but definitely worth a play through.