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.

The last game from the minds behind classics such as Blood and F.E.A.R.
Betrayer is full of fresh ideas like FPS gameplay with fairly authentic 17th century weapons, unique American colonial setting and heavy emphasis on audio-based exploration. It should be shamelessly copied because of all the untapped potential.
If you're playing for the first time, I recommend unbinding the map key or at least disabling all map markers from the get go for maximum fun.

get this fun sandbox first person rpg for free here:
it got permanently pulled from steam if you've found this.

Be a ghost detective and shoot skeletons with muskets & bows! Unfortunately all these ex-Monolith devs got to make, and possibly a little less complete than originally intended. But certainly one of my favorite game experiences. Though the story is all extremely heavy subject matter.

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.

Stylish game but quite buggy.
Have to download another save from internet to get one of the achievements, because i lost some items after one of the game's crashes.
But I would still recommend it.