Fighting games have one core purpose: to give you an outlet to pummel your opponent to a bloody pulp. All of the bells and whistles that come along with it are simply bonuses at the end of the day, as the core mechanics are all that matter. As more and more AAA fighters are released, we’ve come to expect a lot from this genre, but they are mostly all the same with the exception of one or two core changes. Mortal Kombat has its token fatalities along with the blood and gore that comes hand in bloody hand with it; Street Fighter has its never-ending stream of bars and gauges; Tekken loves to throw some completely absurd characters in the mix. Then there is Omen of Sorrow, which tries to hold its own with its cast of literary monsters and supernatural beings.

At its core, Omen of Sorrow serves its purpose, as it is a solid fighter that checks off most of the standard check boxes, all while keeping its creepy theme at the forefront. The actual combat is a bit faster than the average, on pace with the speed of the Street Fighter series, but feels more in line with an alternate version of Killer Instinct without the combos that last for days. This is a comparison that only becomes more evident once you realize there is a werewolf in both games, each having almost the exact same design and move-set. You also get the token gauges that build up over time – one for if you’re getting your Jack-o’-lantern smashed into the pavement over and over again, and another for when you’re taking on the role of the sidewalk as opposed to the pumpkin. With fights that last longer than usual, due to most combos not being able to be strung together beyond low double digits, it rarely felt like I was outright doomed at any point, until I was in fact dead.

There are eleven fighters to choose from, most being a loose take on an established literary demon, monster, or figure, such as the “demon hunter” Gabriel, who is only missing the Belmont surname. Most of the old-school horror icons are present, with an obvious lack of my personal favorite, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, or something along those lines. Each combatant fights with their own unique style, some of which are super easy to pick up and dominate with, while others are a little more complex. I wasn’t able to string much together using the standard quarter circle and back and forth style motions that most fighters use as their default move scheme, and fell within the standard go-to method for playing a fighter you don’t know – button mashing. This is something that I was punished for, both by the AI as well as my son who is a natural when using one of the boss characters in versus mode. One of the most unique characters is the mummy, as he can split in two and hovers above the other fighter, dealing projectile damage from one side while pummeling them from the other. As you can imagine, this leads to some balance issues, specifically with this character, as it leaves most of the fighters who are unable to spew projectiles at a natural disadvantage, one even the AI takes great glee in using as an opportunity to make you regret all of your life decisions up until this point.

At first glance, this comes across as an indie game that holds its own with its AAA counterparts, but it slowly unravels as you spend some time with it. The backdrops are detailed and have some mild animations that alleviate the feeling of fighting against a wallpaper canvas, but they lack the feeling of being in a real setting that you get when fighting in the market from Street Fighter II, or in the busy Outworld market in Mortal Kombat X. I found this more of an issue than it should be, largely due to how far out the viewpoint is, with the fighters taking up a really small space within the screen, almost like the developers wanted to force you to spend your time looking at essentially nothing. There is an almost complete absence of voice-overs outside of the female announcer, whose range solely lies on bored and angry. There’s also an extreme lack of modes, with arcade, versus, and survival being the only offline modes, and the standard ranked/unranked options being available online.

The character models fare much better than the backgrounds, as almost all of the characters look outstanding aside from some minor gripes, such as how the ultra-busty ladies have breasts that seem to have their own strange law of physics; they continuously bounce regardless of what is happening around them, almost like they are stuffed with one of those motion-activated Halloween decorations that are stuck in the on position. Additionally, a few of the characters, such as the demonic succubus-looking lady, look like they belong in an entirely different game from a past generation of consoles, as everything about her looks somewhat blocky and out of proportion compared to the rest.

The offline modes are what you’d expect, with the arcade option sending you all over the map by carriage in a way that evoked that nostalgic feeling of seeing the plane zip around the world map on the older Street Fighter games. Sadly, the extras end there, as fighting your way up the ladder and defeating the boss gives you an anti-climactic “Thanks for playing!” screen, not even one with a cool stylized depiction of your fighter, but one of the boss, and then the credits roll. I am not someone who really buys into the story modes that get shoveled into every fighting game released nowadays, but some backstory or lore for my personal favorites is always a nice touch. Online play is solid with super quick matchmaking and a stable netcode that was free from any drops or obvious lag, but sadly, as of this writing, the community is still on the small end – so small that all of my ranked attempts have been against the same opponent, as if we’re the only two ever playing this game.

Omen of Sorrow may not have everything that makes the bigger names in the genre stand out, but it is a solid fighting game that was released at a third of the cost. If you’re looking for something different that has the spooky theme going for it, you could do a lot worse; just don’t expect all of the little details that other games offer.

7 out of 10

Pros

• A Cast of Diverse Fighters from Literary History
• Stable Online Play
• Mostly Decent Visuals

Cons

• Some Unbalanced Characters
• The Breast Physics
• Lack of Modes/Features

Omen of Sorrow was developed by AOne Games and published by AOne Games in association with Eastasiasoft and Soedesco. The game is available for PC, PS4, PS5, X1, and XSX. The game was provided to us for review on X1 and played on XSX. If you’d like to see more of Omen of Sorrow, check out the publisher’s site.

 

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