Saint Kotar: The Crawling Man is a completely different kind of monster and as far from the standard definition of a videogame as it can be. This is described as an interactive comic book, but one where your alleged interaction is limited to clicking to make the story advance. Without no dialogue options or branching paths, it is a linear experience that serves as a companion piece to the 2021 game Saint Kotar, and the first of a promised series. But is it worth the asking price, no matter how low it may be?

Cult Simulator

Saint Kotar: The Crawling Man tells the story of Rudolf Mojsek, nicknamed Mojse by the young children that he teaches. Living in the town of Sveti Kotar and devoting his life to God, the friendly and hard-working man would see his life forever changed as mysterious deaths and rituals started happening. With no children to teach and no need for a school, Mojse has to find a new way path and that involves going from teaching the young to leading grown men into the formerly banned forest of Karkasa and the ominous mountains to mine.

The story quickly takes a dark turn and Mojsek will see his fate drastically change. The rest of the tale is gloomy and contains some gruesome scenes, from mutilated legs to a person puncturing his own eyes with a flaming stick, among others. Nothing that any gamer with a taste for horror games isn’t used to.

The comic is displayed with some motion effects as the panels appear from various sides. Most of the time there’s a nice relief effect to the characters, adding an illusion of depth as you can see in 3D movies, but it’s more akin to the images you see sometimes in social media, where moving the mouse results in a slight distorted motion. Nothing too fancy, but the effect is welcome.

Sound effects are a nice touch and undeniably add a lively feeling to the scenes, with tavern music, pickaxes mining, crows, howling wolves, and the like contributing to the immersion.

The End

The issue with Saint Kotar: The Crawling Man isn’t that the story lacks appeal; it’s just that there’s nothing remarkable about it, no wow factor to make it worth your time. When it’s all over, you will probably forget about it in a couple of hours.

The “interactive” mention is what bothered me the most here. There is nothing to do but click to move the story forward, showing the next panel or dialogue bubble. You are not required to do anything else, and there were obvious opportunities for some interaction, if given the right consideration – clicking on a mug to drink, on a door to open it, a match to light it on fire… Simple interactions that could draw the player into the tale and make it feel more like a story where you participate, instead of passively watching.

After 20 minutes, you have reached the ending. The twisted tale of Mojsek is over – or is it just beginning? – and so is your time with this comic book. Was it worth it? The answer is maybe, if it was a free prologue for a full game; however, there’s the asking price of $3.99 / 3,49€ for Saint Kotar: The Crawling Man, which seems too steep for such a short and passive experience.

With some more depth, a few branching paths, and actual interaction with the panels, this could have been a good idea and a visual novel worth checking. As it stands, it feels like something that should have been offered as a free DLC to players who purchased the Saint Kotar game.

Pros

• Some quality artwork
• Fairly interesting story

Cons

• No player interaction at all, no choices, nothing but clicking to proceed
• It’s over in 20 minutes

Rating: 4/10