Forgive Me Father 2

Playing Forgive Me Father 2 brought about a sense of familiarity and utter dread. It’s a sequel to a game that came in 6th place on our end-of-2022 list and a game we still have fond memories of. The sequel, which I checked out earlier this year, felt incredibly old, and disconnected but brought about plenty of new sparks of creativity that had me massively hopeful. And now with the full release, I can firmly say that Forgive Me Father 2 excels in many areas, way past my expectations, and delivers a cracking boomer shooter for the modern gaming scene. But also shies away from the methodical nature of the original. 

But still, Forgive Me Father 2 is truly a brilliant shooter, and I’ll explain why.


Please Forgive Me Father … Again


Once again, we’re taken back to the era of prohibition, gangsters and the great depression as Forgive Me Father 2 returns the inky, cosmic horror. All the classic Lovecraftian elements are here, from waking up in an Insane Asylum, nightmarish ghouls from another dimension, and as many ravening mad scribblings on the walls as you can shake a dismembered arm at.

Right off the bat, there is much different here with a wider world of horror that’s interconnected by an insane asylum acting as our hub area, revamp upgrade and ability system, a great vastness of enemies and weapons, and voice acting! Actual voice acting!? Holy Cthulhu (and the voice acting is not half bad!).

Forgive Me Father 2 is bigger, more gruesome, crazier and creepier than before, but retains the inky horror charm but with a nice new coat of blood.

As for the presentation, Forgive Me Father 2 nails the inky horror vibes, and with some environments looking drop-dead stunning. Plenty of the environments are jaw-dropping, with magnificent scale and density, overshadowing the original game but a mile in some respects. I will admit that both games have their charms, where the first was more cramped and claustrophobic, the sequel is grander and presents beautifully haunting vistas for you to lose yourself in. It is a visual overhaul while remaining somewhat true to the original, as we still have inky, hand-drawn aesthetics, but everything is much smoother and brighter.

The original game had an inky, heartfelt charm magnificently crafted and worked some degrees better for the theme. I’m also a little disheartened as while animations, and drawings are excellent, I couldn’t help but think something was a little off when enemies die. The original felt more impactful when you hit and killed enemies, as animations would slow down, and you could feel the weight of your actions. Forgive Me Father 2 is a lot more frantic and fast-paced, so in some strange way, you feel the action, but not in the same horror manner as before.

But other aspects such as sound design are great, the lighting is pitch-perfect, and the general unpleasant vibe is so rich and thick that you could cut through it with an otherworldly knife.


In for a penny … in for a pond of cosmic flesh … cthulhu fhtagn


Forgive Me Father 2 Does ramp up the nightmarish and brutal gunplay to a new level, while the original was more like a steady, but thorough corridor shooter, with the occasional arena blast out. The sequel switches that ratio around, with more frequent frantic gun fights where you’ll be side strafing, weapon swapping, and using the environment more dynamically to keep the upper hand. But there is the odd super duper horror moment, does reminds me of DOOM 3, where you’ll be winding up a torch to see in pitch-black areas. So there are still some great moments of slow-burning dread, within the whirlpool of blood and carnage.

It's more the classic boomer shooter vibe than the original, and it works incredibly well, largely down to the excellent level design, great enemy variety and the awesome array of weapons. Some subjective setbacks are present here, depending on if you fully grasp what Forgive Me Father 2 is pushing.

We have all the staples of the genre, from pistols, shotguns, explosives and machine guns in play, and all of these have different variants both more traditional and otherworldly. All varieties offer a compelling advantage to the battlefield, and you’ll make the most out of them all, largely thanks to the new loadout feature when you start a new chapter. This means you can change up and mix up your loadout to combine destructive efforts. Gone is the old upgrade system, which is a shame in many ways, as the old system made you go through tough choices on deciding what powerhouse version of the machine gun you would take to the bitter end.

But at the same time, I do appreciate the flexibility and, in some way, enjoy more the choice of a wider selection of weapons, rather than being limited in a playthrough. And it works better as the guns are so awesome overall, and I love the amazingly weird reload animations the otherworldly guns have. They’re truly a visual treat.

Gunplay is incredible when everything clicks, with the cool weapon roster, excellent and tight level design, and the resource management will ramp up a lot meaning you have to switch up your weapons and tactics often enough but not too often. And while many elements from the original do show up, such as the red barrels that come to life, there are new additions to push the combat and stress factor to an immense standard.

Forgive Me Father 2 not only throws more hordes at you but massive projectiles, akin to a typical bullet-hell game. The pressure from the enemy side has been multiplied since the last game, but how you move and react hasn’t improved. I was thinking “I’m sure a dash or temporary shield perk will appear soon” and it never did. This was a shame as something like DOOM Eternal does it right, by having faster combat, but also makes you fast as well. Not in Forgive Me Father 2 sadly …

But instead of any movement improvements, or branching upgrade system, we get the Dark Tomes, which offer passive abilities and active ones when you enter the madness mode. There are a ton of these to find and use, providing you with effects such as health regeneration, extra damage, and so forth. It’s a solid system that grants you that extra boost when needed in the heat of combat, especially with the tomes that give you health back and deal an increased amount of damage, while a passive ability to be able to charge your light faster does also come in handy.

Again, it’s a solid system, but does limit how you approach a fight or tough situation compared to the original. The first Forgive Me Father only had 4 abilities, but you could use any one of these in larger combat situations and have more freedom in how you dynamically engage in them. More importantly, you could upgrade each of these abilities to become even more insanely powerful and this advanced the tactical side of combat.

The new system could overshadow the old, but you can only equip 3 abilities, and nothing stood out for the passive or active. They’re generally of good use, but I would have liked perks that were riskier, even completely mad like, you can kill enemies with one shot, but they can kill you in one shot too.

As I said, the system is solid and works well for this gameplay style in the sequel, but the original felt a lot more engrossing and fleshed out the tactical nature of combat with forward thinking and consideration.

Does that mean the combat suffers? No!

The fast, frantic notion of gunplay and enemy interaction is compelling and switches up enough to bring you moments of dread, but plenty of full-on forceful, visceral gore fests that will have you in cold sweats. The level of variety and design is fantastic, and I loved the complexity and multilayered nature of many locations. One of my favourite levels from the early preview was a Resident Evil-style mansion, where I needed multiple keys to open doors and progress to the end. There are several locations like this in the final game, and they’re all excellently crafted.

There are massive sprawling outdoor levels, such as the trenches which infuse fast-paced action, and massive hazard areas where artillery shells are dropping down on you and putting you deep down in a dark bunker where enemies wait in the shadows for you. The pacing overall is phenomenal, as I never felt any part of the game drag or be too frantic for my liking. Even towards the end which hosts several massively intense gauntlets, I never felt like it went on longer than it should.

While some of the more engaging and dynamic elements of the original game have been removed, they haven’t been replaced with anything bad. I would have loved a deeper skill tree system, madness mechanic and more, but what we get in the sequel is a tighter, more refined core gameplay system, and excellent pacing throughout that I simply was so absorbed and loved being able to flex my playstyles with a range of neat weapons and skills. And while I do wish the Dark Tomes system was a little more complex or grander in scale, it still offered some nice tactical components to my strategies.


Overall?

It honestly felt like not that long ago when the original game came out, so my initial thoughts on Forgive Me Father 2 were of concern. Will this sequel live up to a game that made it into our top 10 of 2022 games?

And the answer is a confident yes!

I will acknowledge that those who loved the deep skill tree, and madness perks will be sorely disappointed as the sequel refines them in a mainstream manner, but makes the core gameplay overall much more approachable, still vastly enjoyable, and flexible without gatekeeping. Forgive Me Father 2 just astounded me too, for its incredible pacing, tightly woven action, flexibility and variety of weapons and perks, and retaining that vibrant and cool inky horror vibe without steering away from the heart of the original.

In the end, Forgive Me Father 2 is a remarkable, and immensely entertaining shooter the developers should be proud of. And one that any fan of the original and the genre needs to add to their gaming collection as soon as possible.


Forgive ya gnaiih 2 ah ahorr'eog recommendation hup c'


++ Looks and sounds incredible
++ Insanely rewarding, flexible and brutal gunplay and combat
+ Level design and pacing is excellent
+ Lots of fun set pieces, locations and guns
+ Weapon reloads are beautiful


- Some of the original’s charm in the presentation is gone
- Lacking any deep, complex gameplay systems
- Movement could have been improved 




Fulqrum Publishing kindly provided a review key for Forgive Me Father 2.