You’ll probably run into one of two reactions to Dread Delusion’s visual approach: you either fall for its gaudy, throwback setting packed with glittering yet unflattering polygons, or you recoil and write it off just as fast. Still, I’d like to encourage you—don’t turn away. Dread Delusion is a game that’s intentionally nauseating, leaning into unsettling, jarring low-poly visuals that recall the late-90s era to build an atmosphere that’s meant to feel deeply, disturbingly off. It carries a light horror edge, while mixing in a touch of fantasy and a hint of sci-fi. And while the Oneiric Isles may be delightfully offensive in their own way, they’re packed with odd history and even stranger stories—so, two years after its PC debut, they’re now ready for console players to dig into.
Dread Delusion may seem familiar at first glance (if you squint, you’ll catch glimpses of early Morrowind), but it ultimately marches to its own off-key rhythm. There’s also nothing quite like the open world crafted by developer Lovely Hellplace: a suspended, dreamlike archipelago where powerful deities once held sway—until the locals rose up, overthrew them, and wiped them out. Still, before you step outside beneath its bruised-colored sky, you’ll need to shape your own storyline. You awaken in a grim prison cell and are guided through a sequence of striking origin accounts; the decisions you make for your character will affect what you can do in the present.
Maybe your tale began on harsh, merciless streets, where you clawed your way up to become a suspicious fixer—someone skilled at talking your way through situations where your nimble body or lockpicking might not save the day. Perhaps you were born throwing punches, with your fighting ability drawing the Inquisition to your doorstep, leaving you just as comfortable with arcane Ancient Truths as you are with violence. You could also be a modest apprentice who later turned adventurer, or a disgraced member of a noble line banished for occult beliefs, gaining advantages from the life you were handed. No matter which path you choose, one thing stays the same: you’ve been locked up for what you’ve done before. Then, an opening appears when the Apostatic Union—responsible for enforcing the world’s ban on deity worship to keep them from returning—asks for your help in exchange for your freedom.
Yes, Dread Delusion is an RPG, though it does something a bit different: with combat that’s fairly routine and often something you can avoid, plus a streamlined leveling approach built around collecting items, it turns your attention back to the storytelling. This is a game that’s clearly fascinated by narrative; as you move through it, you can feel that dreadful, wonderful surprises are waiting around every corner. Early on, you’ll find a village known for its remarkable mushroom tea, which can drive drinkers into their personal timelines—showing flashes of what they might become. You’ll take refuge in the Wobbly Noggin tavern, somehow named before a long-dead god’s head crushed a hole through the roof. You’ll also come across an illusionary castle where the ruler has chosen a life of nonstop suffering, all to keep his people safe from a monstrous curse. Along the way, you’ll meet an elite circle of skyward scholars, trade stories about mechanical monarchs and rebellion-fueled machines in a nearby clockwork world, and discover a place where the undead raise lifeless flesh simply to dodge the ethical traps of eating people—while the journey keeps expanding.
Dread Delusion is hard to ignore: it’s a sharp, layered world full of surprises that often feels like a grim fairy tale. The best part is that many quests are flexible, letting you tackle them in different ways that produce different results (and those skills you sharpened in a previous life truly matter). On top of that, there’s a whole stack of extras—an alchemical potion-making system, cartography, plus homeownership and decoration. And ultimately, you may even end up captaining your own customizable airship, which will absolutely scratch that dirigible fantasy itch.
So yes, I understand the hesitation. For some, even simply looking at Dread Delusion might feel like having their eyes scraped with a razor—but don’t let that stop you. Real dark pleasures await players on the Oneiric Isles, and what better time to jump in than right now, as the Eldritch murmurs finally arrive on Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch 2?