What Have You Done, Father? Review (Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Switch & PC)

What Have You Done, Father? walks the fine line between blasphemy and reality, not with the intent to discredit the faith of others, but to embrace the truth that, priest or not, entertaining the presence of sin is unavoidable, even in the mind of a loyal believer. And that’s essentially what this short two-hour visual novel aims to illuminate: sin, internal strife, and a moral compass that holds all manner of power over vastly conflicting intrusive thoughts. The question is, is it a blessing in disguise, or a discredit to religion?

A psychological thriller at its core, What Have You Done, Father? presents itself as a short, gripping, and oftentimes erotic story-driven experience that aims to mince religion with harrowing themes of lust, rage, and forbidden fruits. In other words, it’s a far cry from a traditional piece of religious text. It bends the rules, if anything, to wax poetic with troublesome acts of bitter temptation. Oh, it doesn’t aim to shock you, but it does force a habit of making you ponder questions that you wouldn’t normally ask.

As Father Mathias Marton, a seemingly prestigious priest based “somewhere in Europe,” you begin your journey in a rectory—a place of worship, of spirited kin, and, above all, of intrusive thoughts that linger in the hearts of those who call it home. In this world, you are presented with a balancing act between your faith and your inner desires. A young woman yearns for a slither of spiritual guidance, but the priest, however, wishes to respond to sin in a proactive manner. In any other case, there would be an ordinary method to expel said sin. But here, bottled temptation doesn’t end in the lightest of circumstances. Death lingers, and the questions soon begin to run rampant.

In the two short hours that you spend with Mathias, you are given the opportunity to explore the rectory, converse with other priests, and analyze vital texts, photographs and other “risqué” materials. The goal, much to the point of a psychological thriller, is to unlock pieces of evidence that connect past traumas to the present. Locating a magazine, for example, gives you a small but seemingly important backstory about one of the former priests. And, without attempting to deflate religion, none of these stories are good here. Rather, they’re often morally dubious, corrupt, and sometimes a little disturbing. Your goal, in short, is to figure out who you are in this world, and how your own sinful mind works.

Between collecting various items and fragments of information, What Have You Done, Father? has you strolling the tight-knit corridors of the rectory and engaging in brief conversations. Granted, there isn’t a lot of player choice to be found here, given that each interaction that you encounter mostly involves taking turns to ask questions and essentially waiting for the final passage to unfold. But other than that, what you see here is what you get: a walking simulator that blends surprisingly striking visuals and light segments of horror with a fairly linear cinematic experience.

Sadly, there isn’t a huge amount of depth in the game, given that the lion’s share of your two hours is solely devoted to scrubbing every nook and cranny for items and other “beats” that can usher the plot forward. To add, there isn’t much of a challenge for you to juggle and overcome here. In fact, you can essentially breeze through the motions and mop up most of what the game has to offer in a single session. The only thing that might compel you to return to the rectory, really, is its collectibles, of which there are quite a few to unearth.

To call it a game with emotional weight to it might be a bit of an overstatement, though it’s definitely there — that lust for something that harbors a beating heart. With some convincing dialogue and a host of fairly relatable characters, What Have You Done, Father? finds a good balance between being a palpable voice for sin and a surprisingly powerful, albeit disturbing message that can leave a sour taste on the tip of your tongue.

There’s no denying the fact that, as far as religion-based visual novels go, What Have You Done, Father? is definitely one of the stranger passages in the book. Though, that isn’t to say that it’s strange in a bad way. On the contrary, its vast peculiarities are a strong suit here; it’s a concept that lingers on your mind long after you tie the knot on the plot and sweep its vast collectibles beneath the rug.

Although disappointingly light on gameplay, there is a surprisingly more-ish experience here that does just enough to keep you bolted to the inner circle of the rectory. With a hearty helping of memories to unlock, cinematic tidbits to spectate, and collectibles to find, the game clearly has enough substance to whet the spirits. And frankly, that’s all that you need from a game like this: substance in the midst of absence.

Verdict

While What Have You Done, Father? doesn’t exactly split the Red Sea with its blasphemous approach to psychological horror, it does, on the other hand, make for a surprisingly compelling visual novel thriller. It’s also a cinematically appealing game, too, in that it fosters some clean visual elements and an all-round striking atmosphere that you can’t help but mindlessly gander at. Gameplay-wise, it doesn’t do a lot to rock the proverbial apple cart. But as a self-contained story—a product that was meticulously crafted by a single developer—I’d say that it does just enough to keep you invested for the long haul.

If you’re all for unusual interactive tales that have little to no quarrel with the concept of delving into the darker aspects of religion, then you might just enjoy spooling through the crags and crevices of this rectory in particular. I wouldn’t call it the best game of its kind, but for what it’s worth, it’s a heck of a lot better than Church Simulator. Don’t even get me started on that one.