Out of the thousands of games that lie untouched in my Steam library, Forgive Me Father reached out to me beyond all impossible boundaries of the digital cosmos. It's tendrils wrapped subtly around my soul and it whispered to my subconscious. Only by installing this abomination would I be free from the unbidden thoughts that plagued my mind; the terrible knowledge that I was missing out on a superbly crafted FPS that had all the elements to become a classic of the genre.

Forgive Me Father is a story driven FPS with tonnes of style. The art direction is the first thing you're going to notice. It utilises a well considered blend of 3D level geometry and 2D sprites for the enemies, pickups, weapons and player characters. This mix of the two makes for some truly striking imagery, and it really is quite unique in appearance. Yes other games share the combination of flat and polygonal assets, but they just don't quite match this.visual impact. It really has to be seen in motion to be fully appreciated.

The gameplay is as you would hope, fast and fluid. Combat is visceral and relentless. There is rarely any lull in the action, and if you haven't been fighting any hordes recently, you can be sure there is an ambush waiting around the next corner.

The weapons are all nicely rendered and animated. They are all useful and much like Doom 2016 and Eternal, you will need to switch between them as the situation dictates. Automatic weapons are good for crowd control, the shotgun is essential against the heftier enemies, and there are some absolute beasts of guns which are best left until all hell has literally broken loose. Given the unrelenting number of enemies, it's nice to note that ammunition is plentiful, at least on normal difficulty.

Each character also has a selection of abilities at their disposal. The priest uses a selection of artefacts and relics to heal himself, stun enemies, and gain either invulnerability or unlimited ammunition for a short period of time. The journalist has a camera, a voodoo doll and a selection of "special cigarettes" which allow her to slow down time, enter a frenzy state and cause status damage to those around her. Whatever she's smoking, I need to get me some.

Skill points are awarded the more of the eldritch abominations you return to hell. These can be spent on a fairly robust skill tree which allows you to upgrade weapons, increase the power of your various items, add additional health and armour points and generally make yourself a mean motherf-ing servant of God.

Enemies come in all shapes and sizes, each more monstrous and unholy than the last. The first couple of levels will have you battling a horde of the undead. Generally a well placed headshot will dispatch most of these, but you will quickly have to change up tactics as zombies are joined by stronger, and stranger creatures.

The structure of the game is as you would expect: a linear progression through a number of levels culminating in a boss battle. There are five worlds in total, and most of these have at least four to six large levels. These are all pretty diverse, and follow a mostly logical progression as you follow clues to locate your missing cousin, and ultimately chase down a death cult intent on resurrecting a forgotten elder god. Normal day at the office stuff.

The story is pretty out there, and is told through a mix of cutscenes (at the start of each new world) and plenty of diagetic information that you glean from your surroundings. There are several plot threads left unravelled, but it's not to be taken too seriously.

Sound design is great. The guns all sound suitably vicious, the various shambling monstrosities have great idle, active and death effects. There is an unseen narrator during some of the story beats who is great and both the lead characters give strong performances. For all the haters on the journalist out there, you obviously haven't spent enough time with the character. By the time I had played through a handful of levels, I was absolutely on board with my doped up valley girl.

The music is absolutely incredible. I'm pretty sure every single level has it's own theme, so that's around forty tracks.. I am listening to the soundtrack as I type this, to remind myself of how good I felt blasting mutants and harpooning fishmen in the face. I'm not very familiar with the composer Tim Fialka, but he certainly shreds along with the best of them. Nice mix of metal and orchestral which calls to mind the work of Mick Gordon on the recent Doom games. The music is fairly reactive and the more you kill, the more intense it becomes.

I had an absolute blast during my initial playthrough and was amazed at the generosity of the game in terms of scale and scope. Huge levels, hundreds of enemies to slay, a good arsenal of weapons, two characters with subtly different playstyles and an immense soundtrack to really keep the adrenaline levels high.

On a second playthrough I will admit to finding a few faults, but most of them are really rather minor and pedantic in nature.

While there are secrets to be found in every level, exploration is not really encouraged and there are areas which seem like they are trying to get your attention but are simply non interactive.

The levels do not always flow in a logical manner, and there are times when you start a new level in a way that doesn't make narrative sense. It's a really small problem, but one that took me out of the experience the second time around.

Also, I forgot just how tough the game is. Like I say, it's pretty relentless and there are some minor platforming sections which absolutely had me screaming at the screen, at the walls, at my keyboard and at the developers. I didn't mean any of it though, I promise.

For real masochists, there is an endless horde mode to enjoy after the campaign is over. I managed to get to round 22 on VERY EASY mode (because I'm old and my reactions are slow, don't you judge me you whippersnapper) and even that was pretty hardcore.

A massive amount of top quality content and a lovely fresh coat of paint on the well developed formula which Doom began in 1993.

One for the "boomer shooter" heads to get wrapped up in. Lots of style and with the substance to back it up. I would say this is a pretty essential game for any lover of 90s FPS.

I can already hear the sequel breaking it's way into my unconscious thoughts...