VILE: Exhumed Review

I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for games that do something a bit different. I have a number of go-to genres that I’m fond of, but every now and then, it’s fun to play something that doesn’t fit into a neat little box. I’m thinking of games like Pony Island, Papers, Please, and Donut County; you know, the kind of titles where explaining what you do in the game is harder than actually playing it.

Of course, the downside with that is writing about something you can’t explain is quite hard, and that’s why it’s difficult to know exactly how to review a game like VILE: Exhumed. The fact that there is a reasonable amount of spoiler potential doesn’t help with that problem, and then throw in some reasonably explicit content, and I feel like I’m going to have to apologise in advance for being a little vague over the following words!

The basic premise of VILE: Exhumed is actually quite simple to explain, thankfully. You are an unnamed person, sat at a computer, trying to find evidence about the disappearance of adult-film star “Candy Corpse”. The developer describes your mission as “browse through files, websites, emails, chat logs, and more to stitch together the consequences of obsession, misogyny, and entitlement.” Essentially, it’s a horror mystery; Agatha Christie but with tits and blood.

Mechanically, it’s all about spotting little hidden clues in otherwise menial items. Household bills, spam emails, and idle forum chatter are all littered around, but are any of them actually useful? I found myself picking up on dates and words that were entirely irrelevant, but seemed like perhaps they might unlock another password-protected area, and reveal a bit more about what happened to the missing Ms Corpse. As you progress, you’ll start to unlock things that are a bit more sinister, and that’s when the true story of what happened is revealed. I’ll avoid spoilers, but the content warning on the game’s webpage (themes of sexual content, violence, and abusive and harmful language), along with its failure to obtain clearance for inclusion on Steam, should give you a clue that it’s not pretty. 

From very early on in the game, it’s pretty clear that you’re sitting at the computer of an incel. There’s a lot of crass talk and objectification of women, both the stars of pornographic films, and ones in the antagonist’s real life. I got the impression that the point was trying to be made that perhaps not everyone in the world is as respectful of their fellow humans as would be optimal. It’s fair to say that the attitude of some men towards women — especially those who choose not to be chaste and angelic — has been something of a talking point lately. TV shows like Adolescence and The Handmaid’s Tale have been provoking a lot of conversation, and it feels like Final Girl Games is trying to spark the same discussion.

I’m not sure, however, that the point is really brought across as well as it could have been. For me, the mark of a good antagonist is that there’s some kind of redeeming or intriguing quality. Sadly, the suspect who owns the computer has neither. They’re angry, entitled, and overly rude, and their obsession with violent pornography is just downright creepy. Their entire personality seems to be misogyny, and they come across as quite two-dimensional. Perhaps that’s entirely the point, but it’s a very “blunt instrument” style of storytelling, and I wasn’t much of a fan. 

The other problem that hinders attempts to really make a serious point is the extremely short length. I have two point six hours on record now, and I’ve seen the end credits four times. To make matters worse, those credits come out of nowhere. On my first playthrough, I was assuming I was nowhere near the end of the game, as there were still multiple password-protected areas I’d not yet accessed. Because I had accessed one particular area, however, it triggered a cutscene the moment I opened an otherwise innocuous-looking email, then the credits rolled, and the only option I had was to exit the game. It doesn’t even go to a main menu, so you can start another playthrough; I ended up back at my desktop.

That final cutscene doesn’t really tie up any loose ends; we kind of know what happened to Candy, but we have no more idea of what happened to the antagonist than we started with, and we also don’t know if anyone will get comeuppance for any wrongdoings. There’s no indication of exactly who we are and why we are on the person’s computer, what we’re going to do with the information, or why we even wanted it in the first place. It just feels like an interesting idea that burns out before it really gets started. 

Whilst I didn’t completely fall in love with VILE: Exhumed, I do appreciate the developer trying to do something different. The presentation style is great, and it absolutely nails the found-footage horror style that it’s going for. It’s a good game, but I feel like if there was just a bit more substance, then it would be a great game. This, of course, is offset by the donationware style release as a Creative Commons game, so I would still recommend playing it.