Whether it’s the raging fury of a restless sea or the isolation that comes with being trapped on a floating skyscraper in the middle of nowhere, I’ve always found ocean liners to be inherently spooky. Add monsters and cultists to the mix, and you’ve got a recipe for a kick-ass horror game. That’s why I was immediately interested in Influsion Inc’s SENARA: The Sacrament, as titles like Cold Fear and the Dagon level from 2005’s Call of Cthulhu have imbued me with a lifelong fascination for games set on derelict ships.

Inspired by classic survival horror and taking place in a single interconnected location modeled after a real transatlantic vessel, the South Korean-produced SENARA initially appears to be the perfect game for thalassophobes wanting to test their limits. Unfortunately, the experience begins to fall apart at the seams once you look past the shiny surface.

In the game, players take on the role of a survivor who wakes up inside an ocean liner that has been overrun by homicidal cultists. After meeting up with the wounded captain of the derelict vessel, you soon realize that an emergency helicopter is your only chance at escaping from the horrors that the cultists plan to inflict on the ship as part of an eldritch ritual. From there, players will have to explore meticulously recreated environments while solving classic survival horror puzzles and facing terrifying pursuers – some of which are less than human!

First impressions here were remarkably solid, with the graphics and presentation looking far beyond what you typically see among low-budget genre fare. The setting itself is appropriately massive and believable, with the locked doors and eerily lit hallways making it feel like you’re really trapped aboard a modern-day ship with no hope of rescue. And while the realistic nature of the architecture/level design means that traversal can get rather repetitive, there’s an inherent claustrophobia to the exploration here that you don’t really get in the more fantastical settings of games like Resident Evil.

It was only when the larger story and enemy encounters came into play that I began to question the polish behind this initially captivating experience. For starters, the very idea that you need to pay for a rescue helicopter in advance (with hidden treasure, no less) in order to escape the ship alongside the captain is ridiculous even for a genre known for its B-movie influences. I also find it hard to believe that the cult could have secretly organized such a large-scale coup before the ship hauled anchor, but I could easily have overlooked these narrative issues if the gameplay was as well-crafted as the overall atmosphere.

Unfortunately, my very first enemy encounter was already bugged as the ship’s chef came rushing at me with a butcher’s knife like a homicidal Sonic on steroids. No amount of sneaking around could get past his obviously over-accelerated reaction times, and the horror of the experience was soon replaced by frustration as I was forced to rewatch the same death animation over and over again. While I could chalk up a single buggy encounter as bad luck, the experience left enough of a sour taste in my mouth that I began to notice other blemishes lurking behind SENARA’s glossy façade, with the combat/stealth sections being only a small part of what really bothers me about the experience.

From what I can tell, most -if not all- of the in-game artwork was produced through generative AI (some of which was even scaled to the wrong resolution). Not only that, but many of the visual elements that aren’t related to the admittedly impressive simulation of the ship appear to be stock assets that never quite gel into a cohesive art style. That’s not even mentioning minor hiccups like the game’s seemingly arbitrary decisions about which moments deserve voice-acting and which don’t, or the fact that you more or less understand what’s going on in the story after a mere half-hour of rummaging through epistolary notes.

I won’t go so far as to accuse the writing team of using generative AI to pen the title’s narrative -especially since Influsion Inc. touches on legitimately interesting ideas like comparing modern-day religious fanaticism to Lovecraftian horror- but it feels like a wasted opportunity when the developers relegate the story and world-building to generic notes like what you’ve seen in every other horror title.

Thankfully, things pick up quite a bit once you’re armed and have collected enough ammo to properly deal with the game’s small collection of enemies, provided that their AI has finally decided to work. There’s nothing spectacular about the shooting here, and one might argue that the satisfying first-person action sabotages any horrific intent, but putting down cultists and Lovecraftian abominations is surprisingly fun after spending so much time going through bags and drawers.

At the end of the day, if you can excuse the blatant use of AI, there’s nothing catastrophically wrong with SENARA: The Sacrament. I’d even argue that most of the technical issues will likely be patched out in the coming days, and no amount of nitpicking can undo the title’s genuinely effective atmosphere. The problem is that the game doesn’t really offer anything new. Behind the high-def visuals and serviceable gameplay is a hodgepodge of ideas we’ve seen executed better before.

That’s why I’d only recommend purchasing this one if you’re tired of replaying the same old watery horror classics – though the deja-vu might be a little jarring.

Review code provided by publisher. SENARA: The Sacrament is available now on PC via Steam.