DaRmaZat Releasing a witchcraft-themed game during the Halloween season is a clever move, especially when it takes the form of a narrative folk-horror experience, with the tension of being hunted by your fellow human beings. Launching exclusively on PlayStation 5, Hunter’s Moon is the first title from new studio Twin Swans, formed by people who previously worked on The Stanley Parable and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.
In Hunter’s Moon, you play as Lilith Thorne, a young woman forced to flee for her life in 17th-century rural England. During the so-called Hunter’s Moon, a single night of full-scale pursuit, you find yourself hunted by John Purdy, who accuses you of witchcraft, village magistrate Anthony Talbot, and the ruthless Witchfinder General. Their men, carrying torches, roam the woods, the village, and the fields, hoping to catch sight of you and drag you away. Most of the time, all you can do is flee, cranking up the tension in what is otherwise typical walking sim gameplay. Other times, however, you need to find your way through pitch-black environments, making it genuinely difficult to figure out which path leads forward, or sneak through well-lit villages without being spotted by your pursuers.
Meanwhile, you can knock on as many doors as you like, but most villagers do not even bother answering. They are forbidden from doing so, as anyone who lets a witch into their home will also be arrested and executed. Naturally, everyone is afraid of that happening. Some cruel folk even go so far as to call the men hunting you, hoping to see you brought to justice. As a result, you gradually become more cautious, to the point where you eventually no longer dare to knock on anyone’s door.
Getting caught does give you another chance, however, as you can escape from the room in which you are temporarily imprisoned. After all, this is still a narrative-driven game where the story takes center stage, along with the experience of just how lonely and miserable it must have felt to be hunted and shunned as a witch. In that respect, the game succeeds brilliantly. The only downside is that there’s no manual save option, which is a shame, as getting the good ending really depends on how well you manage to evade your pursuers.
Despite the many side paths, most alternative routes turn out to be dead ends, which can be particularly detrimental during one of the tense escape sequences. Success is therefore largely a matter of making the right choices within the time available. However, the environment does help to some extent, as the level design is otherwise very linear. For example, you cannot simply push through bushes or walk between trees. You really have to stick to the paths laid out for you. Fortunately, the map is absolutely massive and varied. As you progress, more and more story details and lore also come into play. You uncover these details not only by eavesdropping on villagers, who appear as silhouettes much like actors on a theater stage, but also through books filled with beautiful illustrations that recount events in detail, albeit through unskippable cutscenes.
Personally, I found Hunter’s Moon unsettling in a way that is both unusual and impressive. On the one hand, the large full moon, beautiful stop-motion animations, and haunting music, often featuring operatic vocals, create a sense of unease and loneliness that perfectly reflects how Lilith feels. The only NPCs who speak to you are either people trying to escape the unjust, totalitarian regime themselves or complete outsiders. The latter do not know that you are considered a witch on the run and therefore treat you kindly. Often, these are people who simply ask you for a small favor, such as helping them find their child nearby or pushing their cart out of the mud. Doing so rewards you with a valuable item.
At the same time, you feel like a stranger in the game itself for quite some time, as you have no idea who you are, why everyone shuns you, or why some even want you arrested and sentenced to death. Little by little, you learn more about how and why things have come to this, and despite a few pacing dips, the narrative thankfully holds up throughout. The voice acting also deserves praise, helping bring the many village characters to life and creating a wonderfully immersive atmosphere. To round things off performance-wise, there are occasional stutters, but for the most part, the game runs very smoothly on the PlayStation 5 Pro.
Final Thoughts
Although some may find the limited gameplay and lengthy walking sim sections, where very little happens, a little boring, I think Hunter’s Moon succeeds brilliantly at what it sets out to do. The gradually unfolding storyline, striking stop-motion animations, and solid voice acting create a strange, unsettling atmosphere that hangs over the entire immersive experience. A few pacing dips prevent the narrative from maintaining its momentum throughout, but Hunter’s Moon still manages to capture the loneliness and injustice of being hunted by a fearful, superstitious, and unforgiving community.
Additional Information
Release Date: October 26, 2026
Reviewed On: PlayStation 5 Pro. Download code provided by the publisher and PR agency.
Developer: Twin Swans
Publisher: Twin Swans
Relevant links: Available the PlayStation Store.
