The Renovator: Origins review

With your father recently deceased, it should have been a simple case of entering his studio, grabbing a few belongings to keep as keepsakes, and then leaving. As you reach for the door handle to leave, however, you find it locked. How can that be? You just entered via the very same door! It’s inexplicable – and then other weird things start to happen. That’s the premise of The Renovator: Origins, a first-person horror game developed by Peace_Studio, a solo developer based in Russia.

The Renovator: Origins might not quite make the best first impression, what with its Russian-only voice acting and wooden character animations during cutscenes. You quickly get used to the former, however, and the latter isn’t that much of a big deal as there aren’t that many cutscenes anyway. Besides, minutes in, you’ll probably have other things on your mind, like who the young boy was that you just saw dancing in the studio, and why your father was spying on the strange man living in the apartment opposite.

Like the best horror games and movies, The Renovator: Origins captures your attention from the outset, giving you a simple task: get out of your father’s studio. But it’s a task that steadily grows more complex: as you move from one room to another, you’ll discover new puzzles and items that open up more areas to explore. And then just when you think you might be making major progress, the rug is pulled from beneath your feet, giving you yet more ground to cover.

Darkness plays a large role in The Renovator: Origins, with many of the areas you explore being devoid of light. Thankfully you have an old-fashioned lamp at your disposal to illuminate your way, but you’ll need to pick up canisters of oil for it. And you can collect matches, too, useful for lighting any candles or torches that you find. The problem is, these won’t stay lit forever. Is it just that they die out naturally, or is there some kind of supernatural presence that snuffs them out when you’re not looking?

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The lack of light here certainly adds to the tension and atmosphere created by your sticky situation and unknown surroundings. And it doesn’t help that you’ll frequently see things out of the corner of your eye, or hear things in nearby rooms. It’s unsettling to say the least, and in addition to these thoroughly effective attempts to put you on edge, The Renovator: Origins also features a handful of terrifying jump scares and a few encounters with entities that will have you running for your life.

It’s the puzzles here that are the genuine star of the show, though. One or two might be a bit obscure, but for the most part they’re logical and a lot of fun to solve as you cautiously move around locations, scared by what might be around the next corner. Some will even have you literally delving into your father’s paintings. And so, if you’re after a horror experience that will both scare you silly and tease your brain cells that you can complete in one sitting, The Renovator: Origins is highly recommended.