Just in time for Halloween, Forgive Me Father 2 allows players to descend into the deepest, darkest reaches of their minds and burn out the corruption within. A Lovecraftian shoot-’em-up, this game cleverly combines the dark and twisted visuals of the Cthulhu Mythos with timeless and well-executed shooter mechanics. In many ways, Forgive Me Father 2 is a straight improvement as a sequel, though there are a few areas where I wish it was more like the original.

I’ve been following Forgive Me Father 2’s development somewhat frequently on Twitter (or X, I guess, but I’ll never adapt) for the last year or so. When you start seeing screenshots of ghoulish creatures being blasted apart by scary alien weaponry, you take notice. Suffice it to say, it was effective marketing both for Forgive Me Father 2 and the original, which I took an interest in during my wait for this release.

Forgive Me Father 2 is a direct continuation of the first game’s story, seeing our priest locked up in a mental asylum after the madness of the Great Old Ones infects his mind. If you aren’t familiar with Cthulhu or any of Lovecraft’s greater mythos, including his stories and those inspired by them, you’re likely going to be a tad confused with a lot of what’s going on in the sequel.

Each level delves into the priest’s warped and twisted mind, reliving old memories manipulated by his madness or visiting forgotten realms beyond the stretches of imagination and shooting up hordes of freaky guys along the way. These levels can be as simple as an asylum or back streets in the early game while eventually evolving into realms of non-Euclidean geometry and ancient temples to forgotten and cruel gods. Either way, you can be sure you’ll be strapped no matter what.

Forgive Me Father 2 is perhaps one of the best examples of a “boomer shooter”—an unofficially named genre that takes direct inspiration from classic FPS titles like Doom, Wolfenstein, and Quake. There isn’t an exact agreed-upon definition, but generally, you can imagine an FPS game built upon the mechanics that popularized shooters before so-called “modern” shooters introduced a slower, more realistic, and cinematic experience: fast movement, a durable protagonist, accurate hip fire, and a lot of enemies usually make up games in this genre.

Forgive Me Father 2 is such a good example that, if not for the ability to aim up and down, I would have assumed it was simply a Doom engine mod. Its core gameplay is so similar to Doom, as is its use of front-facing, 2D enemies and level design. Pickups like ammo, health, and armor exist to keep you going against hordes of enemies—some melee, some with projectiles you’ll have to dodge—and you’ll find yourself fighting through them to grab keys that unlock the path forward. Generally, if you’ve played any of the abovementioned boomer shooters, you have a good idea of what’s in store.

To be completely honest, I found the gameplay loop pretty predictably repetitive, and it made moving through the levels boring at times. Often, what kept me going was more of an interest in the game’s art and story than actual enjoyment of the mechanics.

Another thing the game inherits from its inspirations is the difficulty. While not what I would call “Dark Souls” or anything intentionally frustrating, Forgive Me Father 2 often combined bullet-hell-y enemies with tight corridors to create some admittedly frustrating encounters. Tie this in with the game’s checkpoint system, and it wasn’t uncommon to find myself in a death loop, loading at a checkpoint only to be killed by an enemy right in front of me or fighting my way across a long section only to die before reaching another checkpoint, having to redo it all.

The power of the tome is where Forgive Me Father 2 generally deviates from its genre inspirations. These pages, discovered by completing levels and earning points, add both passive and active effects to our priest, introducing a bit of roguelike-perk-level diversity into the gameplay. These powers can vary from the interesting to the unimaginative (one such perk you begin with just makes you fire and reload faster). At times, I felt as though I would have preferred the skill-tree system from the first game, but I struggled to form a concrete opinion.

The gun mutations are probably where Forgive Me Father 2 becomes the most interesting. By picking up specific drops hidden throughout levels, you can evolve your starter weapons into more advanced, often eldritch and mutated, versions. These not only come with a neat appearance change but also dramatically change how the guns perform, allowing for some much-appreciated diversity in the gameplay.

While Forgive Me Father 2 is a fun title with excellent art and some wonderfully spooky Lovecraftian elements, I feel like the gameplay can be a bit too simple, repetitive, and even frustrating at times. While it is definitely a true portrayal of a beloved genre, I personally would mix things up by introducing more boss fights, power diversity, and maybe even more enemy types. That being said, you’ll be hard-pressed not to enjoy what’s already on offer.

Try Hard Guides received a PC review code for this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Forgive Me Father 2 is available on Steam and GOG.