Ludography
40/100
Players10 ratings
49/100
Metacritic4 critic reviews
More scores
Metacritic usersuser score
65/100
GameFAQsEasy
4.5/5
Player reviews
70% positive204 reviews
Steam Deck
Playable
Runs on
Windows, Mac, Linux
Price
US$2.99

Where to get it

Saint Kotar cover

2021 · Red Martyr Entertainment · Adventure · Indie

Saint Kotar

Saint Kotar is a psychological horror adventure set in an ancient rural town of Croatia. Take on the role of two godly men trying to unravel the terrifying truth behind the town's occult happenings and the disappearance of their relative. Find your humanity -- or descend into madness and death.

Released
28 October 2021
Platforms
LinuxNintendo SwitchPlayStation 4PlayStation 5WindowsXbox OneXbox Series X/S
Genres
AdventureIndiePoint-and-click adventure
Developers
Red Martyr Entertainment
Publishers
Soedesco
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Third person
Themes
HorrorThriller
Country
Croatia
Age ratings
PEGI 16GRAC 15+USK 16ESRB MACB MA 15+
Languages
Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian and 2 more
Time to beat
8hmain story13hcompletionist

About

Saint Kotar is a psychological horror detective point & click adventure game with branching storylines and multiple endings, set in a hand-painted world. Developed by Croatian independent studio The-Mark Entertainment (formerly known as Red Martyr Entertainment) and published by Soedesco, it was released for Microsoft Windows on October 28, 2021, Mac and Linux on September 2, 2022 and consoles, in both digital and physical forms, on November 22, 2022.

Players say

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The game takes place in the rural town of Sveti Kotar in Croatia, where two characters, Benedek Dohnany and Nikolay Kalyakin, uncover a series of murders that are connected to witchcraft.

The player controls both characters and can influence the outcome of conversations, plot and fate of NPC, by choosing different dialog options and making decisions. Furthermore, the player can discover more than 110 locations, find and use special items to solve puzzles and quests and unlock subplots to learn more about the lore and background story. Seven secret locations, if uncovered, give all of the above and unlock rare achievements.

Story

Two godly men, Benedek and his brother-in-law Nikolay, wake up in a house in Sveti Kotar after having nightmares. Together they attempt to find Benedek's sister Viktoria, who has mysteriously disappeared.

Development

The studio first started working on the free prologue to the main game Saint Kotar: The Yellow Mask, which was released June 18, 2020. It was described by The Escapist writer as a "strong foundation for an extremely creepy mystery". The game was written in English and was translated into 14 different languages. Its release was on the same day of the Kickstarter campaign launch, with the goal to show what the studio is capable of creating the vision they have for the main game and to attract players to back the project on Kickstarter. In agreement with publisher Soedesco, The-Mark Entertainment decided to delist it from all stores in September 2021, as it was deemed obsolete due to many technical and creative changes that were made during development of the main game.

Development of the main game was successfully funded through a Kickstarter campaign The campaign started June 18, 2020 where backers could choose from 20 different funding options, each with rewards catering for all tastes and budgets, some of which included a physical copy of the game as well as other various physical and digital goodies (all shipped as of January 10, 2023). By closing date of the campaign on July 25, 2020, and with the help of 1,163 backers, €50,178 in total were raised and the game was fully funded. On 6 July 2021, The-Mark announced the partnership with Soedesco, an independent publisher/developer/distributor founded in 2002 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to bring the game to PC and consoles.

Reception

Adventure Gamers gave it a mixed review criticizing its presentation and puzzles, but praising its atmospheric and detailed world, characters, story progression and optional content.

In a 3 minutes review video, Will Cruz of The Escapist, while not shying away from aspects he did not like much, gave it a mostly positive reception: "Being enthralled with the mystery and narrative made me appreciate all the title offers. (...) It's gritty, simplistic, and it doesn't shy away from its origins. If you're seeking a spooky narrative focused mystery game that integrates point and click mechanics, Saint Kotar might be right up your alley."

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Windows28 October 2021Worldwide
PlayStation 514 October 2022Worldwide
PlayStation 414 October 2022Worldwide
Xbox One14 October 2022Worldwide
Nintendo Switch22 November 2022Worldwide

Editions and related releases

Included in
Mystery Horror Bundle: Saint Kotar & Charon's Staircase
Downloadable content
Saint Kotar: The Ritual

Games like this

Collections4 collections

Years

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.