This review contains spoilers.
KAMLA is an Indian horror game.
And essentially, it's a game of tag mixed with a scavenger hunt.
That's quite a good combination.
Especially when so many horror games are basically tag mixed with an escape room.
Granny is still a very good horror game, mind you.
Anyway.
Puzzles are still an important part of KAMLA.
But they're considerably less painful than the ones in many other horror games.
For one thing, the game makes it fairly clear what sorts of objects you're supposed to be looking for.
The puzzle mechanics themselves are relatively simple too.
So even someone like me, who hates puzzles, didn't have too much trouble getting through them.
Well.
I did have a little trouble.
But I think that's simply my natural condition.
Anyway.
Let's talk about Kamla.
There isn't actually a huge amount of elaborate horror staging surrounding her.
It doesn't really need it.
If Kamla catches you, she shoves that gaunt, almost feral-looking face right in front of you and starts screaming.
That's frightening enough.
Seriously.
She's just scary.
Try not to get caught.
I didn't find all that many places where I felt completely safe hiding from her either.
The most reliable option I remember was under a bed.
So if Kamla starts chasing you, find a bed.
Get underneath it.
Wait.
Problem solved.
Probably.
Something I did start wondering about, though, was how Kamla managed to eat, sleep and generally keep her body functioning while she was possessed.
A human body still needs energy.
It still needs sleep.
Being possessed by an evil spirit presumably doesn't remove the basic biological requirements of staying alive.
If that situation continued for long enough without proper food, water or rest, Kamla's physical health would eventually become a problem regardless of the demon.
Perhaps her family called for a Tantrik almost immediately.
The sooner somebody dealt with the possession, the better Kamla's chances of coming out of it in reasonably good physical condition.
Unfortunately, there is another problem.
Kamla ate some of the family members she killed.
Yes.
Cannibalism.
Obviously, it wasn't really Kamla making that decision.
She was possessed.
And the surviving members of her family clearly still wanted to save her.
But from both an ethical and medical point of view, this makes the aftermath considerably more complicated.
Eating human tissue is not exactly good for you.
Prion diseases are the famous nightmare here.
Kuru, for example, was historically associated with the consumption of infected human tissue, particularly nervous tissue.
Prion diseases damage the brain and can produce the characteristic sponge-like degeneration of brain tissue.
They're also fatal.
That doesn't mean eating a human being automatically gives you kuru.
The tissue would have to contain the relevant prions.
Still.
I wouldn't recommend it.
Then there are more ordinary infectious diseases.
Human blood and tissue can carry viruses, bacteria and parasites.
Because you're dealing with another member of your own species, there are plenty of pathogens perfectly capable of infecting another human being if the right route of exposure exists.
Blood.
Open wounds.
Contaminated tissue.
None of this is particularly reassuring.
And Kamla has other problems.
She's wandering around barefoot through a wrecked house.
There is debris everywhere.
Any cuts she picks up could become infected.
If a sufficiently deep or contaminated wound were exposed to the bacteria responsible for tetanus, that could become another serious problem.
There is also an open fire near the entrance to the house.
So on top of everything else, Kamla may have been breathing in smoke and combustion fumes for quite some time.
Depending on the ventilation and how that fire was burning, carbon monoxide exposure might potentially be another concern.
So even after successfully removing the evil spirit, I do wonder what sort of physical condition Kamla would actually be in.
The exorcism saves her from the demon.
Excellent.
Now please take her to a hospital.
Immediately.
Modern medicine is fairly impressive.
But an exorcism doesn't magically undo malnutrition, injuries, infection, smoke inhalation or whatever other damage may already have happened to the body.
Perhaps Kamla makes a full recovery.
I hope she does.
But I also wonder whether her condition might continue to deteriorate after the supernatural problem has already been solved.
Anyway.
There is something rather touching about her family.
Kamla killed members of her own family.
The evil spirit was responsible, of course.
But those people are still dead.
And yet the surviving family members don't seem interested in taking revenge on her.
They run away looking for someone who can save her.
And once the exorcism succeeds, Kamla is reunited with the people who survived.
Her husband embraces her.
Considering everything that happened, that is an extraordinary amount of forgiveness and compassion.
And the Tantrik deserves some credit too.
He actually managed to save her.
The plot itself is simple.
A woman becomes possessed.
People die.
A holy man enters the house.
He performs an exorcism.
The woman is saved.
But once I started thinking about everything surrounding that simple story, it became considerably sadder than I remembered.
Anyway.
Separate from all of that, KAMLA is simply a very good horror game.
And a very scary one.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2585270/KAMLA/?curator_clanid=46578905