Jester: A Foolish Ritual Review: A Terrifying Co-op Mess That's Way More Fun Than It Should Be
It's cheap, it's buggy, and it's the most I've laughed while panicking all year.
I've played more cheap co-op horror games than I can count. The market is flooded with clones. So when Jester: A Foolish Ritual landed, I figured I knew exactly what I was in for: a janky, forgettable monster-hunter.
And I was right, it is janky. But it's also absolutely, hilariously brilliant.
The setup is boilerplate: you're a resurrected knight, you're in a dark castle, and you need to find X number of runes to banish a monster. On paper, it's nothing special. But for the price of a cup of coffee, this game delivers an experience that bigger studios just can't.
The "Shut Up or Die" Mechanic
The game's big trick, and the source of 90% of its fun, is the sound-activated AI. The Jester hears you.
The game uses proximity voice chat, but it's not just for talking to your team. Every whisper, every nervous giggle, and especially every panicked scream is a dinner bell.
This is what makes it a ridiculously fun game with a full team. I was hiding in a corner, holding my breath, when my friend got spotted and let out a blood-curdling shriek. The Jester, who had been on the other side of the map, immediately stopped, turned, and made a beeline for our location. It's pure, hilarious chaos, and I love it.
A Smart Monster and a Ticking Clock
The Jester isn't just a gimmick. The AI itself is genuinely pretty smart. It's not just a dumb bot walking on a set path. It hunts.
And it gets smarter. The core loop is to find runes to complete the ritual. With every rune you collect, the Jester gets faster, more relentless, and more cunning. This is a fantastic way to build tension. The first rune is a spooky stealth mission. The last rune is a full-blown, panic-fueled sprint for your life, and it feels great.
The game also throws in randomized spawns, traps, and key locations for each run, so you can't just memorize the map. It keeps you on your toes.
A Ritual Held Together with Tape
Now, for the jank. This is a budget indie title, and it feels it.
For me, the game was surprisingly stable. I didn't get any of the game-ending crashes others have mentioned, but I was swimming in small, stupid bugs. The most annoying one? My mouse sensitivity would completely break whenever I had my controller plugged in to charge. That's a classic example of the lack of polish.
The content is also paper-thin. There are a couple of maps, but you'll have seen everything the game has to offer in about two hours. It's a "run it for an hour with friends" kind of game, not a new weekly ritual game.
My biggest complaint, though, is that it just dumps you in. There is no tutorial. You're trying to figure out what a "rune" is and how the "ritual" works while a monster is actively hunting you. It's a bit much and will definitely turn some new players off.
The Verdict
Look, this isn't the next Phasmophobia or Lethal Company. It's a small, passionate project with a lot of sharp, rough edges. It's designed for one thing: to get you and three friends in a call, screaming and laughing as you betray each other by accident.
It's buggy, it's short on content, and it's missing some basic features. But it's also cheap as hell, has a fantastic central mechanic, and delivers on the promise of co-op chaos. It's the perfect "mess around for an evening" game. It's not life-changing, but it's good, honest, stupid fun.
Score: 7.8/10 - Like Lethal Company's clown cousin who's fun at a party but you wouldn't lend him money.
We at NLM received a key for this game for free, this however didn't impact our review in any way.
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