Hope Deferred

Hope Deferred is a first-person psychological horror RPG and PSX-inspired dungeon crawler. You wake in a locked prison cell, surrounded by red, with a mirror on the wall that reveals the truth. The cell unlocks, but escape means exploring a non-linear world of interconnected spaces that grow increasingly dream-like.

Explore the nightmare

As you search for a way out, you encounter religious psychosis and try to uncover the truth and break the cycle. You can talk to NPCs or kill them, read signs or ignore them, and follow the path set for you or find another. The game also makes you read scripture against your will, interpret its lack of meaning and worry about another person’s mental health, while accepting that there may be nothing you can do for them.

Fight and choose

You can fight monsters, with a variety of enemies to attack, but your character is a frail prisoner rather than a hardened knight or agile hunter. Combat has no dodging, parrying, blocking or rolling. Choices lead to multiple endings, and you can play differently to see how events change.

A 4:3 view

The options menu lets you change the resolution. The game presents 1024x768 as its intended resolution.