In addition to a plethora of new AAA Xbox games revealed at Gamescom 2026, there were just as many indie titles unveiled, aiming to innovate the medium in ways never seen before in terms of gameplay and artistry.
One such indie title that caught my eye was a survival horror game called Holstin, which is set to launch in 2027 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Xbox Game Pass (Day One), with Xbox Play Anywhere support, along with PC via Steam and GOG, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 5.
Holstin also has a free playable demo available right now on its Steam page.
In this game, you have come to a small eastern Polish town called Jeziorne-Kolonia in search of your missing friend Bartek, whose trail was last seen there.
Unfortunately, Jeziorne-Kolonia has been possessed by a demonic force that is turning the buildings into pus-filled flesh and its inhabitants into disgusting, mindless abominations that attack anything in sight.
To survive, you will need to scavenge for supplies, solve mind-bending puzzles, seek information from the few sane locals left in the town, and find guns to defend yourself with before the horrors of this town eat you alive.
What makes Holstin stand out from the crowd is its 1990s Polish setting, an absolutely gorgeous and grim pixel art style that seamlessly blends 2D and 3D graphics, and most of all, the ability to change top-down and third-person perspectives during gameplay.
Resident Evil 9 sort of tried this with the alternating first-person and third-person perspectives, but Holstin takes it a step further by letting the player switch perspectives at the push of a button instead of having to fiddle around with in-game menus.
This creates a dynamic system where one moment you will be exploring decrepit city streets from a top-down perspective, switch to a third-person perspective to shoot guns at monsters, then flip back to the top-down perspective so you can have a better view of where to safely dodge an attack without getting stuck in the environment.
Windows Central's take
I'm not normally a fan of survival horror games, as I suck at ammo and medkit conservation, but Holstin has me intrigued with its sublime pixel-art design, grotesque creatures, and interesting gameplay mechanics.
If you enjoy scaring yourself on the go with retro-style horror games with Xbox Play Anywhere like the critically-acclaimed Signalis, you will want to keep an eye out for this title when it drops in 2027, as it could be a potential ID@Xbox sleeper hit.
Or you could find out now for yourself if it's up your dark alley by its demo on Steam.
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