In the first-person dungeon-crawler Blue Wyrm, you navigate eerie, gem-hued labyrinths to save your beloved.

I can never remember the technical term for that wibbly effect you get in PS1 games when you sidle up to surfaces and look askance at the textures. I thought it was “dithering”, but Brendy says that’s not what dithering is you sap, you absolute dunce. If you know the answer, please educate me in a comment. But first, try Blue Wyrm.

It’s a free first-person melee dungeon crawler from SaintPesticide. It’s awash with rich, diseased shades of ruby, amethyst and malachite. And brother, it has not-dithering to spare. Here’s a video.

In Blue Wyrm you play the Red Knight Gabriel, who is trying to rescue her wife, the Blue Knight Lucia, from a crypt populated by hissing marionettes, green diamonds and photon-spitting sentries. Gabriel is equipped with a sword that handles like an oversized ice pick, tinking off surfaces in a musical way. She can swipe left and right or stab forward by pressing the left, right and mouse-wheel buttons respectively. If you chain together all three kinds of attack in a single combo, you’ll leach health from the body of your assailant.

This is vital, because Gabriel ain’t so hot at defending. She’s a fast runner and she can double-jump, but she can’t dodge, parry or block. Or at least, these abilities were not available in the 20 minutes I spent with the Itch build, during which I spent a lot of time cooing over the fittings. Blue Wyrm is a gorgeous piece of work, the kind of lurid imagineering that blows the dust from senses deadened by overmuch photorealism. Calling it “PS1-esque” bleaches away the specificity. That said, I really need to see this running on a CRT.

You can download Blue Wyrm here. SaintPesticide is also the creator of visual novels, top-down shooters and “spirit cutting puzzles”.