The Textorcist, unfortunately, is a much better pun, than it is a game.

Developer Morbidware’s bullet hell liturgy-’em-up puts players in the cassock of Ray Bibbia, a private exorcist fulfilling his priestly duties outside the jurisdiction of a power-hungry, iron-fisted Catholic Church.

As Ray ventures out into a 1990s-ish version of Rome, you’ll take on demon-possessed citizens in frantic boss battles. But, instead of shooting back, you’ll recite the prayers necessary to exorcize the demons by typing the sentences out on your keyboard. Meanwhile, you’ll dodge wave after wave of energy bullets and green slime using the directional keys.

Get it the Textorcist? You exorcize demons by typing? Nice. Unfortunately, this well-named game is holy hell to play, hamstrung by mechanical and technical shortcomings.

Remember Cuphead, the much loved 2017 shmup? Remember how difficult it was to dodge all those bullets? Remember how all Studio MDHR asked you to do as you dodged was to hold down a button to return fire? All right, now imagine how hard Cuphead would have been if, rather than requiring simple inputs on the player’s part, it asked them to spell out words like “pacify” and “demilitarize” all while evading a never-ending flurry of bullets?

Sounds hard, right? Maybe not very fun? Unfortunately, this is the approach The Textorcist takes, attempting to introduce players to a new control scheme while doubling down on difficulty.

Foundationally, The Textorcist is built on an interesting idea. But the difficulty curve skips from Sunday school lesson to seminary midterm faster than you can recite the Our Father. After a brief opening encounter, in which Roy spells out a few monosyllabic words to take down a two-bit thug, the game jumps feet first into the deep end.

I don’t have a problem with difficult games, generally, but The Textorcist is layering extreme difficulty on top of a brand new, awkward-feeling mechanic. Given that this is the first bullet hell typing game, most players won’t begin this game with the necessary skill set. When Cuphead asks you to expertly dodge, jump and shoot, it’s building on the foundation of skills many players have learned over decades of platformers and 2D shooters. The Textorcist doesn’t have the luxury of being just a hard “one of those;” it’s the only “one of those.”

At times, the veil lifts and you can begin to see how it could work. Winning boss encounters can be genuinely satisfying. If it had tutorialized its mechanics, slowly introducing players to the basics of typing while evading bullet hell onslaughts, it could have been an excellent introduction to a new genre. But, as it stands, between its awkward interface, steep difficulty and Ray’s extremely limited health, The Textorcist asks too much, too early.

Which brings me to the technical issues. Over the course of my six or so hours with The Textorcist, I hit multiple game-breaking bugs. After reaching the third boss, the game deleted all of my previous progress. I was frustrated, but I started the game up again, hoping that, with the skills I had gained from my first run, the opening fights would fly by.

They did. But then I hit another game-breaking bug. This one didn’t erase my progress. Rather, it halted my progress entirely. From my first run, I knew what I needed to do to advance the story, but the game wouldn’t offer the option. I restarted the game a few times to see if I could get it to work again, but no luck.

Additionally, the menu just didn’t work. While I attempted maybe a dozen times to tweak the game’s display options, the settings menu remained unresponsive. Every action in the game requires the player to spell a word to interact. So, for example, to speak with an NPC, you would approach and type out “talk.” I tried this approach in the settings, but nothing worked. I tried using my mouse to click on the options I needed; no dice.

So, unfortunately, because of the many technical hurdles I encountered, these are impressions on the opening hours, rather than our planned full review. We’ll update this piece after launch if the bugs have been fixed. Who knows? If I can run the full game without technical issues, it, or I, might Git Gud.

Code for The Textorcist was provided by the publisher.

The Textorcist: The Story of Ray Bibia is out now on Steam.