In recent years, there has been a deluge of short indie horror games of fluctuating quality. Every now and then, something special rises to the top of this churning mass, like They Breathe or Home. However, for every interesting little game, there’s ten lazy rip-offs. With that in mind, here are three bitesize horror games for your delight and/or disgust.

The Interview

So we start with the very worst example of the bitesize horror genre. The Interview tells the thankfully brief story of a man who is seemingly undergoing a job interview. The gameplay involves taking a seat at the end of a table before being asked a series of questions in first-person.

With such simple gameplay, it would take a spectacularly incompetent developer to screw it up, and yet Anothink managed it. Firstly, the voice of the interviewer sounds like a malfunctioning Microsoft Sam. Clearly, the developer couldn’t be bothered wrangling a semi-competent voice actor that might have made the game even slightly immersive.

Secondly, the questions sound as if they’ve been written by someone who has never heard anybody speak English before. One of the questions is: “Know your future without emotion, or not to know?” What does that even mean?

The questions are so badly written that it’s difficult to answer with any meaning, so its fortunate then that the answers the player gives have no bearing on the game’s outcome whatsoever.

It’s a shame that the game is such a shambles, because the core premise is actually quite interesting, and there’s something of a twist at the end. It also uses surreal, unexpected horror quite effectively.

However, there’s a moment when a real-life video is played containing horrific clips of people being beaten and brutalised. I’m never one to call for censorship, and no horror game is beyond the pale in my opinion, but using real footage of violence is disgusting and tasteless.

Consider this consumer advice: do not buy The Interview. (That’s right, you have to buy this travesty). It’s an ugly, unpleasant discharge of a game, and I wouldn’t wish the experience of playing it upon my worst enemy.

Pregnancy

Rape is an issue that video games tend to avoid. Many games feature a predictably male main character saving a love interest from potential rapists, but few games dare to meet the issue head on.

Pregnancy is about a 14 year old girl named Lilla who was violently raped and realises that she’s pregnant with the perpetrator’s baby. She has to confront the trauma she has faced in order to decide whether she should keep the baby or have it aborted.

In an interesting twist, the player takes on the role of a voice inside of Lilla’s head, advising her on how she should handle such a difficult situation. The ‘gameplay’ consists of choosing dialogue options in an attempt to steer the girl’s behaviour.

It self-identifies as an ‘interactive short story’, with the emphasis on ‘short’. The game lasts around fifteen minutes, and as a result it all feels rather rushed. Lilla goes from being unnerved about the alien voice in her head to asking it’s opinion on Miley Cyrus in about thirty seconds. If the developer had given the story a bit more time to develop, it might have been more engaging.

Pregnancy has been dubbed a horror game due to its horrific subject matter, which involves a truly sickening description of the rape which colours the rest of the experience. I wouldn’t say it’s scary, but it certainly makes the player feel uncomfortable.

I imagine Pregnancy will provoke an uproar due to its depiction of something so tragically real and despicable, but personally I think it handles the subject matter tastefully and effectively provokes thought about the fact that a single man’s lust can destroy the lives of several people.

I believe it was a game made with noble intentions, particularly with its even-handed approach to the abortion issue. However, charging £1.49 for fifteen minutes of gameplay is a little cheeky.

Hello? Hell…o?

Not every short, experimental horror game has to be released on Steam, you know. There are a lot of interesting horror games being made via RPG Maker by creative people across the internet, like the delightfully subversive Hello? Hell…o?

The game revolves around the simple premise of a man entering a room, only to hear a phone vibrating on the table. The player can end the game with one action, depending on whether they decide to answer the phone, or simply ignore it, or attempt to leave the room etc.

The game then begins again, seemingly identical to the previous playthrough but with subtle differences, which become increasingly apparent the more its replayed. It elicits a creeping sense of encroaching darkness, with each replay feeling more tense than the last.

There are several subversive twists in the formula along the way, such as when the game seemingly reaches its conclusion, only to restart with everything mirrored, and even though it never manages to be truly scary, it’s engaging and intriguing none the less.

Unfortunately, it’s riddled with clumsy jump-scares that detract from the subtle atmosphere the game attempts to conjure. The first jump-scare will undoubtedly make you jump, but by the time you’ve been playing the game for half an hour, they won’t even make you twitch.

Talking of clumsy, the ending feels a little insipid and token, and doesn’t do justice to the twisting and turning journey it took to get there, but it doesn’t really detract from the experience. Hello? Hell…o? is a unique and innovative horror title that proves that a lot can be done with limited time and resources.

© 2015, zero1gaming.com. All rights reserved. On republishing this article your must provide a link to this original post