Lor Gislason
The Halloween season may be over, but spookiness lives on year-round! Whether you’re shopping for a friend or just want to treat yourself during the holidays, there’s an abundance of Indie Horror games to try. Be sure to check out my last post about Cheap Indie Horror as well for more suggestions.
Sanguine Sanctum
It must grow. It must consume. There’s a big nasty glob of flesh and it needs you to gather Offerings for it, and it would be kind of rude not to. This walking sim is beautifully rendered in PS1 style visuals with some interesting locations and an underlying sense of dread. Developer Modus Interactive is an expert at delivering these types of experiences and I’d recommend checking out the rest of their catalog as well.
Sanguine Sanctum is for 4.99 on Steam and Itch.io
Perfect Vermin
There’s some…uncooperative office furniture and it’s your job to deal with it, armed only with a sledgehammer. A Cronenbergian prop hunt, if you will. Satisfying smashing physics with perfectly gross squishing sound effects! You can beat this in about 10-15 minutes, but I had a great time and the ending hits a bit harder than I expected.
Perfect Vermin is free on Steam and Itch.io (With an option to tip the devs)
Sagebrush
I found the premise of this, exploring an abandoned cult compound to discover what happened, to be quite intriguing. It’s a more melancholy and reflective type of horror, but nonetheless effective. Well voiced narration and audiotapes add a personal quality to it. This one will stick with you long after you beat it. Be sure to check out Redact Games newest release, best described as aliens meet Pokemon Snap Cellular Harvest as well.
Sagebrush is 6.99 on Steam, Itch.io, Playstation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch
Korpus: Buried over the Black Soil
I’m fairly sure I bought this based on the title alone, but can you blame me? Korpus: Buried over the Black Soil has you evaluating an abandoned house where of course some spooky happenings have occurred. I particularly liked the “you read things on notes and then they happen” aspect of this and the ghost designs are quite eerie! A full playthrough will take you around an hour.
Korpus: Buried over the Black Soil is 9.99 on Steam
No Delivery and Nobody’s Home
Game dev Oates has such a standout style and I love it. No Delivery immediately struck me, a procedurally generated RPG maker game that takes you through a twisted pizza parlor. You have a choice of several employees, including a security guard, waitress, and “mascot” (a dog) each with their own perks and skills, and you try to survive the dreaded night shift. Sure, the comparisons to Five Nights At Freddy’s are obvious, but this stands on its own and is one of my favorite indie titles of the last few years. Bonus points for an absolute banger of a soundtrack. Oates followed this up with a similar title, Nobody’s Home about an afterparty in a weird house.
No Delivery is 5.00 on Itchi.io. Nobody’s Home is 3.00, also on Itch.io
Night Of The Consumers
I couldn’t help but include this, considering the subject matter! What’s more hellish than dealing with customers during the holiday season? You’re just trying to do your job, stocking shelves, but you keep getting interrupted by zombie-like patrons, desperately looking for products that just so happen to be on the completely opposite side of the store. This will truly make your flight or fight mode activate when you hear the croak of “Excuse me..” coming from behind you. Happy Holidays!
Night Of The Consumers is 1.93 on Itch.io
