BugZy's Review: UnderDread - A brilliant puzzling horror adventure game

[BugZy]

Bigzur Games, the developers of UnderDread, have kindly given us some keys for their game for promotional purposes. The following is my opinion.

I absolutely love horror games. The suspense, walking around dark corners, wondering if something - or someone - is going to jump out at me. Then when that does happen, I have woken up all the neighbors and have a brand new mess in my pants that I have to clean up. Bigzur’s horror game, UnderDread, makes this happen very frequently with random spooky noises and jumps, things randomly falling from above, and running from monsters that are trying their hardest to make the rest of my life as painful and miserable as possible.

The story takes place in the early 1700s where you and your daughter are travelling on a carriage and after growing tired, you decide to stop and rest at a small inn for the night. You wake up the next day to find that your daughter is nowhere to be found. You look around nearby but to no avail. After asking the locals you have been told that there are strange things happening, other disappearing children, and the people believe it has something to do with the former local landlord’s castle. Time to investigate!

It sounds like an urban legend, something that you could imagine people back then telling their friends around a campfire to scare each other. It is a spooky tale and a great concept for a horror game to be built around if you have the right people working on it and making sure it is done justice. Don’t worry, Bigzur have done a great job!

The game consists of lots of very difficult puzzles and challenges, in lots and lots of different rooms. Making sure you aren’t caught by a giant floating skeleton with three heads is a challenge enough, but just to add to that you have to flip a bunch of levers spread around the room too! You may use the hints you have acquired to assist you in figuring out what must be done to proceed and the shields to make the enemy leave for a little while, only to return a few minutes to grab you and steal your soul if you aren’t careful enough.

The visuals and animations bring me nostalgia, reminding me of some old school horror games. This is nothing bad, from an indie game development team it is far beyond what I would expect. Some of the animations and physics - like the lantern - have been buggy, but it is only visual issues from what I have seen so far which are very minor and don’t really take away from the feel of the game. The eerie sound effects and music adds a grand amount to the immersive atmosphere of the game, which make me jump even if nothing happens visually.

As far as horror goes, the game is more jumpy than something that would keep you awake at night. It is creepy and suspenseful while you are playing it though, like something out of the Slender games, especially at night and with headphones on!

In conclusion, it is a brilliantly fun game and well worth the money. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys horror games like Outlast, Slender or Amnesia.

I rate it 8/10 floating skeletons with three heads.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/432240/