Dead Format PC Review By Ayden 6.5/10 📼

While I’m a fan of horror movies and books, I haven’t had much experience with horror games up until this last year. I put this down to it being easier to desensitise oneself to films and the written word, whereas with video games there is no option to mentally disengage. Your choices matter, when you move matters, and that is quite a bit more terrifying than simply watching a slide show of off-putting and uncomfortable scenes.

All this to say, I may have watched over 50 horror movies last year with a stony and dead eyed expression, but when it comes to games of the same genre, I’m a snivelling coward. So I can’t promise that what got me nervously pausing and gathering myself before I could again brave more of the Video Ghastlies will equally terrify you. What I will say, is that if the stress detector on my watch is to be believed, this game achieved what it set out to with me.

The game starts with scant details, other than you are on a search for your missing brother. You enter his flat and search for clues which ultimately leads you to uncovering the mysteries of a new and inexplicably dangerous VHS format, “Video Ghastlies”. After watching the first tape, you will find yourself stepping out of the flat and into its macabre reality. Whilst in these other realms, you will find new tapes and trinkets required to proceed. You do also at some point get a bone-gun that shoots teeth (don’t ask, I’m still not sure), so it’s not an experience entirely built on hide-run-hide-run. 

The end result of the above is a fun and engaging take on analogue horror, which isn’t easy to do given how saturated the subgenre has been over the past few years. Kudos also has to be given to the team for the putting together the movies you watch before stepping into each of them. Even as someone who finds multimedia experiences usually a bit gimmicky, I appreciated this approach and it definitely helped with the atmosphere and immersion. They were each morbid and uncomfortable in their own unique ways. The score was unsettling and suited to each film, and all of this comes together to build the effectively unnerving ambience required of a good horror game.

If I’m to find gripes, the puzzles were fairly predictable (which is a genre-wide problem), and the gameplay loop did drag a little for me at points. The enemy detection system also felt a little off, as sometimes it felt like you weren’t noticed when you should have been and other times it was the opposite. However, even writing all this down feels a little unjust, as this project by Katanalevy very much felt to me like a labour of love with a lot of soul.

SUMMARY

Dead Format is a unique and entertaining game that does a good job at standing out from its contemporaries in the survival horror genre, which is hard to do with the proliferation of Resident Evil-likes. Conversely, while the atmosphere is great, in my view, the enemy AI and a repetitive gameplay loop have kept this game from its true potential. If you’re on the lookout for an inexpensive 3-8 hour horror-action experience with character, then I’d say it’s worth a punt.

6.5/10

💧MELTING💧