Station 35

I love the weird stuff, especially in horror games. The kind of stuff you have to dig 40 pages into the tags to find, stuff that has 0-10 reviews. Is it good? Who knows! Station 35 is the weird stuff. Of writing, this game has one single review and I found it by digging about 40-50 pages into the horror tag. So, is it good? tl;dr, yes. This game speaks of a passion project. It's perfect by no means and rings with design that is amateur, but it's very much made with love. You often hear people tell others, "why don't you make your own game if you want X?" and it feels like someone set out to do just that with Station 35. The game reads like your classic sci-fi horror: aliens on the ship, you need to get out. To do so, you are presented with three possible exits, one on each floor of a sprawling and dark spaceship. Each exit has three items it requires, be they keys or tools or ship parts, before you can use it to escape. Each of these items is scattered randomly throughout the ship, leaving you sneaking down corridors and into rooms trying to find that damned red key card since the yellow opened the first door and this blue one won't do the trick for the second. As you do this, you're presented with two main hazards: the blind, docile creatures that inhabit the hangars and the roving monstrosity that prowls the ship. It took me about four tries to finally escape for the first time, learning exactly how the game worked and rounding corners to come face to face with a monster I had no chance against. The creature is fast, announced quietly by stomping feet and an ominous green glow. If it catches you, that'll be the end of your run. In the vein of Amnesia and Outlast, the only chance of survival is hiding in a locker. Run into the monster in the wrong place, say the beginning of a corridor that places it between you and the nearest dormitory, and you really don't have a hope of outrunning it. The monster presents a real threat, though encountering it at the wrong moment may just spell an unfortunate and unavoidable fate for you. With the gameplay loop laid out and rather simple to define, it's important to talk about atmosphere, especially for a horror game. The dim blue glow of the ship, the sweeping lights of the stairwells, the ominous viridescence of the monster, the sounds of machinery, growls of monsters, and the occasional tentacle bursting through a vent make for a charming tone. Charming is not a word you'd traditionally see used to describe horror but I believe it fits here. It hits all the stops and it does so in such a way that it feels like the developer is truly trying to capture their intended tone. So, bottom line. Is the game perfect? By no means. Is it thoroughly enjoyable? Absolutely. It feels very much like a solo project that was made with heart and soul which is something I find most appealing in indie games. If you're a horror or sci-fi fan that would like to sit down with something that is not only clearly the product of a labor of love, but also a fully competent chase-based horror game, Station 35 is worth a try. A small addendum: all the beds have the individual crew members' names modeled onto them. I love little details like this and felt it warranted mentioning.

Ran into a few quirks with the ai and some interaction prompts but other than that, my friend and I had a really good time with this. I got spooked pretty good a few times but I managed to escape! It's a pretty simple but well put together game aside from a few issues.