In DreadOut, the road was supposed to lead back to school. Instead, it stops in front of a rusted gate, barely holding back what’s left of an abandoned town. You’re Linda, stuck with your classmates in a place that feels wrong the moment your foot hits the cracked pavement. The game doesn’t tell you what’s waiting. It just lets the silence press in, and the shadows do the rest.
You don’t have weapons. You have a smartphone and a digital camera. That’s it. The camera’s what you use when the ghosts show up — and they do. Some just flicker through a hallway. Others stare back at you like they’ve been waiting. Taking their photo isn’t just how you fight back — it’s how you see them. Some won’t even appear until you’ve raised your lens.
It’s not the jump scares that get you. It’s the way the game messes with space. A hallway that was there is suddenly gone. Doors loop back where they shouldn’t. Your phone screen starts to glitch, static crawling in at the edges. The ghosts are part of it, but the world itself feels unstable — like reality’s peeling a little at the edges.
Everything you encounter is pulled from Indonesian folklore — not just monsters for shock value, but spirits with history. There’s meaning behind their presence, even if it takes a few encounters (and some panicked photo flashes) to understand what it is. And Linda doesn’t talk much. She doesn’t need to. The way she moves, the way she reacts — it’s enough. She’s figuring this out at the same time you are.
When you die — and you will — you don’t just restart. You’re pulled into this dark in-between called Limbo, lit only by faint candles in the distance. You have to walk toward the light to come back. But every time you fail, that light gets further away. It’s a quiet punishment. One that reminds you this place is still deciding whether it wants you back.
You don’t feel powerful in DreadOut. You just feel present. Watching, listening, hoping the next thing you see through the lens isn’t already watching you back.
DreadOut is available on Steam.
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