Dead Format

Unique spin on survival horror

Three movies. One nightmare. Dead Format throws you into three wildly different VHS horror movies while you search for your missing brother: a 1920s silent gothic film, a cheesy sci-fi B-movie, and... basically Suspiria. And somehow, all three work brilliantly. With its gorgeous VHS aesthetic, short but effective FMV sequences, and a clever Metroid-style progression that has you constantly jumping between movies to find new ways forward, Dead Format is one hell of a love letter to horror cinema. The gameplay is fairly classic first-person horror: puzzles, gunplay and stealth. Unfortunately, stealth is also one of my biggest problems with the game. An unstoppable creature that comes running whenever you make noise quickly turns the experience into what I like to call a "crouching simulator", à la Alien: Isolation or Outlast. The problem is that, instead of making things scary, it eventually becomes mostly frustrating. It also makes the weapons feel almost pointless, since there are very few enemies and the main threat is completely immune to them. The other issue is the tiny survival-horror inventory. It doesn't really add much tension here and mostly becomes an inconvenience,…

I didn't expect this, but the game turned out to be really good. Well-crafted locations, a unique story, and solid mechanics. It almost feels like it was built on the Resident Evil engine, the two are quite similar. I was also pleasantly surprised that the game is genuinely scary and keeps you on edge throughout.

Really fun and creative game. It could be greatly improved with an autosave feature.

this was fun but it really loses me at the last half. i really wish the ending also wasnt such a let down. i never used this games shotgun equivalent because i thought it would come in clutch near the end but,,, nothing happens at all to warrant using it??? i feel like nothing comes close to the really creepy and unique violin man sequence in the beginning. it fit the film it was set in and i loved it. the rest of the game is a really basic monster with no real theme that just spawns when it feels like it, and one note enemies killable that barely show up. i liked the concept of the game, and it was really great in the beginning, but man im disappointed because this game's idea is up my alley

I like it for the most part.