Is This Game Trying to Kill Me? Review
Escape room adventure Is This Game Trying to Kill Me? cleverly uses a metatextual conceit.
Is This Game Trying to Kill Me? Credit: Stately Snail
You wake up in a tiny cabin next to the skeletal remains of the previous occupant. A weird vampire wizard guy bursts in through the window and promises you your freedom if you can complete a retro dungeon crawler computer game. Are things really going to be that simple? In Stately Snail’s first-person escape room horror game, Is This Game Trying to Kill Me?, the answer is obviously “no.”
The in-world computer game bleeds into the cabin and vice versa. You’ll need to solve puzzles in both to survive, and failure on either end is deadly. The structure is clever and well-designed; the cabin expands as you go along, revealing more puzzles as you progress through the video game dungeon. Actions in one often directly affect the other, as you’ll see on TV screens placed in each room of the cabin. I found the retro-styled game within the game a bit simplistic and far preferred the escape room style puzzles in the cabin’s 3D gameplay. However, the way Is This Game Trying to Kill Me? weaves both aspects together is what makes it special and the metatextual references to gaming are fun.
Is This Game Trying to Kill Me? Credit: Stately Snail
Most of the game’s puzzles didn’t stump me for long, but when I needed help, the game’s excellent hint system pointed me in the right direction. When you don’t know what to do next, the hint system allows you to reveal one image at a time in a series for each puzzle. Each successive hint image shows the next step of the puzzle, up through its solution.
I found the game’s backstory and lore, which are revealed as you play, confusing. Honestly, it doesn’t need that narrative at all. It didn’t help me make any sense of the game’s conclusion, which felt like it dropped the ball, but I still loved the entire journey to reach that point.
Aside from a couple of jump scares, the game is short on horror. Part of this is that despite death and some blood, the game’s presentation is light. The 3D portion of the game is cartoonish in style, with colorful textures, and is evenly lit. When I reached a part of the game where you get sent down to the basement, I expected things to get creepier, but they didn’t. Everything remains clean and friendly-looking. If you’re expecting horror, be aware that this game is more on the Disneyland Haunted House side of things.
Is This Game Trying to Kill Me? Credit: Stately Snail
Is This Game Trying to Kill Me? is an excellent escape room experience. Its creative puzzles and game-within-a-game conceit make it memorable and hard to put down. At just over a couple hours long, it was refreshing to play in one sitting. I highly recommend this polished, well-constructed adventure.
Is This Game Trying to Kill Me? is available now on Steam.
Overall Score: 8/10
Played on: Steam Deck
