Venture into the eerie depths of the unknown with this unique Nuclear Horror indie game Erie, from Master Games Studio.
Developed by Master Games Studio, Erie is a Nuclear Horror indie game for the PC. And yes, it's free. You play as someone who - somehow - ended up in an underground nuclear facility that has had some strange occurrences happening lately. Your objective is to escape from the facility by jumping into Lake Erie, but not before you figure out what's really going on around here.
The atmosphere is definitely on the creepy side. Right after the game is launched and the "Play" button is clicked, the atmosphere is instantly dark and mysterious. A baby can be heard crying in the distance. The room is abundant in fog. It all adds up to this constant dread and fear of something is nearby. And the worst part is, is that you could very well be right.
Finding out what's going on in the facility is optional, however. There really isn't a story - not unless you want there to be one. Pages are scattered around the environment, akin to other indie games such as Slender: The Eight Pages, Slender: Mansion, Slender: Prison, Slender: Eighth Street, Slen... well, you get the point. Collecting these pages are purely optional, though by reading them you get an insight on the story and how to escape from the facility, and some background info on the creepy-crawly things in the dark.
The game actually gives more of an SCP: Containment Breach vibe. Pages aren't mandatory to collect, but reading them definitely ups the scare factor.
From a visual standpoint, the game is jaw-dropping gorgeous. There are light-shafts. Reflections. Real-time shadows. All that jazz that you'd come to expect from the Unreal Engine. The environment is a little stale, but there are variations in the facility, such as generator rooms, a small office, bathrooms, and small tunnels that require you to crouch to hide in them. There is no music, and the ambiance primarily serves as the nightmare fuel.
And then there's the sound. You think you're safe as you sprint as fast as you can across a long tunnel, until you hear it. This, indescribable, ear-piercing growling and screeching noise. Then you know it's coming. It comes around the corner. Its twisted, augmented, mutated flesh turns towards you and its eyes glow a sickly blue color. It pounces towards you, and the only thing you can do... is run. The action is fast-paced. There are several maneuvers that your character can do, although he is unnamed. There is the standard WASD movement, along with the SHIFT button to sprint. But there are other things too. There's a jump button, and even a slide mechanic where sprinting and crouching are combined to slide, should you ever need a quick getaway into a small hiding place. But there's nothing like the feeling of being followed, approaching a dead-end, sliding into a small hidey-hole and finding out that you missed it. This game is pretty creepy, but I've played scarier games before.
However, for those looking for a good scare, Erie is definitely right up your alley. It offers a good combination of action and the good-old nuclear horror movies that were abundant in the fifties. This game requires quick thinking and the ability to keep calm in very tense situations. And let me tell you this: the game is very intense. Get ready to venture into the eerie depths of the unknown with this unique Nuclear Horror indie game, Erie - from Master Games Studio.
(And I forgot to mention one thing you might need to play this game: You might need a fast computer and a relatively powerful graphics card to run this game. There is no "Settings" menu, but a way to adjust the game if it lags is to go to the Erie folder and go through the folders until you find something that looks like "BaseEngine", which is a Notepad-based text file so you can manually tweak the graphics to your liking. Then use Ctrl+F and type in "ResX". From there you can type in whatever resolution you want, and you can change some of the settings for the visuals from "True" to "False" if the game still lags.)