CROWDED. FOLLOWED. is the horror game I have been waiting for since I first watched the movie It Follows in 2014. While not about a mysterious STD spreading entity, the premise is one universally terrifying. You play as an asthmatic man down on his luck, begging for change and keeping warm by a burn barrel as you nurse your inhaler. Your life is hard, but it’s about to get a whole lot harder. After finding an injured man in an alleyway you find yourself in possession of a strange briefcase. One that makes you the target of a…something. You know you have to get out of the city, but there is a catch. Something is following you, and it won’t rest until it has the briefcase.

I’ve already mentioned that I’ve been waiting for someone to make this game, and as an avid horror fan I had high expectations for it. I’m pleased to say that CROWDED. FOLLOWED. delivers everything I’ve been waiting for and more.

Mechanics and Feel

A good horror game needs a certain vibe, and the overall atmosphere of CROWDED. FOLLOWED. is immaculate. The game has retro graphics reminiscent of the PlayStation 1’s iconic style along with a curved effect that gives off the look of an old CRT TV. This, combined with a narrow field of view and heavy film grain, really gives the game a disorienting vibe.

Every aesthetic decision in this game feels deliberate. The dark, gritty liminal spaces, the crowd that looks through you as much as you struggle to move through them. It’s the kind of crowd you can’t just run through, and even if you could, you wouldn’t get very far thanks to your asthma.

Much like a stamina bar, you have a limited amount of breath. Running depletes it. Charging through crowds to put a barrier between you and the entity depletes it. When you’re out of breath you slow down, and you have to slow down even more to shake your inhaler. Always make sure to give it a few shakes when you can, otherwise you might get caught out of breath with the entity right behind you.

Sound Design

Another thing that CROWDED. FOLLOWED. does really well is the sound design. The demo does a great job at showcasing the balance between eerie environmental sounds and nerve-wracking beats. There is a song that plays when the entity is nearby warning you of imminent danger, and I’m really excited to see that Night Dial worked with Chipzel for the soundtrack.

You may be familiar with Chipzel from their work on Dicey Dungeons, and personally I have fond memories of their version of the soundtrack for Crypt of the Necrodancer. I can’t wait to see what other tunes we get for later maps.  

and Remember…

There is something out there. It’s following you. It could be anyone, and it will not rest until it has the briefcase. Couple that with crowded liminal spaces, a claustrophobic field of view, and a killer backing track by Chipzel, and CROWDED. FOLLOWED. has all the works of an incredible survival horror game.

If you’re looking for something spooky to play this spooky season, the full game is out now on Steam for $5.99.