Ah, the 90’s: flannel shirts, Tamagotchis, Hanson, and dial-up internet. As a 90’s spawn myself, my memories of the decade are mixed, to say the least. Like the generations before me, however, I too must accept that I’m officially old enough to be considered retro.

Okay, I’m back from a quick crying sesh! The 90’s were an interesting time, to say the least. As any kid or parent will tell you, the rise of the infamous World Wide Web certainly had an effect. Whether it was good, bad, or somewhere in-between depends on who you ask.

Historians and sociologists are still sifting through the debris lingering in Hurricane Internet’s wake, but this gray-tinted nostalgia carried over to today’s Indie developers too. What followed was an almost Modern Gothic Revival populated by cautionary tales of net safety and internet abuses. As many indie developers are quick to remind us, like old maps used to say: “Here thar be dragons!” Newcomer Coolmysterydev’s Secrets Of Suburbia is one such mystery, and what a mystery it is!

A Shadow Over Suburbia

Secrets of Suburbia whisks the player back to 1997 and places them in the no-doubt scribbled-up Converse sneakers of bright young man Rowan Parker. With your mom out until tomorrow morning and your sister at her friend’s place, you’ve got the house to yourself. It’s Friday night… and you’re HOME ALONE!

To set the scene, scary movies on TV, friends are inviting you to play MMOs, oh, and mom calling every five seconds to check in. She has a right to worry, though, and it’s not the usual reason. A girl’s gone missing in the sleepy suburb of Covenbrook, Oregon, and your orders are to stay inside and keep the security system armed.

No need to leave, though, you’re a 90’s Kid with a 56k Modem. If you’re around my age you probably went pale reading that, but rest-assured the internet’s much faster in-game. Similar to other net crawler noirs like Tendershoot’s Hypnospace Outlaw and Evil Trout Inc’s The Roottrees Are Dead, you’re armed with a PC and a search bar. Some sites you visit are purely silly, but others might hide a clue or two. While some are easy to find, others might take some intuition. What sets Secrets apart, however, is that some clues might require leaving your room.

DUN DUN DUUUN!

Dial-Up Desperado

Secrets of Suburbia takes place in a three-bedroom home, meaning there’s not much ground to cover. Nevertheless, the demo does a good job of using the space. You can watch movie snippets on the couch downstairs, creep around in the spooky garage, and even poke around in your sister’s room… with her permission, of course. The star of the show is the computer: boasting a music player, a chat app, and a fully populated search engine, you’re surfing the web in style.

There aren’t many sites to surf yet, however, and the ones that do exist only have a page or two. Still, it’s a welcome reprieve from similar games that mainly focus on the vitals. According to Secrets of Suburbia’s Itch.io page there’s more to come including Swordscape Online, VirtuaPets, and even the Gamesphere: the hot new game console. To some these might seem like distractions, but to me they add character to the world the game’s trying to build. There’s a lot to be gained in adding distractions–just ask Team17’s murder mystery game Killer Frequency. Half the fun was rummaging through the old broadcast station, and I suspect Secrets will reap the same benefits.

When you aren’t wasting time, however, your goal is to solve the mystery of the aforementioned missing girl. Though the town has already declared her dead, online communities have different theories. What better way to spend a Friday night than by scouring the net for clues?

Nostalgic Nitpicks

Though limited to the Parker residence, Secrets of Suburbia looks good. Unless, that is, you put the graphics settings any higher than LOW. It’s still a demo, but upon starting the game I was immediately met by intense lag. As you might’ve guessed, the solution was obvious: keep the settings low. After that revision and a few tweaks to VSYNC, Secrets of Suburbia ran relatively smoothly. The house and the visual effects look spiffy enough as-is, but I’m eager to see what Coolmysterydev can do, especially once the game takes you outside. The sound is fine too but might need some fiddling for headphone users.

In terms of gameplay, I don’t have many complaints–Suburbia is still a demo, so why would I unless they were glaring, right? The closest the game came to glaring was around the halfway point of the demo, namely during a certain ritual. Without spoiling too much, a site tasks you with turning off lights around the house, and unfortunately getting the next steps to trigger took some doing. I’m sure it’ll be fixed in the final game, but it definitely made for a tense few minutes. Secrets doesn’t have an autosave function yet either, so try not to softlock yourself.

The only other gripe I have is with interactables. Decrepit as I am, I sometimes found it hard to tell what I could mess with. Outlines glow dimly around usable objects and sometimes you need to aim at a certain angle to use them. There aren’t many tense moments in the demo, so this was never a pressing issue, but it was noticeable. The light switches were especially tricky at times, but again: not a matter of life or death.

g2g, I won’t brb

The Secrets of Suburbia demo is loaded with soul and a healthy portion of promise. I might be a little biased being a mystery game maniac and all, but what can I say? I’m amped! There’s a clear vision in this demo, one thankfully not too clouded by “REMEMBER THIS!?” moments. Moreover, Suburbia gets to the juicy part almost immediately–the game is afoot the minute you jump in. It’s hard to say if the game’s atmosphere will remain chill all the way through, but the pains the devs have gone through to make the house feel like a home are already paying off.

Secrets of Suburbia has no release date yet, but it’s definitely a game to keep an eye on.

Secrets of Suburbia demo was part of Steam Next Fest: October 2025. As of publication, the demo is still available. Follow Coolmysterydev on Itch.io, TikTok, and Reddit.