An author’s house is a bit of an unsettling mess in this week’s IGP First look at the chilling, atmospheric Song of Horror. Mind the black goo! It stains something fierce.
Song of Horror gives you a handful of protagonists to choose form, each with their own abilities, strengths, weaknesses, and takes on events. I chose the poor handywoman, Alina, as she seemed the most unlikely to stick around and endure any spooky shenanigans. She’s nothing if not determined to do her job, though, and so we pressed onward into a pitch-black house filled with weird voices and monstrous presences.
The game creates an unsettling atmosphere quickly, the house feeling instantly oppressive in the dark. Clever use of sound, some sharp scares, and a handful of tense run-ins with a presence you cannot see help keep that tension on. Many horror titles that use puzzles and confounding environments don’t manage pacing very well, but the folks behind Song of Horror have a very good feel for when you might let your guard down, often catching me just as I started to feel too safe.
And when it does catch you, you’re in for a run. You need to hide from whatever is lurking in the house, and even when you find a safe spot, you’re not out of danger. You get to play a little rhythm game with your heartbeat, tapping to it in order to calm yourself down. This is the first time my bad sense of rhythm has almost gotten me killed.
Eventually, I did die, permanently losing my character and their perspective on the story. That permanence to death was the final touch on a solid, scary horror game that’s well worth checking out.
The first two episodes of Song of Horror are available now on Steam.
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