OK so that might have been a little bit of clickbait… but not that much! Indie horror games are a fan favorite from all over the world. Indie horror games like Five Nights at Freddy’s, Doki Doki Literature Club, Baldies Basics, and Andy’s Apple Farm can make around 4 million dollars every year. But the real question is are they fun? Are they even worth playing? Today we’re taking a look at the games listed above and answering just that.

Five Nights at Freddy’s

Five Nights at Freddy’s (Fnaf) is an indie horror game series that started in 2014. This game is probably the most widely known indie horror game. In this game you play as a security guard who must try to survive all five nights while killer animatronics try to break into the security office. This game provides an intense atmosphere because of the possibility for the power to run out if you close the doors that protect you or you look at the security camera too long. This game mostly relies on jumpscares and knowing that you can’t run away to scare you. This idea is cool, but once you’ve played nine of the games, you’ll start to get bored of just defending yourself from animatronics. Plus, the lore is so incredibly confusing that you could dedicate two hours of your time just to figure it all out. Now let’s review….

What makes it scary?

Jumpscares and no ability to run away

Is it worth it to play it?

I think it’s worth it to play one or two of the games, But not all nine.

How scary is it?

I would give it a 7/10 for scare factor.

Doki Doki Literature Club

Doki Doki Literature Club (Ddlc) is a game that disguises itself as a “Dating sim,” while the actual game is much more sinister. !!Spoilers!! The game starts off with the M.C. joining the literature club, which consists of Monica, Sayori, Yuri, and Natsuki. The characters write poems in this club, and through the poems we learn that Monica knows she’s in a game, while the others don’t. She doesn’t want any of the other characters to take the one real person away from her, so she alters with their characters to try and make the player not like them, but it doesn’t work. She ends up killing all of the characters by making Sayori commit suicide, Making Yuri stab herself multiple times in front of the player, and snapping Natsuki’s neck in front of the player. After she kills them, she deletes their character files so that it can be “Just Monica.” This game is both an indie horror game, and a physiological horror game because it makes you question your choices, yet limits your choices at the same time. This game also uses jumpscares, but a significantly less amount then FNAF. I think that the game has a pretty nice story line, and the lore of the game is easy to follow. The game is really fun to play, as long as you don’t get disturbed easily that is. !!Spoilers!! My one issue with the game is that at the end, when you’re talking to Monika, that’s it. It feels like the story doesn’t really progress anymore, and if you don’t talk to her enough she’ll leave. Once she leaves, you can’t get her back and you’ll have to go to another save point to continue playing. So, let’s review…

What Makes it scary?

Small amounts of jumpscares, Breaking the fourth wall, no ability to run, disturbing deaths right in front of the player, and a pressure of making the right decision.

Is it worth the play?

Yes, this is a pretty fun game if you like psychological horrors

How Scary is it?

I would give it a 6.8/10

Baldies Basics in Education and Learning

Baldies Basics in Education and Learning (Baldies Basics for short) is a horror-survival game that is a parody of 90s educational games. In the game the player’s friend left seven books at the school house, but can’t pick them up because they’ll be late to “eating practice.” Whenever the player finds a notebook, they are forced to answer three “easy math questions” which become impossible to answer by the 6th question (second notebook, last question). Baldie then gets angry and starts chasing the player. The game is pretty simple to play: grab notebooks, answer questions, run from baldie, and escape. The way the game scares you is that if Baldie captures you, you will get jumpscared; and if you answer every question wrong the game will glitch out and another character will break the fourth wall. This game’s most entertaining part is the character design, and for me personally I was more excited to finish the game than to actually play it. Baldies voice, and all of the other voices for that matter, were INCREDIBLY irritating! I think we should leave this game in 2018 and never look back. Now it’s time to review…

What Makes it scary?

Jumpscares and breaking the fourth wall

Is it worth the play?

Some people find this game really fun, but I found it quite repetitive and overall quite boring

How Scary is it?

I would give it a 2.5/10

Andy’s Apple Farm

Andy’s apple farm is a game where the player is a “beta tester” for the “game creator” named Thomas Eastwood, who seems to be a man with unresolved trauma. The “beta tester” plays as Andy Apple, who just wants to go home, but his friends stole his keys. To get the keys back you have to play four mini games, in which at the end you find out that they threw his keys in a barn, which you have to go into to get the keys. While this is unfolding the game will “glitch out” playing horrific sounds and showing distorted images; also, the game will occasionally play cutscenes from a human family dealing with a tragic loss and the events that occur as a result. The glitches and cutscenes remind me a lot of the FNAF games, which is no surprise since the creator of the games, Logan West, said that that was one of the inspirations for their game. I really enjoyed the game, except for the part in the barn, I did NOT like that part, but that’s just my personal opinion on it. The game reminded me of the kids show I would watch when I was younger, I mean a kids show gone wrong kinda thing.  Let’s do the final review…

What Makes it scary?

Jumpscares, disturbing images, “jumpscare” cut-scenes

Is it worth the play?

I don’t think I would play this game on a regular basis, but it would be a fun game to play on the weekend every once and awhile.

How Scary is it?

I would give it a 5/10

So indie horror games, some suck, and some are great! They use a lot of the same ways to scare you such as jumpscares and breaking the fourth wall, but as long as they have a good story, then they’re a lot of fun.  I think if you want to find one that’s worth playing, you just need to find attributes that you like about the horror games and look for games that include that.