FNAF – or Five Nights at Freddy’s, if you prefer its formal title – has finally come together with Silent Hill courtesy of a new horror game, available to PC players right now via Steam. But don’t say I didn’t warn you – this one isn’t for the faint of heart.
The Mortuary Assistant, created by DarkStone Digital, the developers behind indie horrors like Kohate and Our Secret Below, casts you as the eponymous undertaker who gets called into work late one night when your boss bungles the shift rota. Now, I know what you’re thinking, but that isn’t what makes this game frightening.
The FNAF angle comes from the fact you’re essentially trapped for the night, trying to fulfil the duties of your strange and macabre job until the liberation of morning. The cadavers need their jaws wired shut, their veins pumped with embalming fluid, and their various parts patched up and reconstructed – like the unfortunate Mike Schmidt, watching the hideous Fazbear animatronics stalk around on the nightshift, you’re stuck doing a job that would be horrifying at the best of times.
But obviously, it doesn’t stop there. Before long, faces start to appear at the windows, figures creep past at the corner of your eye, and this horrifying creature that looks like it’s made from chalk and plaster of paris – you’ll know what I mean when you see it – begin stalking you, and the whole thing gets very dark and very psychological — a la Silent Hill — very quickly. I’m not one to boast, but normally horror games don’t get to me that much – Alien: Isolation, Inside, Amnesia, PT, I’ve done them all. But The Mortuary Assistant has a few moments that I really struggle to handle, and it’s not because I don’t like being called into work on my day off.
It’s out now on Steam, and if you’re feeling brave and maybe want to host a scary game marathon for yourself, there’s plenty to choose from from our guide to the best horror games on PC. There’s also — if you want to take a break and let your pulse slow down — some fantastic and much nicer things to choose from in our guide to the best indie games on PC.