Murder House

Murder House is an intentional throwback to PlayStation 1-era survival horror, made in the same lineage as developer Puppet Combo's earlier Babysitter Bloodbath. The framing — a 1980s local news crew breaks into the abandoned home of executed serial killer Anthony Smith, planning to shoot a salacious haunted-house segment, only to discover the Easter Ripper is very much alive and prepared to wipe them out one by one — is openly modelled on the era's straight-to-VHS slasher canon.

The game commits hard to its source aesthetic. Tank controls, third-person fixed cinematic camera angles, PS1-style low-poly graphics, a retro synth soundtrack, and a deliberately limited save system that requires you to spend in-world pencils (in limited supply) to commit your progress. The developer is upfront that players who can't tolerate tank controls won't enjoy the experience — the inputs are the point, not a limitation.

Underneath the period-faithful presentation is a real survival-horror loop. You explore the house, gather items, manage resources, and try to stay ahead of a deranged stalker who genuinely knows the building better than you do. Multiple camera modes, fully voiced dialogue, gore and bloody murders, and an 80s B-movie slasher narrative structure all support the central conceit. The game runs short, which is the right scope for what it's trying to be — and the absence of modern survival-horror conveniences is the entire reason it works.