Part 2D puzzler, part survival horror, Detention keeps you questioning your understanding constantly throughout the experience. It’s this intertwined cultural terror that makes Detention one of the most disturbing indie games out there. Scraps of paper and journals found throughout the levels paint a picture of life before everything turned sinister they talk of informants and fear-laced meetings in secret, and a people every bit as scared for their safety amid a paranoid government as they are of the paranormal. To get out alive, they have to face their inner demons as well as the ones now haunting the halls.
You take control of a pair of high school students who find themselves alone in their school just as the building descends into otherworldly chaos. Set in 1960s Taiwan, the threat of punishment under the nation’s martial law haunts the characters as much as the game’s vengeful spirits. While it certainly borrows some atmospheric cues from the classic horror series, this game forges a new path for the genre with its settings and cultural trappings. With its tattered, decrepit hallways and bathrooms clotted red with rust and blood, Detention is sure to remind players of the iconic town of Silent Hill. The result is disorientating – and it’s in this space of confused anxiety that these games thrive. People and objects don’t behave as they should, as we expect them to, and environments change from day to night, location to location, faster than should ever be possible. To disturb means to foster anxiety, and these games never quite let you get comfortable, lulling you into a false sense of safety before throwing everything into confusion once more. They play off your expectations of how a game should work, making you question your memory, your perception, your very sense of reality. The games listed here frighten players in an entirely different way. Sure, there’s Five Nights at Freddy’s or Bendy and the Ink Machine, but what about players who want a good fright without the tense, heart-pounding expectation of something jumping out from around a corner? What about the disturbing indie games that manage to terrify without cheap tricks? When you think of indie horror games, a few titles with cult followings immediately jump to mind.
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