More than any other genre, horror games have been evolving at such a rapid rate over the past few years. I remember not long ago playing indie horror games with visuals like the original Half-Life, and now there are dozens of spooky games made by tiny studios that are practically photo realistic. Horror games aren’t just getting prettier though, they’re also getting more creative. One of the most memorable horror experiences of the last couple of years was Buckshot Roulette, which shocked the horror world with its utterly brutal premise. Well Mike Klubnika is back with another shortform game you won’t soon forget in a hurry, s.p.l.i.t.
Set in the not too distant future, in s.p.l.i.t you play as a hacker called Axel. Axel and two of his former colleagues are planning a malware attack on the evil corporation they once worked for, who you’ll only really find out more about as you progress deeper into the game. I’ll admit after playing Buckshot Roulette I wasn’t expecting quite so much command prompt hacking in this horror game, but it’s incredibly well implemented.
The entirety of s.p.l.i.t is played with the keyboard, and takes place at a single terminal. You’ll start the game focused on your first screen which features the chat with your partners in digital crime, which you’ll take part in by hitting any key and watching the chat automatically fill with your part of the conversation. After reading a back and forth that to someone with no real experience in retro hacking looked like nonsense, I was apparently ready to help take down an unethical megacorp. Gulp.
At this point it’s time to look over at your other screen and get started, which you do by holding alt and pressing A or D to turn your cervical spine. When you’re prompted to do this you’ll also notice that you can turn towards a window to check there’s nobody coming to stop you, which immediately sent a chill down the back of my neck. This isn’t the only reference to the horror in the room you’re hacking in either, as early on the camera pans to a noose you’ve set up in the corner. These are desperate people trying to do the right thing, but the risks are beyond huge.
To succeed in your mission though it’s important that you actually start hacking, which is pretty full on. Once you turn to your screen you’ll be greeted with a command prompt bar and not a lot else, and be teleported back to the DOS days of old. First you’ll type in help (which the game nudges you towards doing) and be greeted with all sorts of different commands that you can use to change directory, edit files, and even print out handy little notes as reminders. The notes are particularly important because without a mouse scrolling up a massive stretch of yellow screen with Pg Up and Pg Dwn isn’t exactly fun.
To say I muddled through the hacking part of s.p.l.i.t would be an understatement. You are given instructions on what you need to do next from your two allies, but it always involves you working out how to find specific files or access data to enter a correct code. There were multiple times while doing this that I was certain I’d get stuck and have to give up beating s.p.l.i.t, but this text based puzzle aspect of the game is so cleverly designed that I managed it. As long as you look at all the commands at your disposal and keep good notes you’ll manage too, and will feel like a genius when you progress.
If s.p.l.i.t was made up of hacking alone it’d be a fine game but not a particularly exciting one, but between and after hacking sections things really amp up. I simply cannot spoil the final portion of s.p.l.i.t because it absolutely needs to be experienced first-hand, but I’m not sure a game has ever made me feel so uneasy, tense and outright horrified as this.
It admittedly demands a lot of you, but games like s.p.l.i.t don’t come along every day. It tells a harrowing tale (that will admittedly be way too much for some to stomach) and does so predominantly with only text puzzles and a little chat box. Although it only lasts just over an hour it’s one of the most powerful experiences I’ve had this year, and proves undoubtedly that Mike Klubnika is a master of his craft.
