Oh great, I'm being followed through a crowded subway station by a monster only I can see
Where's your asthma inhaler? Is it in your hand? Good, because you need it to stay alive in this horror game about getting stalked through metro stations by a tall creep that nobody else on the platform can perceive. Crowded Followed is basically a playable It Follows, the 2014 horror movie and overt metaphor for sexually transmitted disease. Only this time the slow but unstoppable entity is following you because you picked up a mysterious briefcase from a dying man in an alleyway. I thought I told you to stop accepting random bloodsoaked objects from strange men? Quit it! Anyway, there's a demo for it on Steam if you like.
As you can see, that big lady is not stopping. The game sees players pushing past people who step in the way, scraping around for small change (to buy a ticket to get through a subway barrier), and slurping on that inhaler to keep a stamina meter up. Looks like the goal is definitely to channel the anxiety of a crowded space.
It's coming out on October 24th, just in time for spooksday, and is being made by Night Dial, a Belfast-based horror developer (as you can maybe tell by the accent of dying alleyway man in the trailer). It features a scene that has you fast-walking your way through a riot in the streets, making this the second game release in one month that features the armoured police Land Rovers of Northern Ireland (the other being bicycle courier comedy Parcel Corps).
There's also a bit where you push through a crowded nightclub to escape your paranormal pursuer, and if you look up and listen to the DJ, you'll realise it's Irish chiptune musician Chipzel, the artist who did the music for reflex-testing rhythm game Super Hexagon and dice-rolling roguelike Dicey Dungeons. This is a lot of Northern Ireland packed into one small space. Please, I need to get through. Excuse me, excuse me. Beep beep.
The game normally has two full stops in its name - Crowded. Followed. - but as with skateboarding sim Skate, I refuse to adopt such punctuation
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