What’s the nastiest game you’ve ever played? The original Fallout has some seriously bloody death animations. The self healing in The Forest and Far Cry make your eyes water. And there are plenty of moments in GTA where you perhaps start to wonder whether all these videogames are good for you. But back in the day, if you wanted the hard stuff, you bought Doom. Inspired by id Software’s greatest work, David Szymanski sparked the boomer shooter renaissance with Dusk. Now he’s back with Butcher’s Creek, a new and absolutely brutal FPS game that has shades of Condemned and Rockstar’s Manhunt – and that’s about to hit Steam.
In Butcher’s Creek, you play a violent, obsessed snuff film fan who is on the trail of a death cult. Wearing burlap sacks and plaid shirts, these guys kidnap their victims, bring them back to a hideout in the woods, and record the murders on VHS. In a lot of other FPS games, you’d play the avenging hero, determined to put a stop to the cult’s heinous activities. In Butcher’s Creek, you want the tapes for yourself – you’ve even brought your own camera, so you can take photographs of the cultists you’ve battered to death.
Tonally, it feels very Manhunt, a dedicatedly squalid game that conflates ultra violence with eerie pleasure. Combat however is reminiscent of Monolith’s flawed-but-often-fantastic Condemned series – it’s an FPS in style, but you use melee weapons and your fists and feet. Taking pictures of bodies restores your health. The visuals are suitably low poly, and wrapped in a nice, grainy VHS filter.
If you want to try it before it’s out, there’s a demo for Butcher’s Creek available right now. I played it a couple of months back and can certainly vouch for its ultra violence – Manhunt 3 may never happen, but this feels like a rough approximation. Otherwise, the Butcher’s Creek release date is now confirmed for Thursday January 23. You can try it and wishlist it right here.
Otherwise, get some of the best horror games on PC, or maybe the best survival games.
You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or join our community Discord to stay in the know.