Deadpact sends you into the dark with a single promise: freedom, if you make it back. This horror puzzle game from the small studio Low Health Games casts you as a condemned prisoner, sent underground for one last chance. Its free demo, live on Steam since 4 September, covers the whole first act, roughly a third of the full game. Early players have taken to it well, even if the sample is still small. It also has one feature that sticks with you, quite literally: your wounds don’t heal on their own.
At a glance
Deadpact is a single-player horror puzzle game, developed and published by Low Health Games.
Its Steam demo includes the complete first act, about a third of the game.
The demo had 26 positive reviews out of 27 on Steam as of 3 October.
Deadpact sends a condemned prisoner into the dark
The premise of Deadpact fits in one line on its Steam page: sentenced to death, you’re sent into the dark for one last chance at freedom. Japanese site Game*Spark covered the game as soon as it was announced on 23 June, in a piece by writer RIKUSYO describing a blend of survival, horror, puzzles and story-driven exploration.
Between descents, a candlelit tavern is your refuge. You buy strange brews that sharpen your senses, trade for clues and report back to the man who sent you down. You can tell him the truth or lie to him, and the game remembers every choice you make. More than one ending is planned, depending on what you give up, what you keep and who you decide to trust.
As for the puzzles, Low Health Games talks about interconnected challenges that ask you to explore and understand each place, rather than solve isolated tests. The demo adds physics-based interaction too: you grab, drag and slam doors, chests and objects with your own hands, according to the studio’s announcement on Steam.
Wounds that stay and monsters you can’t fight
What stands out in Deadpact is how it treats your body. The Steam page lists injuries, infection, hunger, fatigue and sleep among its survival mechanics. Damage sticks: limbs can be torn away, wounds can turn septic and poison can creep through your veins, and every affliction you carry will kill you if you ignore it.
Drawing a weapon is off the table. Low Health Games explains that each monster follows its own logic and that none of them can be fought. Some track you by sound, while others can make you hurt yourself just by meeting your gaze. Survival comes down to watching and working out each horror’s rule before it kills you.
Be warned that the game is plainly aimed at adults. Its Steam page flags frequent, intense violence, dismemberment, disturbing body horror and scenes where the character can be forced into self-harm during certain encounters. If that kind of content makes you uneasy, the demo is the right place to judge before going any further.
A generous demo with strong early reviews
The Deadpact demo runs through Act 1 from start to finish, from the tavern down to the depths of Ravenmoor. It’s fully playable on a controller and comes in eight languages, according to the studio’s announcement on 26 August. As of 3 October, it holds 26 positive reviews out of 27 on Steam. That’s a modest number, but it suggests the people who tried it came away won over.
The specialist press is starting to take notice as well. Writing for Alpha Beta Gamer on 30 September, KJ Robertson described a tense, atmospheric game in which you’ll die a lot. On anticipation, the full game sat 4,273rd among the most wishlisted unreleased games on Steam on 3 October, according to Valve’s ranking.
There’s no release date yet, and the store page simply says “Coming soon” on PC. Deadpact joins a run of indie projects that lean hard on atmosphere, such as Whispers in the Fog, a one-man horror project, or in a very different genre Gunmetal Gothic, whose demo is also winning players over. If demanding horror is your thing, the Deadpact demo on Steam is free to download.
Every upcoming release and update date is gathered in our calendar.