The Condition – itch.io Horror – Name Your Price or Free

The Condition is the second horror themed independently developed short form horror game I’m reviewing this month. The Condition is not as engaging as my previous entry in the horror arena this month, The Butterfly. This entry is more of a “walking simulator” but it’s definitely a horror themed game which one can finish in about 30 minutes.

Let’s get the story out of the way first. You play a female renter looking for an apartment to rent. After some looking around you find an inexpensive apartment at a price which seems to be a really good deal. A one bedroom with a bathroom and separate kitchen area slash living room. But there’s one caveat. There’s a backroom which the landlord says you must not enter. When you inquire as to the reason the landlord informs that the backroom has been locked and the key was lost at some point. When you ask what might be in the sketchy room you’re told it’s unknown as it’s never been entered and no one really knows what’s behind the locked door but in all the years the landlord has owned the property he gave up on trying to get into said room. The apartment is complete and semi-furnished. No deposit but first and last month’s rent need to be paid to secure the dwelling for your use plus The Condition written into the rental contract to not disturb the back door area.

You decide your not going to find a better deal elsewhere and the apartment comes with everything you’ll need at an attractive price so you decide to rent it.

Move in day comes and once you’ve carried the last of the boxes through the front door, it’s time to start unpacking and making the place yours. You take the first box to the kitchen slash living room area and unpack it. The area is split by a nice bartop between the living room and kitchen sections. You make your way back towards the front door to get the rest of your boxes unpacked and once your all done, it’s time for a shower. At this point you’re all tuckered out and ready for bed so you make your way to the bedroom, get in bed, and go to sleep.

Your awoken sometime during the night by what sounds like a door creaking open. Just to be sure you search the apartment thoroughly including the off limits back door, which continues to look untampered with and locked so you decide it’s possible you could have been dreaming or hearing things and make your way back to bed.

You wake up bright and early and decide you’ll spend the day cleaning the apartment. You make your way to the kitchen/living room area and grab a broom. You sweep the hallways. You sweep your room. You sweep and clean the bathroom. Finally, you clean the living room and kitchen. With a full day put in cleaning up the apartment you’re feeling a bit tired and decide to retire for the night. You make your way to the bedroom and fall asleep in your trusty bed.

Your awaken again this night by some scuffling sound and once again you decide to check your apartment. Once again everything checks out and there’s no one in the apartment, You start to wonder again about that locked back door but decide your imagination is getting the best of you . But just to be sure, you decide to put a glass cup by the locked door so if someone is coming or going through that door during the night, you’ll be awakened by the sound of breaking glass.

So another uneventful day passes and once again it’s time for bed. This time, you’re awoken to the sound of breaking glass. You’re scared now and as you make your way to the locked back room, sure enough the glass is broken. Now you’re spooked. You make your way to the kitchen and immediately call the police. After a bit of nervous waiting the police finally show up and you tell them what’s going on. You tell them about the back door and the broken glass and you’re convinced someone is coming and going through that locked back door. You plead with the police to open or break down the door. The policeman asks you to hang back as he goes to investigates the door. After a few minutes you can hear the policeman kicking or otherwise trying to force the door open. The sound trails off and the policeman calls you over. When you make it to the area in the back with with the locked door you are shocked that the policeman did get the door open but behind it was a brick wall. You go over to examine the brick wall to make sure it’s real and sure enough, it’s a solid brick wall. The policeman informs you that there’s nothing else he can do but should you suspect an intruder again to kindly call the police.

After the policeman leaves you go and look at the brick wall again. You shake your head, shut the door, and examine the rest of the house one more time for good measure. You’re still a bit spooked but also relieved. All this adventuring has once again made you tired so you decide to go back to sleep…

And it’s here I’ll stop the play by play of The Condition so as not to spoil the ending. The Condition took me about 30 minutes to complete. The beginning of the game admittedly is a bit boring but it does build up enough tension for the final few minutes of the game which you’ll have to discover for yourself by going to itch.io to download and play the game or by using the following link:

https://fear-scape.itch.io/the-condition

The game is a single file executable which is about 500 kilobytes. Pretty impressive for a full game. This is another one of those low resolution games but I’ve found this hardly matters because once you get into the game, the immersion and imagination go a long way. If you decide to download and complete the game, make sure you wait for the ending outro.