Beso's Shawarma

A late-night walk that turns into a nightmare

Beso's Shawarma follows a late-night phone call that lures the player through empty streets to a sketchy shawarma shop, weaving together strange characters, a terrifying choice, and a looping, disjointed nightmare structure. It's a small, focused premise, and reviewers consistently describe the payoff as landing well beyond what its brief runtime and low price might suggest. One reviewer called it, plainly, "Absolute cinema," praising "genuinely awesome atmosphere thanks to its strong visuals and art style paired with that soothing music."

A love letter to Tbilisi that resonates even with outsiders

The single most consistent and distinctive point of praise across the pool is how specifically and warmly the game evokes its setting. Georgian reviewers in particular responded with real enthusiasm. One wrote, "As a fellow Tbilisi-residing Georgian I couldn't stop myself from enjoying all the references to this city. The 3 nabiji, the Indian courier, shua qalaqi playing on TV and many other things put a smile on my face." Notably, that local specificity didn't alienate international players either; one reviewer unfamiliar with the city wrote, "The atmosphere is beautiful, captures the Tbilisi vibe pretty well. Georgian references were pretty well done, really put a smile on my face, because it's so... unexpected. Well, it's my first Georgian game so that's why, but overall, found it very enjoyable and fun." That combination, a setting specific enough to delight locals while still landing for outsiders, is a genuinely difficult balance for a small indie horror game to strike.

Substance beneath the surrealism

Beyond atmosphere, reviewers credited the game with real thematic ambition packed into its short runtime. One wrote that the game is "full of political and philosophical messages," pointing specifically to "the sidequest of tearing the posters down" and "the morally complex character" at its center as evidence of deeper intent beneath the surface-level horror trappings. Another reviewer reflected on the story's throughline more directly, describing themes of "life trickling through as you meet people on your way to the shawarma joint," while noting the game's multiple endings gave them a reason to want to "play through again," having found their first ending "pretty dark."

An honest, mixed structured take

Not every reviewer was swept away, and one of the pool's most detailed reviews, written in a structured checklist format, offers a useful counterbalance. It rated most categories as solidly middling rather than exceptional: "Decent and functional" graphics, an "Average experience" for gameplay, "Acceptable overall" audio, and a game length of "Under 30 minutes." That same review settled on "Mixed feelings" for its overall experience and landed on a 7/10 score, alongside crediting the price as a "Fair deal." It's a useful counterweight to the pool's more effusive praise, suggesting that while the atmosphere and cultural specificity land strongly for many players, the underlying gameplay and production values are more modest than the most enthusiastic reviews might suggest.

Rough edges in the Georgian localization

A specific, credible criticism comes from a native Georgian-speaking reviewer, who flagged the localization directly: the game "clearly shows it was written in English first and then translated into Georgian," a rough-edge complaint that carries particular weight given how much of the game's appeal is tied specifically to its Georgian setting and cultural texture. The same reviewer also noted being unable to find a specific in-game location ("3 nabiji") and joked about a missing collectible cassette tape, suggesting some minor completionist frustration alongside the translation concern.

A short experience, priced to match, mostly

At $2.99, Beso's Shawarma sits at an impulse-buy price point that most reviewers felt matched its scope fairly, especially given the replay incentive of multiple endings and collectible tapes. Still, brevity was a real sticking point for at least a couple of reviewers: one negative review noted, "If you are looking for a super short game that has a few jump scares, then it is great. Otherwise, it was super boring," while a more measured positive review simply noted it's "short as hell" even while enjoying the experience. For a horror game this inexpensive, that trade-off, real atmosphere and cultural specificity in exchange for a single short sitting, seems to land well for most of the pool, even if it won't satisfy players looking for a sustained horror experience.

An itch.io feel that some found familiar rather than fresh

A handful of reviewers placed the game within a broader lineage of short, low-budget horror titles rather than treating it as entirely singular. One wrote, "eh, it's just like an itch.io horror game, but on steam. I thought this one was weird and kinda funny though. I guess there's a 2nd ending or something, some collectibles to find if you wanna get more out of it, but yeah, it's short as hell." That framing, familiar enough to place within a recognizable genre, but with enough specific character and local flavor to stand out from the crowd, is a useful middle-ground read between the pool's most rapturous praise and its handful of harsher dismissals. It's also a fair way to set expectations for prospective buyers coming from outside the small-scale narrative horror scene: this is a game working within a well-established, budget-conscious tradition, executed with a distinctive regional voice rather than reinventing the format outright.

A developer players want to see more from

A recurring pattern across several reviews goes beyond praise for this specific game and into direct encouragement for the developer's future work. One wrote, "This is but a single step to greatness, I wish the best to the developer and I hope he keeps pumping more games cuz I'm buying all of em, I don't care if it's a cookie clicker type thing I'm buying it to support the dev." Another reviewer described completing every achievement and collecting every cassette tape as "the best money I've spent on a game in a while," explicitly framing their purchase as investment in the studio's future output rather than just payment for the hours already spent. That kind of forward-looking goodwill, common for a debut or early release from a small studio with a genuinely distinctive voice, suggests Beso's Shawarma is functioning as effectively as a proof of concept as it is a standalone horror experience.

Verdict

Beso's Shawarma succeeds as a small, distinctive slice of surreal horror, anchored by a genuinely well-realized sense of place that resonates with both Georgian players and international newcomers alike. Its brief runtime and modest production values keep it from reaching the "masterpiece" praise some of its most enthusiastic reviewers give it, and its Georgian localization has real room to improve given how central the setting is to the experience. Still, at under three dollars, it's an easy recommendation for horror fans looking for a short, atmospheric, culturally specific experience worth a single evening's attention.