SHOCKFACE Review

The Job Interview From Hell, Literally

SHOCKFACE is a $6.99 indie survival horror game from developers adrenak and approximi that commits fully to a specific, beloved throwback: 90s-style fixed cameras, tank controls, and zero combat. The setup is blunt and effective. Chelsea shows up for a job interview at a nearly abandoned office building, only to end up trapped inside with a serial killer once the interview wraps. From there, the game is pure Clock Tower-lineage survival horror: explore, solve item-based puzzles, hide when the killer gets close, and find a way out. Released September 17, 2026, with two patches already shipped within its first two days (one toning down the killer's noise level, one adding HUD markers), SHOCKFACE currently sits at 7 English reviews, 6 positive and 1 negative, a small but broadly favorable reception for a short, cheap genre throwback.

Nostalgia Is The Whole Pitch, And It Mostly Lands

Reviewers who grew up on 90s survival horror consistently single out the fixed-camera presentation as the game's strongest card. "The game simply screams the vibe we all felt when we were kids. The fixed camera perspective is a breath of fresh air among the games we see nowadays," wrote one reviewer, who also praised the tank controls, art style, and voice acting by name. Another reviewer drew a more specific visual comparison: "Aesthetically the game looks like if the PC adventure games from the early-mid 2000s went in the horror direction for a bit. Really captures that early 2000s feel the dev was going for!" A third reviewer invoked the genre's clearest touchstone directly, calling it "an imperfect but fun little 'Clocktower' with a few wacky puzzles and some decent tension." That three-way agreement on the specific era and genre being evoked suggests the developers succeeded at the narrow, deliberately old-fashioned thing they set out to do.

Too Forgiving For Genre Veterans

Where the review pool pushes back most consistently is on difficulty, and this is a real, corroborated soft spot rather than a single complaint. "It is a little easy with forgiving checkpoints and enemy spawns times but for the first time playing it'll pose enough challenge," wrote one reviewer, framing it as a minor issue. A second, self-described "long-time survival horror player" was more pointed about the same gap: "I would've loved to see harder puzzles and a more aggressive pursuer. The game has a lot of potential, but I rarely felt like I was truly in danger." Two independent reviewers landing on the same specific critique, that the stalking threat rarely feels dangerous, is a real signal that the game's tension could use tightening, even though neither reviewer let it stop them from enjoying the rest of the experience.

Controls Need Refinement, Especially On Gamepad

The genre's signature tank controls are a point of some friction rather than pure throwback charm. "The controls need some attention and refinement (there doesn't appear to be a way to walk backwards, for example)," noted one reviewer. Another ran into a more specific, hardware-level problem: "for some reason, the tank controls didn't work with my controller. I actually came pretty close to refunding the game because of that, but decided to stick with it and finished the game using the modern control scheme instead." That reviewer's willingness to switch control schemes and stick with it, rather than refund outright, suggests the fallback modern controls are functional even when the intended tank-control experience isn't fully realized on every input device.

A Short, Occasionally Buggy Ride

Playtimes logged across the review pool cluster tightly between roughly 80 and 190 minutes, confirming this is a short, single-sitting horror experience rather than a lengthy campaign, a fact one reviewer explicitly flagged as a value concern at the current asking price. Stability is mostly solid, per one reviewer's account, "in terms of stability the game really held up the whole time! No bugs with the killer, no softlocks, etc." But that account isn't universal: the pool's one negative review describes a hard progression-blocking failure, "Hard locked right at the end, quitting meant losing all progress... Game reloads, no character on screen. Cant move. Cant do anything." That's a serious, specific complaint, but it's an isolated account rather than a corroborated pattern across the small review pool, worth flagging as a real risk without treating it as the norm.

Voice Acting And Story Hold Their Own

Despite the story's straightforward slasher-horror shape, reviewers who engaged with the narrative found more there than a bare-bones setup. One reviewer laid out the plot's early beats approvingly, describing the interview's suspiciously smooth process, the free food, and the sudden loss of consciousness that kicks off the real horror, without spoiling the twist. Another reviewer summarized the whole package succinctly: "A well-made slasher game. I can recommend it." Combined with the specific praise for voice acting and sound design from the review pool's most detailed account, the presentation is clearly punching above the game's short runtime and low price.

Verdict

SHOCKFACE is a small, confident throwback to Clock Tower-style survival horror, fixed cameras, tank controls, no combat, and a killer stalking a single confined building, and it mostly succeeds at recreating that specific, nostalgic feeling for the players who grew up on it. Its difficulty is too forgiving for genre veterans looking for real tension, its control scheme shows some rough edges, particularly on gamepad, and one reviewer's account of a hard progression-locking bug is worth keeping in mind even though it wasn't a widespread pattern in this small pool. At under two hours of playtime for $6.99, value-conscious buyers should wait for a sale, but fans of old-school stalker horror who just want that specific fixed-camera feeling again will likely come away satisfied.