The Event Review

Waking Up With No Name in a Very Dark Asylum

The Event is a first-person psychological horror game that drops the player into an abandoned asylum with no memory of who they are or how they got there. Piecing together the truth relies entirely on exploration: notes, testimonies, and environmental clues scattered through the asylum's corridors and offices gradually reconstruct the story of what happened to the protagonist and everyone else who was there. The game is explicitly built around vulnerability rather than combat, offering no weapons at all, only the ability to run or hide from whatever's stalking the dark alongside a flashlight whose beam only reaches a few steps ahead. Developed and published solo by Lazy Games, The Event launched on Steam on September 15, 2026, priced at $5.49, for Windows only, following roughly a year of visible development including a public beta build and staggered language support additions for Italian, Spanish, and Russian players ahead of release.

The structure is deliberately compact and linear rather than open-ended: a roughly two-hour experience built to be finished in a single sitting, with the developer explicitly warning upfront about scenes of violence, gore, and disturbing environments.

A Small, Positive Solo-Developer Launch

The Event has drawn 18 reviews so far, with 16 positive and 2 negative for an 89% "Positive" approval rating, spanning English, Italian, and Russian players. Several Italian reviewers specifically mention wishlisting the game a year earlier after trying its public beta, giving this small, week-old launch pool an unusually long runway of pre-release familiarity concentrated in that one language group.

A Genuinely Creepy Atmosphere, Built Entirely by One Person

The praise across the pool centers overwhelmingly on atmosphere and sound design, with multiple reviewers explicitly marveling that a single developer built the whole thing. One Italian reviewer calls the sound design and audio incredible, specifically congratulating the developer for accomplishing all of it solo, and calls it genuinely impressive for one person's work. Another reviewer describes the experience as a deep sense of dread balanced by a few well-placed, funny Easter eggs that keep the game from feeling relentlessly grim, while praising the plot for keeping them glued to the screen from start to finish given the low price. An English-language reviewer says the unsettling setup of waking up in a dark asylum with no memory immediately hooked them, and that the lack of any weapon made every encounter feel more intense, calling it one of the scarier indie horror games they've played, with several unpredictable scares catching them off guard. A reviewer from Belgium, who says horror isn't usually their genre, credits a friend's recommendation for getting them to try it and came away pleasantly surprised by the roughly two-hour runtime and its puzzles and atmosphere exceeding expectations. Multiple reviewers specifically praise the restraint in the scare design, with one Italian reviewer noting that some areas manage genuine unease without leaning on a jump scare every couple of minutes, and appreciating that progressing the story actually requires paying attention to what's found rather than just walking forward. Several reviewers frame the whole package as an easy recommendation purely on value, with one calling it a great example of how indie games can outdo AAA titles these days, and another specifically recommending it as the perfect pick for a horror night with friends.

An Unclear Ending, an Alternate-Path Puzzle Nobody Can Solve, and One Plagiarism Accusation

The negative and more mixed reviews concentrate on clarity, both narrative and mechanical, rather than technical failure. A detailed Russian-language review, while ultimately recommending the game as a solid effort for a first project, says the story's ending felt genuinely unclear, and that it's not obvious at all how to reach an alternate ending or how a chess puzzle mentioned in the game is actually meant to be solved, describing the overall design as a bit disjointed despite being competent; the same reviewer says the game isn't particularly scary, with its wandering monsters more irritating than frightening, and explicitly advises against buying at full price, suggesting a small launch discount would make it an easy pickup. Another English-language reviewer who enjoyed the game similarly notes that reading every paper and watching every in-game film is essential to avoid getting lost in the story, flagging that the narrative delivery leans heavily on optional, easy-to-miss material. One of the two negative reviews is far harsher, accusing the game outright of being a copy of another, older game the reviewer can't quite place, built from what they call terrible store-bought assets, though they don't name a specific title or provide further detail to substantiate the claim. A separate one-line Russian review dismisses the game bluntly as garbage without elaboration. Beyond those specific complaints, no reviewer in the sampled pool reports bugs, crashes, or technical issues, and the puzzle difficulty itself is generally described as fair, if occasionally easy.

Verdict

The Event is a short, cheap, atmosphere-first psychological horror game whose 89% approval rating reflects real appreciation for what one solo developer managed to build, particularly its sound design and its restraint in a genre that often leans too hard on cheap jump scares. Waking up defenseless in a dark, half-remembered asylum with only a flashlight and the option to run or hide is a familiar horror premise, but reviewers consistently say the execution, particularly the mood and audio work, carries it further than its unweaponized run-or-hide mechanics alone would suggest. The friction points are narrower but worth noting: an ending and alternate-path puzzle that at least one detailed reviewer found genuinely unclear, a narrative that leans on optional collectible reading to avoid confusion, and one unsubstantiated but pointed accusation of asset reuse from a single dissenting reviewer. At $5.49 for a roughly two-hour, single-sitting horror experience, The Event is an easy, low-risk pickup for horror fans who prefer dread and exploration over combat, especially those curious to see what a solo developer can pull off on a shoestring budget, though anyone expecting total narrative clarity by the credits should go in with tempered expectations.