The Guest II

The Guest II sends players into the woods to meet up with friends on a camping trip that goes wrong almost immediately: nobody is at the meeting point, a pool of blood sits nearby, and what starts as a search for missing friends curdles into a first-person psychological horror chase. Developed and published solo by Chilean studio 99 Grados Games, it's a direct sequel to 2025's The Guest, released cleanly on 23 April 2026 with no Early Access history to complicate the picture. This review's research found a review sample that's genuinely enthusiastic about the atmosphere and scares, paired with a tight, specific list of complaints reviewers raised again and again.

A sequel reviewers say improved on the original

The clearest signal in this review's research was how consistently reviewers who'd played the first game rated the sequel above it. One wrote, "The Guest 2 surprised me. The first one was absolutely insane and this one isnt far from it," while another called it "absolutely outstanding — miles better than the first part," comparing its atmosphere favorably to the horror game "Empty Eye." A third reviewer specifically praised the sound design and scare timing, saying it was "one of the scariest horror games I played in 2026 so far." That's a meaningful pattern for a sequel from the same solo developer working with what's presumably still a modest budget — it suggests real iteration rather than a rushed cash-in.

Two stalkers, a slow build, and scares reviewers found effective

The premise builds around two separate antagonists rather than one: reviewers described a chainsaw-wielding figure alongside a distinct, unsettling "granny" character who stalks the player through the game's haunted-house-in-the-woods setting. One reviewer summarized the tone as "colorful, immersive fun full of funny moments and sweet jumpscares," while another called the overall experience "INTENSE," describing being gripped "from start to finish" by the mounting dread. This review's research found the puzzle design specifically praised as approachable — several reviewers noted they never got stuck, letting the pacing and scares stay the focus rather than friction from obtuse puzzle logic.

The flashlight complaint that would not stop recurring

If there's one detail every reviewer in this review's research sample seemed to agree on, it's that the in-game flashlight is deliberately, almost comically weak. One reviewer joked it was "straight up booty cheeks with crust build up," while another pointed out a visibly better flashlight sitting in-fiction at the campsite that the player character simply can't pick up. It reads as an intentional design choice to heighten tension through limited visibility, and most reviewers treated it as a running joke rather than a serious flaw — but its sheer frequency across independent reviews makes it worth flagging plainly for anyone who finds a weak flashlight more frustrating than atmospheric.

Slow movement, no keybind remapping, and a chase scene that suffers for it

A more substantive complaint clustered around movement speed. This review's research found several reviewers describing walking as "painfully slow" even while sprinting, with one specifically asking for a non-left-shift run bind "for any future games" since the default scheme wasn't comfortable for a right-handed player. That complaint has real gameplay consequences: one reviewer singled out a chase sequence in the game's basement as needlessly difficult specifically because of how slowly the player character moves, undercutting what should be one of the game's tensest set pieces rather than enhancing it.

Technical rough edges: textures, performance, and a Steam Deck gap

Beyond pacing, this review's research found a smaller but specific cluster of technical complaints. One reviewer described graphical issues near the start of the game, with rocks and trees that "didn't look like they were texture wrapped." Another reported needing to drop every setting to low to run the game smoothly on an RTX 5080, a high-end card that shouldn't struggle with a game of this visual scope, suggesting an optimization gap rather than a hardware ceiling. A separate reviewer reported the game simply not working on Steam Deck at all. None of these were described as game-breaking on desktop Windows hardware, but together they paint a picture of a small solo project that could use another optimization pass.

A specific claim about AI-generated art, reported plainly

One review in this review's research sample raised a more pointed concern: that some of the environmental art uses AI-generated images, and that these images are "awkwardly squished from the top or bottom" rather than properly fitted to their frames. This review's research found this claim made only once in the available sample rather than corroborated by multiple reviewers, so it's reported here as a single, specific observation rather than an established pattern — but it's specific enough, and serious enough as a claim, that prospective buyers concerned about AI-generated assets in indie horror games should weigh it directly rather than have it buried in a general complaints list.

Short, and reviewers were direct about it

Length was the final recurring theme. This review's research found one reviewer reporting completing the entire game in around half an hour, and multiple others describing the ending as abrupt — "another abrupt ending tho," as one put it, echoing a complaint some reviewers also raised about the first game. Notably, the storefront listing shows no Steam Achievements category at all, and at least one reviewer explicitly asked the developer to "add achievements to your games," reinforcing that this is a deliberately compact, low-overhead release rather than one aiming for a long completionist tail.

Taken together, The Guest II reads as a small, confidently-made horror sequel that mostly delivers on atmosphere and scares while carrying a specific, well-documented set of rough edges: a joke of a flashlight, sluggish unremappable movement, some unoptimized visuals, a single but pointed claim about AI art, and a runtime short enough that several reviewers were out the door within the hour. Horror fans who value scares over technical polish will likely find it worth the low asking price; anyone after a substantial campaign should look elsewhere.