Is it possible to reinvent survival horror games in 2023? Many have tried, usually unsuccessfully, to recreate the golden era of the genre, harkening back to the original Resident Evil trilogy or the Silent Hill quadrilogy. While the genre is doing fairly well with more action-focused titles (the tightly crafted Resident Evil 4 remake) or first-person thrillers (like this year’s excellent Amnesia: The Bunker), top-down survival horrors are harder to modernize. Last year’s Signalis and the Alone in the Dark-inspired Tormented Souls are arguably the two shining examples in the genre that managed to both recreate what made this sub-genre of horror so beloved, while also implementing modern quality-of-life improvements.
Of all the titles that have inspired game developers to make a homage to them, barely anyone would cite Resident Evil: Gaiden: a Game Boy Color exclusive that featured a top-down perspective while exploring, switching to a first-person camera angle during combat. Well, enter You Will Die Here Tonight, a new survival horror that takes direct inspiration from the 8-bit game.
Developed and published by Spiral Bound Interactive LLC, You Will Die Here Tonight’s use of different perspectives is definitely a unique selling feature that instantly makes it stand out: combat is often criticized in survival horror for being clunky and unfair, so by giving direct control of the reticule in first person, fans of shooters can utilize their quick reflexes to dispatch of the various types of undead scattered around Breckenridge Hall. The gothic-styled main location is clearly inspired by the iconic Spencer Mansion of the first Resident Evil, as are some of the characters of the Aries Division. This elite task force has to escape certain deaths, avoid traps, solve puzzles, and figure out what is keeping them locked up.
As the title suggests, players will die many, many times in this game. However, while this may sound like a Souls-like type of challenge, failure and loss of life are tied into the main narrative of the game. Without spoiling much of the surprisingly intricate plot, You Will Die Here Tonight features an element of looping that takes into account the player’s actions in previous lives. Taking control of the various members of Aries, there are different parts of the level that can be explored, with each mistake or dangerous curiosity leading to new discoveries and understandings of the best course of action to take.
The developer is definitely ambitious with this title, and Spiral Bound has to be commended for going in a different direction to make the game feel different from its peers. However, there is still quite a bit of polishing that needs to be done in order to make this as great as it can be. My experience featured a variety of bugs, from navigational issues (the characters kept getting stuck in the level geometry at odd angles) to unresponsive button prompts (it was impossible to switch to the knife as a primary weapon if I had anything else equipped) and soft locks (my character got stuck twice in different scenarios in which I entered combat way too soon, only to trigger an endless dialogue loop that could never proceed since the other subject was long dead).
Spiral Bound is hard at work fixing You Will Die Here Tonight, taking into consideration player feedback of all kind to make sure that everyone who buys the title is getting an enjoyable experience. Despite some janky moments, this is a thrilling and inventive indie title that shows a lot of genuine passion for survival horror and underdog games like RE: Gaiden. Worth checking out for genre fans looking for something different and fresh.
