Our Secret Below
Genres: Puzzle, Horror, Mystery, Atmospheric, Thriller, Adventure
Play modes: singleplayer
Release Date: 10-7-2020
Rating: 4/5
Developer: DarkStone Digital
Our verdict
8/10
- Difficulty: Hard
- Players: 1
- Playtime: 3–5 h
Our Secret Below is a horror escape room from Brian Clarke, the solo developer of The Mortuary Assistant. You play Nia, a woman locked in a basement who has four hours before her captor returns, and you escape by searching his belongings for keys, codes and clues to his past. It suits solo players who like dark story-driven puzzle games and do not mind replaying for multiple endings.
About 89% of its 95 Steam reviews are positive, and Difficult is one of its most-voted tags. Players find the puzzles clever and rewarding, though one calls them a bit convoluted. The story is the draw: it gets stranger with each run, and the endings build on each other, with a twist reviewers single out.
The big caveat is saving. There is no save system, so getting caught sends you back to the start, and a run takes an hour or two. Notes you write carry over, which helps. Recommended for patient horror-puzzle fans, especially Mortuary Assistant players; skip it if losing progress frustrates you.
Pros
- Captor's belongings double as puzzles and backstory
- Multiple endings that build on each other across runs
- Surreal twist players single out as a highlight
Cons
- No saving: getting caught restarts the whole run
- Some puzzles feel convoluted
About
An escape room thriller-horror from solo game developer Brian Clarke (creator of The Mortuary Assistant, The Subject, and Kohate). Our Secret Below is a story about a woman who has been abducted and must break out of her cell, learn about her captor’s past, and use that knowledge to escape. The deeper the story goes, the stranger things get...
Nia Davis, has been taken to the basement of an unfamiliar house. Waking up in a haze, Nia does not remember anything before this moment. In her weakened state, she overhears her captor and learns she does not have much time left to live. He is obsessed, and no one else can have her. She isn’t the first woman he’s brought down here and there has to be some way out.
Our Secret Below is a story-driven escape room that goes deeper than things appear. Search through the belongings of your captor, learn all you can, and find out why this man is so obsessed. Find keys, codes, and other items to unlock personal belongings and make your escape without being caught. But strange things start to happen the more you find. Your captivity may be more than it seems.Features
- Single Player Escape Room/Puzzle game
- Average duration: 3+ hours
