Imscared, and so will you be after playing this indie horror masterpiece

If you thought - or perhaps hoped - that Slender was the pinnacle of low-budget gaming horror, then think again. Discovered by the wonderful Free Indie Games , Imscared is a similarly first-person psychological horror experience with a handful of devious tricks up its sleeve.

Saying much more would spoil it, but I will offer some advice in case you get stuck (which I did): look around. Look behind and under things, but don't give up, because Ivan Zanotti's unsettling masterpiece is definitely worth it. We expect - nay, demand - to see a swarm of YouTube 'reaction' videos shortly.

Turn the lights and TV off, and wait until midnight like I stupidly did, to get the full experience.

Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.

Latest in Horror
The teenage protagonist of Silent Hill f, wearing a Japanese schoolgirl uniform.
Ratings board gives away Silent Hill f's gut-churning tricks, listing face-slicing, arm-sawing and, worst of all, 'exposed buttocks'
R.E.P.O. screenshots
'REPO is fun': Lethal Company creator recants their criticism of the new co-op horror game after trying to move a grand piano through a mansion
Resident Evil Village - Lady Dimitrescu
'It really truly changed my life in every possible way': Lady Dimitrescu actor says her Resident Evil Village role was just as transformative for her as it was for roughly half the internet in 2021
Silent Hill f transmission trailer screenshots
'We've been keeping fans waiting for an awfully long time': We finally got to see more of Silent Hill f and boy, does it look great
One of Repo's player characters, resembling a yellow pedal bin with googly eyes, encounters a skeletal, open mouthed face with glowing yellow eyes.
After REPO 'kinda blew up', its developer asks the community for advice on how to make matchmaking lobbies
R.E.P.O. screenshots
REPO is my new favourite co-op horror game, which combines Lethal Company's looting loop with Content Warning's zany monsters
Latest in News
An insectoid creature erupts from the ground on OneD&D's upcoming virtual tabletop system.
It's not looking good for D&D's virtual tabletop Sigil, as Hasbro follows a quiet release by reportedly laying off 90% of the people working on it
Palworld early access
Palworld's Crossplay Update does far more than let you play with console buddies, adding photo mode, a drafting table and 'dimensional Pal Storage'
Ghoul in sunglasses
Some Fallout 76 players have encountered a 'major game-breaking bug' which either makes it impossible to complete the ghoul quest or just makes you temporarily invisible
Monster Hunter Wilds' stockpile master studying a manifest
Major performance issues aside, over half of Monster Hunter Wilds’ sales are from Steam alone
SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Gen 3 on a blue background
My favourite rapid trigger keyboard is back at its lowest price and comes with a cute OLED screen to show game info (or a cat)
StarTech 3.3ft (1m) USB-C Cable with side screw locking mechanism on yellow and orange background
Remember those fiddly screw-locks for VGA and DVI-D? Bet you didn't know USB-C also has them