Self-Delusion locks you in a cabin with a slew of Eastern European folk horrors. Can you hold out until morning?
Old fashioned children’s stories were scary. Hansel & Gretel has families abandoning their children in the woods, Rumpelstiltskin has a demon try to steal a child before tearing himself in half, and It’s Raining, It’s Pouring is about a man suffering a head wound and dying in his sleep. Self-Delusion has the idea that the characters from these stories could come to life and try to murder you whilst you hide in a cabin in the woods and try to avoid them until morning. It’s stressful, scary, and has you keeping track of half a dozen demons all at once.
You play as Lena, a woman returning to her mother’s house only to find the entire village abandoned. Heading into the home, she finds that it’s inhabited by creatures from the stories she was told as a child, who want to claim her and her mother. Only by surviving until morning will she be released from the cabin, should she survive.
I’ve gone into very little story detail as there’s actually a few interesting twists and turns for something that could be a throw away plot. As you explore the cabin, you’ll come across notes that go into detail about the relationship between Lena and her mother, and tutorials about new monsters play out as flashbacks from her time as a child, often in the form of going to school. There’s an interesting narrative structure that kept me far more interested than I would have expected to have been in a jump-scare filled horror.
Lena’s night in the cabin is split into hour-long segments, with each hour introducing a new monster. The monsters themselves are based on Slavic folklore, which is something I found enjoyable. Each creature features the tale that it’s based on, as well as a mechanic loosely based on that story. Learning about folklore from other cultures is enjoyable, so I appreciated this element.
Anyway, Initially, you’ll only be dealing with Lapot, a small scuttling creature that will kill you if you step on it. It only took me jumping out of my skin when treading on one once to make sure I kept my eyes on the floor for the remainder of the game as that jump scare was loud. Moving on, you’ll get rolling bread monsters named Korobok, who can be kept at bay by standing by a lit candle. Then Leshy, who arrives and stalks you if you don’t switch off noisy items in the cabin. More and more join the party each hour, with you needing to ring bells and destroy hidden hearts before these monsters find you. You could just hide, but you also need to contend with the oven, that will gas the entire house unless you feed it toys periodically.
As it goes on, there’s an awful lot to keep track of, and it quickly becomes a stress management game, as you make sure you’ve found toys and matches around the house to keep candles lit and ovens calm, all the while following the tasks that each monster needs to be kept at bay. I would liken this to an early Five Nights at Freddy’s game in that you need to be on top of what each monster wants, whilst managing the oven rather than a power limit. Fail, and you’ll be treated to an obnoxiously loud jump scare. You even have short play periods, with each hour only lasting five minutes real time. If you pine for the days of those old jump scare simulators, Self-Delusion really does fit that bill.
Self-Delusion does a good job of teaching you about each monster when they’re introduced too. Completing an hour saves the game and sends you to an abandoned school where you’ll learn about what the new creature is, how it operates, and what you need to do to keep it calm. This was nice as it got rid of that trial and error element that could lead to frustration, even with the short play sessions. The school and associated sections link to the game’s multiple endings too, although I don’t think I’ve managed to find all of them.
The visuals are thematic, with everything being dark and dingy. They do have that low poly look to them that’s been popular in recent horror throwbacks, but the animations are quite weak. Enemies clip into objects around the house, get stuck on scenery, and have quite stilted walk cycles. The tight confines of the house work for the atmosphere, but make navigation a bit of a pain thanks to a low draw distance during these sections. Perhaps this is deliberate to make you uncomfortable, but it made managing certain parts of the game harder than I’d like.
Sound is important for some of the enemies you’re dealing with, and you’re advised to wear headphones to help with determining where something is. This is fine, but the actual sound quality is pretty low, with effects popping in and out suddenly, or being too quiet to hear. Then the jump scares when you’re killed are wax-blastingly loud to the point that I absolutely did not want to use headphones anymore. It’s frustrating, as some of the music and ambient effects are quite nice. The lack of voice acting is understandable for an indie title like this, but would have helped with some of Lena’s lines appearing on the screen. It’s tricky to read them whilst you’re being chased by demonic scarecrows.
Self-Delusion is a solid reimagining of those pressure horror games from around ten years back, where everything was jump scares and you had to manage your stress levels enough to keep on top of everything at once. In that regard, it’s fun, and the surprisingly strong story is a big positive too. The poorer visuals and sound are a bit off putting, as are the stiff feeling console controls. If you’re someone who misses that former horror trend, then I can’t think of a better option for you to try out.
Self-Delusion is available now on PC, Xbox, Playstation, and Nintendo Switch.
