The year is 1987, and as the clock strikes midnight in small-town Gallows Creek, USA. Former big city radio DJ Forrest Nash is live on air in what will turn out to be the graveyard shift of a lifetime... In this horror comedy, you must solve puzzles to save callers from being hunted down by a mysterious killer. Where every call is life and death, can you save the inhabitants of Gallows Creek...?

Welcome to KFAM 189.16

Jump back in time to 1987 with slasher inspired puzzler Killer Frequency. Explore an authentically detailed radio station and interact with dozens of physics-based objects straight from a bygone era, including a working cassette and record player. With a fully voiced cast and a killer original soundtrack of '80s inspired tunes from rock classics to synthwave.

I seem to be doing this a lot currently with new releases, but I couldn't help thinking how incredible this game would have been if it had been a VR release. I mean, it's fine as it is, but presented in VR and this would have been an incredibly immersive experience.

The game takes an age to get going, with lots of pointless chat that could have been condensed into a much tighter timeframe. But once the game gets going it's a lot of fun. The basic premise is that you were once a DJ with one of the big city radios, but now you find yourself pulling the graveyard shift at Gallows Greek's local radio station. On your first shift you discover that there's a serial killer on the loose. And, as he tracks down each of his potential victims, they ring into your live chat show and you're tasked with saving them through a series of interesting puzzles with the means at your disposal.

For younger gamers, the old tech may be problematic

It's a great idea and plays out rather well. And, when you're not attempting to save lives, you'll get to play around with the studio controls. You can put on records, ads, radio stings, sound effects or check out who the latest caller is. You can also explore the studio's facilities and rooms.

For an old relic, like me, a lot of the old tech issues were not a problem. But for younger gamers... who didn't live through the '80s... there might be a few problems getting their heads around items and terms from a bygone era. Do they even know what a fax machine is and what it looks like (in this instance it was actually one of those photocopier/scanner/fax machines).

Another issue is the way you make decisions. You have a multiple choice list and must scroll to the response you wish to offer up. Unfortunately these options are floating in the air to the left of your vision if you're at the studio controls, but it's very easy to not spot them. This isn't overly problematic until you get to the timed responses. If you don't notice these in time then the game chooses one of the answers for you.

Some of the game's mechanics are slightly confusing

I also had a problem with the very first attempted murder. Here you have to find a car manual to help your caller start her car without a key. Unfortunately the car manual help is spread over two pages. When I looked at the page it seemed to randomly choose whether I was looking at page 1 or 2 and I couldn't work out how to change this. In fact, almost all of my failed attempts to save the victims was because the game's mechanics were not overly clear and that takes away a lot of the enjoyment of the game.

The vocal acting is perfect, but maybe too many of the jokes are a little too corny, and the claustrophobic environment of the studio helps to add much creepiness. It's a fun and engaging game... I'm just hoping they add a VR option in the future.

8

Darren Rea