I love these goofy Bullet Heaven survivors-style games. Since playing Vampire Survivors and feeling that moment where this genre clicked for me, I can’t get enough of them. When a new one is offered to me, I can’t help but check them out. I put a little over five hours into a new one called Scary World, and while it has some intriguing ideas, the developer seemingly just made a thing and threw it out there to see if anyone would pick it up.
Scary World
Developer: Keith Burgun Games
Publisher: Keith Burgun Games
Platforms: Windows PC (Steam) (Reviewed)
Release Date: January 22, 2025
Price: $2.99
Take note of the super clever quote that’s written on the page that describes his game:
“It might not seem that scary to you, but if you were actually there, it would be very scary I think” – quote from the developer
I can appreciate irony and seemingly low-effort attempts at making a thing, but this game feels like he’s trying to appear like he didn’t put any time into it. Call me crazy, but I don’t respect anyone making a joke about the process of creating a game. It could be Reddit-style humor, but I don’t get its appeal.
Once you get past the fairly overwhelming amount of cringe to get into the game, the basic premise is okay. It’s a ten-minute survival run, and lava scrolls from left to right, forcing you toward the end. Along the way, you’ll encounter two eyeball bosses and a big menacing Dragon at the end. Runs are short because most of the powerups take too long to fire off and you get overwhelmed by the horde enemies who seemingly become more annoying than challenging. A swarm of bats isn’t unique, but having a serious lack of AOE attacks makes dealing with these minor enemies extremely obnoxious.
There are seven characters to choose from, as you can unlock six additional characters or choose a random option. Derby is unlocked by default and is one of the best characters because her? his? their? — I don’t know how to identify some of these characters cause I’m pretty sure the developer is one of those quirky liberal types who can’t help but inject his personal politics — and the fire sword does a reliable attack that also leaves behind some small flames that burn for additional damage. Other characters such as Mazarel start with the stake that does big damage but only attacks straight downward and far too slowly to be reliable, while May is arguably the strongest character due to her passive revive and easily upgraded starter weapon which fires lasers in each of the diagonal directions away from her.
Each of the characters has their own music that plays on both the start screen and during their runs. The music ain’t horrible, but if you stick to the same characters, it gets old quick. Speaking of getting old quick, the sound effects are awful and while I got a chuckle out of the Speak-N-Spell “scary skeleton detected” line, the sound of collecting experience gems sounded so close to Discord alerts that I kept alt-tabbing out thinking I was being spammed. The one thing this game does really badly is presents the illusion of choice. You’ll be presented with three weapon choices, but ultimately the only thing you’ll want to choose is what you need at the moment. Is your health OK? Then buy the +attack one. Need more max health? Middle. HP low? Choose the bottom option. Most of the weapons are mainly crap, so you’ll always stumble upon one of the actually useful ones due to how few choices there actually are.
From a gameplay standpoint, this is passable for a $3 game, but the physics based stuff needs a lot of fine tuning. The lance attack does more damage the faster you move, but because none of the weapons show a cooldown timer, it’s impossible to gauge exactly when they will fire. This means you’ll hit the speed arrow and aim to thrust your lance, only to move up or down and the lance go the opposite direction you meant it to. You’ll take more damage from the Turtle Shell and the bullets from the liches than you’ll ever take from touching an enemy. With some polish, Scary World could be an enjoyable experience – but right now, you’re going to get a better value and a far more polished experience out of Brotato, Keeper’s Toll, 20 Minutes till Dawn (which is currently the same price as this game on Steam) or even the still in early access Hunchback’s Dungeon.
Scary World was reviewed on Steam using a code provided by Keith Burgen Games. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Scary World is now available for PC (via Steam).
