You Will Die Here Tonight by Spiral Bound Interactive
Can you survive the horrors of Breckenridge Hall in this top-down survival horror game?
A Team Scattered
In You Will Die Here Tonight, you play as a member of Aries Mission, a team of six who have been tasked with finding a missing person last seen at Breckenridge Hall, an eerie mansion with many secrets.
The whole team sets out together but is knocked unconscious by an explosion and separated. You will play as each member in succession. All you know for sure is that you will die here tonight, and you must use the clues you gain as each character to solve the mystery and – hopefully? – emerge alive!
When you die as one character, you wake up as another, but the story stays the same. If you can go back and find your “old” body, you can loot whatever special items you had previously collected.
Switching Perspectives
You Will Die Here Tonight has a retro feeling, like a zombie-shooter from the ’90s. Exploration takes place from an isometric perspective until you engage in combat with a zombie, at which point it moves into first-person view, bringing you up close and personal with the undead.
Combat is by weapon or physical fighting, but you also have the option to just run away, which I always appreciate. Why waste the energy if it’s avoidable?
I also came to appreciate being able to start over again as a new character because I could benefit from my previous knowledge of the layout of rooms, special items, and where to get a tasty meal to replenish my energy.
That said, mapping is frustrating at times. It’s very claustrophobic for what is supposed to be a grand and spacious manor. Innumerable locked doors and seemingly dead-end corridors feel like unnecessary roadblocks to progress.
Sounds of Dread and Dad Jokes
The sound design is one of the strongest elements of You Will Die Here Tonight. Sound effects like footsteps echoing through dimly lit corridors, the storm outside, the wind wailing – or is it the moan of the undead – all add to the creepy atmosphere and sense of urgency.
The writing, on the other hand, feels very basic, lacking the gravitas of the mission. Humor can be great in a game, but the cringe-inducing humor and lame jokes feel out of place and distract from the game’s feel. After one spectacularly bad joke, I found myself groaning louder than one of the zombies.
A Spooky Mansion, Six Lives, Terrible Jokes, and Relentless Zombies
You Will Die Here Tonight is a mixed bag! The concept is creative, and I loved the twist of thinking I would be one character and getting the chance to play all of them. After everyone dies, though, it just cycles back to an arcade-style continue screen where the whole cycle repeats itself.
With innumerable chances to come to life again, the stakes feel low, and the lack of depth in the storyline takes away from the excitement. The game has a nice nostalgic feel, though, as well as some decent thrills and chills and excellent sound effects. It reminds me of the early Resident Evil-style games.
If you can overlook the cringy jokes and mapping issues, You Will Die Here Tonight is a solid survival horror game with some unique surprises.
You Will Die Here Tonight is available via Steam.
Watch the trailer for You Will Die Here Tonight below:
