DISTRAINT: Deluxe Edition

About DISTRAINT: Deluxe Edition

DISTRAINT is a side-scrolling psychological horror adventure made by one developer, Jesse Makkonen, and released on Steam in 2015. The Deluxe Edition is the same game remade with colour in place of the original grey, more environmental lighting instead of a lantern, enhanced animation and refined audio. Ratalaika Games brought it to PlayStation 4, PS Vita, Xbox and Switch in 2019.

You play Price, an ambitious young man who wants to be made a partner at the firm of McDade, Bruton and Moore. To get there he seizes the home of an elderly woman, and in that moment he learns what his humanity cost. The rest of the game is his story and the tale of his regrets, told as a horror novel would tell it, moving quickly through several places and scenes.

Play is simple: you walk left and right, look at things, pick up what you need and use it to move on. The fear comes from the atmosphere, the hand-drawn pixel art and the sound design: ordinary flats, streets and offices turn rotten, and Price meets things that should not be there. The maker calls it dark and grim with its share of dark humour, and warns of alcohol, drugs and self-harm.

It takes around two hours. It suits players who want a short horror story with a moral weight to it, and it leads straight into DISTRAINT 2, which continues Price's story.

How to play DISTRAINT: Deluxe Edition

1. Buy it on Steam, the PlayStation Store, the Xbox store or the Nintendo eShop.
2. Walk Price left and right through each scene and read what he says about it.
3. Pick up the items you find and use them where the story is blocked.
4. Follow the story through each place until it moves you on to the next.

Tips

• Examine everything in a room before you leave it; a missing item is usually two screens back.
• Play with headphones; much of the dread is in the sound.
• Play DISTRAINT 2 after it; the story carries on.

Questions