Dread X Collection 5

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Twelve entertainment horror games inside a kids' party venue with a secret.

Platforms: PC
Stores: Steam
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (81% of about 310 reviews)
Players: 1
Made by: DreadXP with twelve indie developers, produced by Abbey Smith
Released: 2022

What frightens Twelve entertainment-themed horror games, from a cursed board game and a puppet theatre with bricked-up doors to a carnival lock-up and a karaoke night that ends at a strange train station, reached from Outpost 3000, an alien-themed children's party venue hiding something darker.
Content: violence, depictions of child abuse, blood, some gore, references to self-harm, abuse, violence against animals.

Dread X Collection 5 is the fifth Dread X Collection: twelve horror games by new and experienced indie developers built around entertainment horror, from board games and puppet shows to karaoke and the movies. You reach them through Outpost 3000, an alien-themed birthday party venue with a dark story of its own.

About Dread X Collection 5

Dread X Collection 5 was published by DreadXP in May 2022, following Dread X Collection: The Hunt. Developer Abbey Smith, known as Scruncho, who had made games for earlier collections, moved up to produce this one, with twelve up-and-coming and veteran indie developers. Its theme is entertainment horror: broken amusements and haunting television shows.

The hub continues the Dread X story. You go to Outpost 3000, the alien-themed party venue every kid dreams of for a birthday, and find out whether something darker is bubbling beneath it. There you face the Stranglemaw, and pick the games on offer; the store also promises a lot of surprises, and possibly pizza.

The twelve: HUNSVOTTI completes a ritual on a Finnish midsummer night in 1888; Gallerie is an art gallery where the paint whispers and people have disappeared; The Book of Blood leaves a carnival worker alone at closing time with a stranger who wants in; Karao follows a late karaoke night to a train station that should not be there; Rotten Stigma sends a retired policeman to investigate twelve children who vanished at a sports center in 2006; Spirit Guardian is set in a haunted daycare; We Never Left begins with a phone call in 1983 telling you to finish the game; Vestige returns to an old video game from childhood; Resver is a night out at a new club; Ludomalica is a board game played while your parents are away; Beyond the Curtain wakes a child alone in a musty theatre with bricked-up doors; INTERIM follows a would-be leading man to Hollywood.

The store warns of violence, depictions of child abuse, blood, some gore, references to self-harm and violence against animals. It suits players who like short indie horror in many styles and want to sample a dozen makers in one place.

How to play Dread X Collection 5

Buy it on Steam for Windows.
Enter Outpost 3000 and explore the party venue.
Choose games from those on offer in the venue and play each one.
Keep exploring between games to uncover what the venue is hiding.

Screenshots

The dark party hall of Outpost 3000, with planets hanging from the ceiling over a table with a birthday cake and presents

Black-and-white low-poly villagers in folk dress with skull-like faces gathered around a well, a bright burst of light in the player's hand

A grinning purple-skinned figure in a suit looms in the dark beside a carnival tent, with a timing bar and three hearts on screen

A bald man with a pole faces a pale, crouching creature in a doorway, in pixelated third-person 3D

Tips

Read the content warning first; it lists child abuse and self-harm references.
Try every game even if one is not to your taste; each maker has a different style.
Spread it over several sessions; there are twelve games plus the hub.