DreadOut

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Photograph the ghosts of an abandoned Indonesian town before they reach you.

Platforms: PC, Linux
Price: Paid
Rated: Mostly Positive on Steam (77% of 5,727 reviews); Metacritic 55
Players: 1
Made by: Digital Happiness
Released: 2014

What frightens A schoolgirl lost in an abandoned Indonesian town meets ghosts from local folklore, and her only defence is the flash of her phone and an old camera, which means looking straight at them as they come for her.
Content: jumpscares, violence, mild sexual content.

DreadOut is a third-person supernatural horror game from the Indonesian studio Digital Happiness. High school student Linda is trapped in a forgotten town after a field trip goes astray, and she fights its ghosts and solves its puzzles with a smartphone and an SLR camera.

About DreadOut

DreadOut was made by Digital Happiness, a studio from Indonesia, and released on Steam in May 2014 for Windows and Linux. This edition holds Act 1 and Act 2 of the story along with Act 0, the episode first released as the demo. Its ghosts and settings are drawn from Indonesian folklore.

A group of high school students wander off from a field trip and come upon a town that seems asleep. It is not empty. As the town shows what lives in it, Linda, one of the students, finds she has a power of her own, and it may be the only thing that keeps her and her friends alive.

You play in third person and switch to the view through Linda's phone or camera to deal with the ghosts. The flash hurts them, so every encounter means raising the camera and looking straight at whatever is coming. Puzzles block the way forward, and many are solved by noticing what needs to be photographed. When Linda dies she is sent to a limbo and must walk back toward the light to try again.

Players often compare it to Fatal Frame, with Indonesian spirits in place of Japanese ones. Reviews praise the setting and the ghost designs and are just as plain about the rough edges: stiff animation, a camera that can be fiddly, and puzzles with no hints. A remastered collection that adds the spin-off Keepers of the Dark is sold separately on consoles; this page is about the original PC release.

How to play DreadOut

Explore the abandoned town in third person, looking for items and the way forward.
Raise Linda's phone or camera to switch to its first-person view when a ghost appears.
Frame the ghost and take the picture; the flash is what hurts it.
Photograph anything that looks out of place, since many puzzles are solved with the camera.
If Linda dies, walk back through the limbo toward the light to try again.

Screenshots

Linda in her school uniform recoiling from a grey, hunched ghost in a dark corridor

A pale ghost girl with black hair and a gaping mouth leans toward the camera in a dark room

First-person view of Linda holding her phone up in a dark corridor, its screen showing the camera view

The phone camera screen framing a ghost in a white dress with flash and torch icons at the side

Tips

Point the camera at odd marks, objects and corners as you explore; hidden things often only show through the lens.
Keep the ghost in the frame before you shoot rather than firing the flash blindly.
The first area has no map, so note the buildings you have already searched.
Several reviewers suggest looking up a puzzle if you are stuck for long, as the game gives no hints.

Questions

Is DreadOut like Fatal Frame?

In its main idea, yes: you fight ghosts by photographing them. DreadOut uses a phone and an SLR camera, plays in third person between shots, and draws its ghosts from Indonesian folklore.

What is in the Steam version of DreadOut?

Act 1 and Act 2 of the story plus Act 0, which was first released as the demo, and an unlockable wardrobe for Linda.

Is DreadOut on consoles?

The original release is on PC and Linux through Steam. A separate DreadOut Remastered Collection, with the spin-off Keepers of the Dark, is sold on consoles.

Is there a sequel?

Yes, DreadOut 2, released in 2020, continues Linda's story with melee fights alongside the camera.