EMPTY SHELL

About EMPTY SHELL

EMPTY SHELL is by CC ARTS and published by Hyperstrange. It came out on Steam in October 2023, and later on Switch, PlayStation and Xbox. Its store calls it a tense roguelite survival horror with a top-down view.

Each volunteer signed a contract for a recovery operation without being told much. The facility on a remote Japanese island was supposed to have been abandoned for decades, but once there it is clear that something is wrong. Logs and documents from the 1950s tell the stories of the people who worked there and lead toward the accident that brought you here.

When you die, you take control of a new volunteer. Starting equipment is random and every level is generated anew. You scavenge weapons, ammunition and gadgets, manage an inventory with room only for what you think vital, solve puzzles such as aligning antennas, and buy upgrades and devices between runs. Different kinds of enemies hunt you through each room.

The look is stark black and white, with the view surrounded by darkness and a timer and points in the corners like a monitor feed. Players praise the atmosphere and compare its pace to a slower Hotline Miami. It suits players who want survival horror tension in short, repeatable runs.

How to play EMPTY SHELL

1. Deploy as a volunteer with whatever random gear you are given.
2. Explore each generated level from above, with only what your light reveals.
3. Scavenge weapons, ammunition, gadgets and documents, and choose what fits in your inventory.
4. Fight or avoid the creatures that hunt you in each room.
5. Solve the facility's puzzles to open the way deeper.
6. When you die, spend what you earned on upgrades and send in the next volunteer.

Tips

• Read the logs you find; they tell the story of the facility and hint at what is ahead.
• Keep inventory space for ammunition you can actually use rather than every item you see.
• Clear a room carefully before searching it, since enemies come from the dark at the edges.

Questions