Endoparasitic

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One arm, one gun, one bullet at a time, and a parasite heading for your brain.

Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox, Switch
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (94% of 3,101 reviews)
Players: 1
Controls: Mouse only: you drag yourself, aim, load and fire with the mouse.
Made by: Miziziziz
Released: 2022

What frightens A scientist with three limbs torn off and a parasite eating its way to his brain drags himself through a dark research lab on a remote asteroid. Mutated monsters swarm from the shadows while you reload by hand one bullet at a time, and your health is the parasite's progress, held back only by the syringes you find.
Content: gore, violence.

Endoparasitic is a top-down survival horror game by Miziziziz. With three limbs ripped off and a deadly parasite inside you, you drag yourself through a research lab on an asteroid to save your work, fighting mutated monsters with guns you load one bullet at a time.

About Endoparasitic

Endoparasitic is a survival horror game by the solo developer Miziziziz, published by Deep Root Interactive and released on Steam in October 2022. You play a researcher who has lost three limbs and been infected with a deadly parasite, and who still means to save his research from a secret lab on a remote asteroid.

Everything is done by hand, with the mouse alone. You pull yourself forward across the floor, aim, and load your guns one bullet at a time, while monsters come at you from the dark. The store calls it tactical: you have to juggle moving and firing and plan how you enter each room so you are not swarmed. There are four guns, boss fights, stealth sections and puzzles along the way.

Your health bar is the parasite itself, shown burrowing up toward your brain, and the only thing that slows it is the vaccine syringes you inject as you go. The lab is drawn in a stark grey, minimalist style that hides most of each room in black until you are in it, and the blood stands out in red. The makers note that there is a lot of gore and violence, kept low in detail by the art style.

It suits players who like survival horror where the fear comes from being slow and fragile, and who enjoy a control scheme that makes every reload a tense moment.

How to play Endoparasitic

Use the mouse to drag yourself across the floor; there is no keyboard movement.
Draw a gun and load it by hand, one bullet at a time, before you enter a room.
Aim and fire at the mutated monsters, picking your moment so you are not swarmed.
Inject vaccine syringes to push the parasite back when it climbs too close to your brain.
Work your way through the lab, its stealth sections and puzzles, to save your research.

Screenshots

Top-down view of the crippled researcher firing a gun under a flashlight beam at dark monsters in a blood-spattered lab room

The game's screen with a brain and parasite health meter, green vaccine syringes and a hand loading bullets into a gun

The researcher on the floor of a grey tiled room facing a shadowy monster, with blood splashed around them

Tips

Reload whenever you have a quiet moment; doing it under attack costs precious time.
Look at a room's layout before you crawl in, and back out to a doorway to fight one monster at a time.
Keep an eye on the parasite meter and do not wait until the last moment to use a syringe.
Practise the mouse controls early; the clumsiness is part of the design, and it gets easier.