Hide and Shriek

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Two invisible students, one dark school, Halloween night: scare first.

Platforms: PC
Price: Free
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (82% of 5,329 reviews)
Length: ten-minute matches
Players: 2 (online, one against one)
Controls: Keyboard and mouse.
Made by: Funcom
Released: 2017

What frightens A jumpscare duel for two players on Halloween night. Both of you are invisible inside a dark school after midnight, and you hunt each other by watching for doors swinging open and objects floating in the air. Set traps, cast spells that blind your rival or set a demon on them, then creep up and shriek in their face wearing a rotting zombie mask before they do the same to you.
Content: jumpscares, loud sounds.

A free one-on-one online game from Funcom set on Halloween. Two invisible students of magic sneak into their school after midnight and try to scare each other with traps, spells and grotesque masks, in ten-minute matches.

About Hide and Shriek

Hide and Shriek is a free multiplayer game by Funcom, released on Steam for Windows in October 2017. Its premise is a school tradition: on Halloween, the students of magic at Little Springs High and Innsmouth Academy sneak into school after midnight, turn themselves invisible and try to scare the living daylights out of each other.

Each match is one player against another for ten minutes. Because you are both invisible, finding your opponent is the game: you watch for doors opening, objects drifting through the air or a trap going off somewhere down the corridor. There are more than thirty spells to find, which can blind the other player, booby-trap a door or unleash a demon, and you earn points for scares, for luring them into traps and for completing an old ritual. When you finally spot them, you sneak up and shriek, and they see your mask: a rotting zombie head, a skull or something worse, dressed up with gooey eyeballs and bloody hatchets.

The school is a classic American high school decorated for the night with pumpkins and Happy Halloween banners, with a ritual room of candles and pentagrams and an old computer lab. It is more a prank war than a frightening game, but the jumpscares land because the other player is a real person who knows what makes you jump.

It is free and still listed, but reviewers say it is hard to find a stranger to play against now, so it is best with a friend. It suits pairs of friends looking for a quick, silly scare on Halloween.

How to play Hide and Shriek

Download Hide and Shriek free on Steam.
Invite a friend, since public matchmaking is quiet, and start a match.
Explore the school while invisible and lay traps on doors and paths.
Watch for signs of the other player, such as opening doors and floating objects.
Sneak up and shriek at them to score, and win on points when the ten minutes run out.