Killer Frequency

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Talk the callers of a 1987 radio show away from a masked killer.

Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, VR
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (93% of 6,249 reviews)
Length: about 5 hours
Players: 1
Controls: Mouse and keyboard or a gamepad to look around, pick things up and choose dialogue; hand controllers on Meta Quest.
Made by: Team17
Released: 2023

Get it on Steam PlayStation Store Xbox Nintendo eShop Meta Quest Team17

What frightens A masked killer called the Whistling Man is back in a small town in 1987, and his victims phone your late-night radio show for help. Shut in the station, you have to work out where each caller is and talk them through hiding or getting away while you listen to the killer close in over the line.
Content: violence heard over the phone, strong language, jumpscares.

Killer Frequency is a first-person horror comedy from Team17 set in a small-town radio station in 1987. As the late-night DJ, you take calls from people being hunted by a masked killer and solve puzzles in the booth to talk them out of danger, live on air.

About Killer Frequency

Killer Frequency is a 2023 horror comedy made and published by Team17. It is 1987 in Gallows Creek, a small American town, and Forrest Nash, a radio DJ who has fallen from the big city to the night shift, is on air at midnight. The police chief has just been killed, a masked killer known as the Whistling Man seems to have returned, and with no one else to call, frightened townspeople start phoning the radio station.

You never leave the station. Each call is a puzzle: a caller describes where they are, and you use what is around you, such as maps, magazines, files, records and notes, to tell them where to go or what to do, choosing your lines in real time. You might guide someone through a maze from a map or find the instructions for starting a car. Between calls you keep the show going by playing records and adverts, and you explore the station for clues about the killer.

The tension comes from hearing everything and seeing nothing. You listen to the footsteps and the whistle get closer while you search a desk for the answer, and a wrong choice can end a call with a scream. Whether each caller lives depends on what you do, and the ending changes with how many you save. The tone mixes the slasher films of the 1980s with jokes and a bright, stylised look, so it frightens more through suspense than gore.

It plays on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch, and in VR on Meta Quest, where you handle the switches and records with your hands. It suits players who like puzzles and talking games, and anyone who wants a horror game built on suspense rather than chases.

How to play Killer Frequency

Answer the ringing phone lines on the desk and listen to what the caller tells you.
Search the radio booth and the rest of the station for maps, files and manuals that answer the caller's problem.
Pick what to say from the dialogue choices to guide the caller step by step, before the killer reaches them.
Between calls, keep the show on air by playing records and adverts, and look for clues to who the killer is.

Screenshots

Killer Frequency screenshot: dialogue choices to guide a caller through a maze, with the maze map held up in the radio booth

Killer Frequency screenshot: the station lounge at night, with a magazine open on instructions for hot-wiring a car

Tips

Read every magazine and file you pass; the answer to a later call is often in something you saw earlier.
Listen closely to what callers describe around them before you give directions.
Callers you lose change the ending, so a second play lets you try to save everyone.