Living Cell

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An endless apartment block, a gas mask, and what the samosbor left behind.

Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Stores: Steam
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (96% of 266 reviews)
Length: about 3 hours
Players: 1
Controls: Mouse, or a controller (Steam lists full controller support): click to move, examine rooms and use items from your inventory.
Made by: Blazing Planet Studio
Released: 2023

What frightens After the samosbor, the disaster at the heart of this setting, you walk its sealed floors in a gas mask among bloodstains, corpses and poisonous slime, reading the grim stories of the people who lived there while your filters and flashlight run down.
Content: blood, corpses.

Living Cell is a dark 2D adventure with survival elements by Blazing Planet Studio. As a liquidator who survived the samosbor in block G-326 of the endless Gigakhrushchyovka, you explore the block room by room, keeping your gas mask filters and flashlight alive, to learn what happened, evacuate the residents and find a way out.

About Living Cell

Living Cell was made by Blazing Planet Studio, a small team of indie developers from Saint Petersburg, and released on 6 November 2023 for Windows, Mac and Linux. It is set in the Samosbor universe: the Gigakhrushchyovka, an endless apartment block, and the samosbor, the disaster that strikes it.

You are a liquidator who has survived the samosbor in block G-326. Your task is to find out what happened there, evacuate whoever is left, and find a way out for yourself. Its makers ask whether everything is as simple as it seems.

The game is played side-on through painted 2D rooms. You go flat by flat, search drawers and hidden spaces, talk to the few residents you meet and piece together their stories from the things they left behind. Poisonous slime has to be avoided, gas mask filters wear out and the flashlight must be kept working; fail, and you become another consumable whose body goes to food concentrate. Puzzles stand between you and the next part of the block.

Its horror is oppression and decay rather than jump scares: the Steam page warns of bloodstains and corpses, and the gloom of the block does most of the work.

Saving is where it bites. You can't save whenever you like: there are save machines that take coins, and coins are scarce. One Steam reviewer lost about an hour after running out of them, so spend them with care and don't drop an item you'll need later, because your bag holds only a few things. Most players finish it in two to three hours, judging by the playtimes on its Steam reviews.

Reviewers say it has no real jump scares, and the scares that do come are small. The tension is in the gloom, the sounds of the block and the fear of wasting a filter. It's a good pick if you like short, story-led 2D adventures and Soviet-dystopia settings such as Metro's. Its studio later made Choice of Life: Samosbor in the same world, and Steam sells the two as a bundle.

How to play Living Cell

Walk the liquidator through the block and enter each flat.
Search furniture and look for hidden spaces to find items and notes.
Keep an eye on your gas mask filters and flashlight, and replace them when you can.
Avoid the poisonous slime.
Solve the puzzles that block your way and help the residents you find get out.

Screenshots

Living Cell screenshot: the liquidator in a gas mask stands in a bunker doorway while a child in a red hood plays with toy soldiers in purple mist

Living Cell screenshot: the liquidator in a bloodied green suit in a red-walled flat with a sofa, a grandfather clock, a piano and a vault door

Living Cell screenshot: the liquidator beside a control panel and heavy metal door in a dim green bunker room, an open book glowing on a table

Living Cell screenshot: an eye stares through a keyhole in a dark wooden door as a brass key goes in

Living Cell screenshot: a resident named Nicholas greets the liquidator, who faces a vault door in a red room

Living Cell screenshot: the inventory with a gas mask at 50%, a flashlight at 0%, a filter and a woman's portrait

Living Cell screenshot: an Info Desk board of residents' notices and posters on red wallpaper

Tips

Do not waste filters: plan your route through the slime-filled rooms before you go in.
Read the residents' notes and posters; they explain the block and often hold clues.
Hold on to every coin you find. The save machine needs them, and a long stretch without saving can cost you an hour.
Your inventory is small, so remember where you leave things you set down.