Mad Father

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A girl explores her father's mansion on the night his experiments get loose.

Platforms: PC, Switch
Price: Paid
Rated: Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam (97% of 6,838 reviews)
Players: 1
Made by: sen
Released: 2012

What frightens On the anniversary of her mother's death, 11-year-old Aya wakes to find her father's experiments loose in their mansion. Bloodied corpses and dolls chase her through dark rooms, sudden deaths wait behind wrong choices, and the trail leads down to the basement where her father does his work.
Content: gore, blood, jumpscares, threat with a chainsaw.

Mad Father is a Japanese pixel art horror adventure by sen. As 11-year-old Aya Drevis, you explore your family's mansion in northern Germany on the night your father's experiments escape, solving puzzles, fleeing what hunts you and uncovering what he does in his laboratory.

About Mad Father

Mad Father is a horror adventure game by the Japanese developer sen, first released in 2012 and made with Wolf RPG Editor. PLAYISM brought it to Steam in 2016, and in 2020 a remake with redrawn graphics, new scenes and a second playthrough called Blood Mode came out on Steam and Nintendo Switch; Steam owners received the remake as a free update.

You play Aya Drevis, an 11-year-old girl who lives in a mansion in the countryside of northern Germany with her father, a doctor, and his assistant Maria. On the anniversary of her mother's death, Aya wakes in the night to screams and finds the house changed: things from her father's experiments are loose, and a mysterious salesman urges her towards the laboratory she has always been told to stay out of.

The game is seen from above in small pixel rooms, with drawn character portraits for the dialogue. You search rooms for items, use them to solve puzzles and open the way on, and run when something gives chase. Death comes suddenly and often, from traps, from things that grab you, and from wrong choices. The fear is grotesque rather than subtle: blood on the walls, stitched-up dolls, and the dread of what the adults in the house have done. It has several endings that depend on your choices.

It suits players who like story-heavy Japanese indie horror such as The Witch's House, Ib or Misao, and anyone who wants a horror game they can finish in a few evenings.

How to play Mad Father

Walk Aya through each room and examine anything that stands out to find items and notes.
Use the items you collect to solve puzzles and open locked doors and passages.
Save often, because some choices and traps kill you at once.
When something chases you, run, and press the button quickly when prompted to break free.

Screenshots

Mad Father screenshot: Aya and her father in a stone basement, with his portrait warning her not to come down here

Mad Father screenshot: a blood-stained laboratory with the assistant Maria in her nurse's cap

Mad Father screenshot: Aya sitting on her bed in her room at night, on the day her mother died

Tips

Save before you touch anything that looks strange; sudden deaths are part of the game.
Look for the small gems hidden around the house; they unlock bonus content.
Your choices change the ending, so a second play can show you more.