Survival horror Slasher horror Horror PS1 horror

SEARCH PARTY: Director's Cut

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A missing brother, a house in the woods and someone waiting inside.

Platforms: PC
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (92% of 138 reviews)
Players: 1
Made by: games by lum
Released: 2021

What frightens Lost in the woods while looking for her missing little brother, Claire enters a strange house where a pale, grinning killer with a bloody blade waits for her; she has to scrounge tools and weapons to survive while blood, scrawled smiley faces and grisly remains pile up around her.
Content: gore, blood, harm to children.

SEARCH PARTY: Director's Cut is a top-down pixel-art survival horror game by games by lum. Claire gets lost in the woods while searching for her missing eight-year-old brother and finds a strange house where a killer is waiting. It takes Clock Tower's cat-and-mouse and classic Resident Evil's scarce resources, with five endings.

About SEARCH PARTY: Director's Cut

SEARCH PARTY was made by games by lum and published by Torture Star Video; the Director's Cut came out on Steam in March 2021. Claire's eight-year-old brother Daniel has gone missing. During the search party she gets separated, ends up alone in the woods and sees a strange house in the distance. Daniel might be inside.

The game is seen from above in detailed SNES-style pixel art, lit by lamps and candles that leave most of each room in shadow. Its maker names two models: the cat-and-mouse of Clock Tower and the resource management of classic Resident Evil. You move carefully through the house, searching for tools and weapons, knowing that someone is hiding in it and waiting for you.

Its fear is grim rather than ghostly. The store calls it a morbid true crime slasher tale and warns of blood, gore and harm to children. The rooms are stained with blood, smiley faces are scratched into the walls, and the killer is a pale, grinning figure carrying a bloody blade.

The Director's Cut adds two secret endings for five in all, a new area that expands one of the original endings, unlockable costumes and items, redone art and more to interact with. It suits players who liked Clock Tower and want a grim, gory take on the same idea.

How to play SEARCH PARTY: Director's Cut

Explore the house room by room from the top-down view, checking every corner for items.
Pick up tools and weapons and manage what you carry, since supplies are scarce.
Move carefully: the killer is somewhere in the house and can appear when you least expect it.
Use what you find to open new parts of the house and follow the trail toward Daniel.
Replay to find the other endings and the Director's Cut's new area.

Screenshots

Pixel-art Claire in a bloodstained bathroom while a pale killer with a bloody sickle stands near the wall

Claire in a candlelit room with smiley faces drawn on the floor and words scrawled on the wall

Claire stands in a dim checkered-floor kitchen under a single light

Tips

Do not waste weapons or tools early; the game is built on classic Resident Evil's scarcity.
Read the rooms closely; the details on the walls and floors point to what happened in the house.
After one ending, play again to chase the rest; there are five, two of them secret.