Sniper Killer

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Play the city's sniper and the detective hunting him.

Platforms: PC
Stores: Steam, itch.io
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (86% of 684 reviews); 4.7 of 5 on itch.io (16 ratings); Pixeldie called it a legitimately excellent horror game, Destructoid felt it did not make the most of its best parts
Players: 1
Made by: Black Eyed Priest, Henry Hoare
Released: 2024

Get it on Steam itch.io ($11.99 or more)

What frightens You take turns as a masked serial killer who picks off people across a grimy city with a rifle, their heads bursting in close-up, and as the burnt-out detective trying to work out who he is before more bodies pile up.
Content: blood and gore, grim subject matter, strong language.

Sniper Killer is a low-poly first-person horror thriller by Black Eyed Priest and Henry Hoare, published by Puppet Combo's Torture Star Video label. You play both a serial killer who shoots strangers across the city and the detective losing his grip as he tries to catch him.

About Sniper Killer

Sniper Killer is a 2024 horror thriller from Black Eyed Priest and Henry Hoare, the makers of Bloodwash and Night at the Gates of Hell, published by Torture Star Video, the label run by Puppet Combo. Like their earlier games it has a rough, low-poly late-1990s look.

The story is told from both sides. As the Sniper Killer you line up shots through a rifle scope on people in parks, streets and a carnival with a Ferris wheel, and the kills are bloody close-ups. As Detective Comardy, a hard-boiled cop who is losing his sanity over the case, you visit crime scenes, look for clues like blood on the floor, question people in an interrogation room and follow leads through the city at night. Pixeldie described the split as roughly half and half, with both halves working.

Its horror is the grim kind: a killer whose motive you do not know, a city where no one is safe, and the slow unravelling of the man hunting him. Some scenes turn surreal, with sickly green skies and strange figures in the dark.

Pixeldie called it a legitimately excellent horror game; Destructoid found it surprising and surreal at times but felt the story could be punchier. Players often say the build-up is stronger than the ending.

How to play Sniper Killer

Buy it on Steam or the Torture Star Video itch.io page and start it on Windows.
In the killer's chapters, line up your shot through the rifle scope and hold your breath to steady it.
In the detective's chapters, walk crime scenes, inspect clues and talk to witnesses and suspects.
Follow the case between the two sides until it ends.

Screenshots

Detective Comardy outside a late-night shop with an Open sign, wondering if the owner saw something

A rifle's aim line falls on a crowded night carnival beside a Ferris wheel, in low-poly 3D

A man in a bow tie and a pale mask sits at a table in a bare interrogation room

Through a rifle scope, a figure stands by a campfire at night, the hold-breath prompt in the corner

Tips

Hold your breath before a shot; the scope steadies while you do.
Inspect everything highlighted at a crime scene; the detective chapters move on clues.
Play Bloodwash first if you can: players say Sniper Killer ties into the makers' earlier games.