Terminal 81

About Terminal 81

Terminal 81 is a job simulation, mystery and psychological horror game by David Pateti, released on Steam for Windows and Linux on 28 July 2023. Sometimes You brought it to PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch on 29 May 2024.

It is 2008, and the financial crisis has pushed Lorena to move to São Paulo to earn money for her family. She lands a job as a cashier at a supermarket easily enough, but the neighbourhood is Terminal 81, an old industrial district of poverty, crime and dirt. Soon she learns that young women have been kidnapped, some turning up dead and some never seen again, and that the job was open because the last employee was one of them. As she meets the locals she realises a criminal organisation runs the place.

Much of the game is ordinary routine, played in first person. Each in-game day you go to work, scan groceries and take card payments at the till, stop shoplifters, sweep and restock, and how well you do sets your pay. You spend it on food that restores your stamina and on things for your apartment, and wander a free-roam map of shops, restaurants, nightclubs, fairs and parks. Lorena carries only four items at a time, but anything you set down stays where you left it. You can talk to anyone: some residents point you to the next lead, others tell you to stop asking, and the important characters often find you at work, where dialogue choices steer the story. The text is shown on screen with no voice acting.

The fear comes from paranoia rather than monsters: dark rainy streets, strangers who may be involved and the sense that the danger is closing in. Reviews split on the routine. A-to-J Connections found the story suspenseful enough to finish in one sitting, while The Game Slush Pile found the checkout work tedious on a controller and the low-poly look ugly. HowLongToBeat puts the main story at about three hours; the maker says an ending comes after a little over an hour and that exploring everything takes four to six. It suits players who like slow-burn job-sim horror with a strong sense of place.

How to play Terminal 81

1. Buy it on Steam, the PlayStation Store, the Xbox store or the Nintendo eShop.
2. Check the objective at the top of the screen and go to your shift at the supermarket.
3. Do the work: scan each item, bag it, take the card payment, catch shoplifters, sweep and restock.
4. Spend your wages on food for stamina or on things for your apartment, and explore the neighbourhood.
5. Talk to the residents about the kidnappings and follow the leads they give.
6. Choose carefully in conversations with the people who come to find you; your decisions decide the ending.

Tips

• Talk to everyone from the first day; any resident can be spoken to, and early conversations are easy to miss.
• Go back to your apartment and save before you quit. One reviewer lost progress by exiting without saving.
• Your pockets hold only four items, but whatever you put down stays put, so keep spare things at home.
• Focus on the task in front of you during shifts; how well you work sets your pay, and clues often come while you are at work.
• Play again with different choices to see the other endings.

Questions