Survival horror Zombie PS1 horror Puppet Combo

The Glass Staircase

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Good girls take their medicine. Good girls do their chores.

Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch
Stores: itch.io
Price: Paid
Rated: 4.3 of 5 on itch.io from 135 ratings; 3.67 of 5 from 326 ratings on the US PlayStation Store; console reviews (GameSpew, Pixeldie) praise the atmosphere and fault the aiming
Length: about 1.5 to 2.5 hours (maker)
Players: 1
Controls: Tank controls with fixed camera angles; keyboard or controller.
Made by: Puppet Combo
Released: 2019

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Get it on itch.io PlayStation Store (PS4, PS5)Xbox Nintendo eShop (Switch)

What frightens Girls kept in an old house obey a voice on the intercom: good girls take their medicine, good girls do their chores. Its routine is the first fear, until the house turns and the dead rise; through fixed camera angles that hide what waits around each corner you run through blood-soaked rooms from zombies, with a slow rifle and health only where you find it, uncovering the eldritch secrets of the ma
Content: gore, violence.

The Glass Staircase is Puppet Combo's homage to PS2 survival horror and Italian zombie films. Girls living in an old house follow the orders of a voice on the intercom, until the house turns on them and they must survive the dead with fixed cameras, a slow rifle and scarce healing.

About The Glass Staircase

The Glass Staircase was released by Puppet Combo on itch.io in 2019 for Windows, macOS and Linux, and came to PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox and Nintendo Switch in May 2024. The maker calls it an homage to PS2 survival horror and Italian zombie movies, and has named the Gates of Hell trilogy and Burial Ground among its inspirations.

A group of girls lives in an old house far from their parents. A voice on the intercom tells them what to do: take their medicine, do their chores, be good girls, and The Master will look after them. You play the girls one after another, going through the house's daily routine, and the first part of the game is the slow dread of that routine. Then the house turns, and the game becomes survival horror.

It plays like the games it honours, with fixed camera angles that hide what is around the next corner and tank controls. You collect letters that piece together the mansion's dark history and its eldritch secrets. Your rifle never runs out of ammunition, but it is slow and weak, and health packs must be used where you find them, so reviewers find running from the dead is often wiser than fighting.

Players praise its atmosphere, tone and storytelling; reviewers of the console version call the aiming rough and the last act hard. It suits fans of Puppet Combo and of the fixed-camera survival horror of the early 2000s.