Unsorted Horror

About Unsorted Horror

Unsorted Horror is a free collection by Mike Klubnika, released on Steam in August 2023 for Windows. It gathers five short first-person horror games that share one idea: detailed machinery in a dark dystopian setting. The menu is a shelf of CD cases; you choose one, read the back and go on a small adventure.

The five games are Tartarus Engine, in which a group of technicians exploit a weakness in an ancient machine; The Other Side, where you run a jury-rigged drill to escape a corrupt bunker in secret; Control Room Alpha, in which you pull data from a nest of spiders; Carbon Steel, hazardous research in an abandoned facility; and Concrete Tremor, a game about plastic explosives and Soviet apartment buildings. Most take about 10 to 15 minutes and are meant to be played in one sitting.

There is no fighting. You stand at consoles, old computers, levers and control panels in dim, rusted rooms and work out how they operate, and players note how little the games explain, sometimes with a clock running. The horror is the oppressive atmosphere and the feeling that the job you are doing is about to go badly wrong.

It suits players who liked the tense, tactile style of Buckshot Roulette or machine-operating horror such as Iron Lung, and anyone after a free evening of short, grim pieces that each feel complete.

How to play Unsorted Horror

1. Add Unsorted Horror to your Steam library for free and start it on Windows.
2. Pick one of the five CD cases from the shelf and read its back to learn the setup.
3. Look around the room and try the controls of each machine; the games explain very little.
4. Finish each game in one sitting, then return to the shelf for the next one.

Tips

• Read every screen, label and note in the room; they are often the only instructions you get.
• If a game has a time limit, take a moment first to look at all the controls before you start pulling levers.
• Play them in a dark room, one at a time, rather than all in a rush.

Questions