Zort

About Zort

Zort came out on Steam in Early Access in December 2024, made by the small studio Londer Software. It is built for a group of up to four, online or over LAN, and the makers say they recommend playing with four people because it is more frightening that way. You can still play it alone.

Each level is a map with an exit to reach. You collect the items you need, and doors you open unlock further doors, so the path forward stays clear. Solutions change between plays, so the same map does not always open the same way. The store calls it a simple, suspenseful path rather than a confusing one.

The fear comes from what lives on each map. Every map has its own main creature and smaller ones, each with strengths and weaknesses that the game hints at but leaves you to learn. Traps and other surprises can also kill you, and a sanity system means you have to look after your mental state as well as your health. Proximity voice chat with filters that change with the setting lets you hear friends nearby and lose them when they wander off. The store warns that characters are injured, die and lose limbs and heads.

Screenshots show the players in blue suits with round helmets crossing a foggy forest road by flashlight, searching wooden barns and running from a long-limbed creature with red eyes and teeth. Players describe it as funny with friends as well as frightening, in the line of Pacify and Devour. It suits a group that wants a cheap co-op horror night with a story told across episodes.

How to play Zort

1. Start or join a lobby of up to four players; solo play is possible.
2. Explore the map with your flashlight and talk to nearby teammates over proximity voice chat.
3. Collect the items the level needs and use them to open doors toward the exit.
4. Learn how the map's creatures behave and avoid them and the traps.
5. Keep your sanity up and reach the end of the level alive to move on to the next map.

Tips

• Stay within voice range of each other; proximity chat means a teammate who wanders off is soon on their own.
• Watch for the game's hints about each creature, since every one has a weakness to learn.
• Do not assume last game's solution works again; the store says solutions change between plays.

Questions