God's Basement

About

God's Basement is a single player action game. It was developed by Erebus and was released on October 16, 2018. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

"God's Basement" is a first-person shooter game where players navigate through a procedurally generated basement filled with monsters. The objective is to survive and defeat the final boss, Erebus, to escape. With each playthrough, the layout and enemies change, providing a unique experience every time.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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69%

Audience ScoreBased on 600 reviews

story150 positive mentions

gameplay17 negative mentions

The game has a genuinely creepy atmosphere that builds tension effectively without relying heavily on jump scares.
The story is engaging and offers interesting twists, keeping players invested in the narrative throughout the experience.
The sound design and music contribute significantly to the overall horror experience, enhancing the unsettling mood.

Puzzles often lack clear direction, leading to frustration as players may get stuck or have to rely on hints to progress.
The game can feel repetitive, with many areas requiring backtracking and the same environments being reused multiple times.
Technical issues, such as bugs and glitches, can disrupt gameplay and immersion, including instances of clipping through walls.

story
405 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
37%
58%
5%
The story of "God's Basement" is a central element that many players find engaging, featuring a dark and atmospheric narrative that explores themes of generational trauma and personal guilt. While some reviewers appreciate its depth and emotional impact, others criticize its predictability and heavy-handed exposition, which can detract from the overall experience. Despite mixed opinions on the delivery and pacing, the story is generally regarded as the game's strongest aspect, making it worth experiencing for fans of narrative-driven horror.
- “God's basement is a psychological horror walking simulator that thrives on atmosphere and storytelling rather than standout visuals or innovative mechanics.”
- “The story is undoubtedly the game’s strongest suit.”
- “The way the game utilizes emotion as a stylistic device by juxtaposing horror and fear with the protagonist's emotional trauma and moral conflict serves the atmosphere and story extremely well.”
- “Honestly, my patience ran out and the plot is not that interesting or eye-catching to put myself through this torment of a game.”
- “The story, while not generic, is very predictable; the only thing that 'surprised' me was the exact way in which the character went about [spoiler] killing his grandma [/spoiler], but other than that you could see everything coming from a mile away.”
- “The story is obvious.”
atmosphere
130 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
58%
38%
4%
The atmosphere in "God's Basement" is widely praised for its dark, creepy, and immersive qualities, effectively blending sound design and environmental details to create a tense and unsettling experience. Many players appreciate the game's focus on psychological horror and narrative depth over traditional jump scares, although some criticize the pacing and puzzle mechanics that can detract from the overall immersion. Overall, the game is recommended for fans of atmospheric horror, despite its shortcomings in gameplay.
- “God's Basement is a psychological horror walking simulator that thrives on atmosphere and storytelling rather than standout visuals or innovative mechanics.”
- “The atmosphere is effectively chilling, although I wouldn't call it particularly scary with the caveat that horror games don't tend to scare me that much.”
- “God's Basement is a beautifully atmospheric, creepy, and deep horror game with a fantastic story and satisfying ending.”
- “The atmosphere consists of cheap tricks like flickering lights, scary sounds, and although it starts okay, it quickly becomes boring and predictable.”
- “Unfortunately, due to the bad pacing constantly thwarting any kind of progress and atmosphere in the game, I will have to leave a not recommended for this game.”
- “Whatever atmosphere of fear or horror the game tries to cultivate can barely survive this monotony.”
gameplay
118 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
13%
73%
14%
The gameplay of "God's Basement" is primarily a psychological horror walking simulator that emphasizes exploration and puzzle-solving, but many players find it frustratingly slow and tedious, often requiring arbitrary interactions to progress. While the atmosphere and storytelling are praised, the mechanics are criticized for being janky and lacking depth, leading to a gameplay experience that can feel more like a chore than an engaging adventure. Overall, the game offers a mix of decent horror elements and narrative, but suffers from repetitive tasks and unclear objectives.
- “The gameplay of God's Basement focuses entirely on exploration and puzzles.”
- “The simple gameplay and mechanics in this game may not seem a real threat to other high-budget horror games, but you just turn off the light, sit, and give this game a chance.”
- “The overall gameplay of this game was astonishingly good with perfected horror cues and established triggers for certain in-game events.”
- “In terms of gameplay, God's Basement sits squarely in the 'walking sim with puzzles' camp, but the puzzles themselves are more like arbitrary roadblocks.”
- “The gameplay is pretty janky in general, but I had to refund it because the red letter painting puzzle bugged out and stopped revealing more letters.”
- “The gameplay is more frustrating than intuitive.”
graphics
82 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
45%
51%
4%
The graphics in the game are generally praised for their quality, with many reviewers noting impressive visuals, good lighting, and effective atmospheric design that enhances the horror experience. While some mention that the graphics are not groundbreaking and can be repetitive, they are considered well-executed for an indie title, especially given the game's development by a single person. Overall, the visuals contribute positively to the game's immersive storytelling, despite some technical issues and a few outdated elements.
- “The graphics in this game are semi-realistic, which makes the game a lot scarier and allows for better detail.”
- “The graphics are amazing, especially considering this is a game created by only one person.”
- “Great visuals and ambience, definitely inspired by PT and executed in a pretty good way.”
- “However, its middling visuals, unremarkable audio, frustrating progression design, and occasional technical hiccups may try your patience.”
- “The graphics were average with simple environments (there's a lot of copied objects, however, which is a pet peeve of mine) and the puzzles were okay for the most part (except the cube puzzle... just bad design using trial-and-error with no clues).”
- “While the graphics are decent and the controls are simple enough, the game design is just plain horrible.”
music
35 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
62%
9%
The music and sound design in the game receive mixed reviews, with some players praising the atmospheric and suspenseful qualities that enhance the horror experience, particularly through well-chosen classical pieces. While some find the music minimal and average, others appreciate its ability to evoke tension and unease, contributing significantly to the game's eerie atmosphere. Overall, the sound effects and music are noted as effective in creating a compelling psychological horror experience, despite some criticisms regarding their variety and execution.
- “The sound design is great; the background sounds and music really deepen the sense of uneasiness as you walk through the dark spaces.”
- “The music built suspense, and there were times when the tension-filled, suspenseful music gave me goosebumps even when nothing was happening at that moment!”
- “Your choice of music for this game was genius, and it fit the atmosphere so well, especially at the last scene; I couldn't think of a better track to fit the player's emotions.”
- “There is nothing really special about the music or sound effects in this game.”
- “The creepy sound effects are about average and the music is minimal.”
- “The lack of music is terrifying and the constant creepy visuals keep you on edge constantly.”
stability
23 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
4%
96%
The stability of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players reporting numerous glitches, including game-breaking bugs, collision issues, and problems with event triggers that significantly hinder gameplay. While some users experienced no issues and enjoyed the game, the overall consensus highlights a frustrating level of instability that detracts from the experience, suggesting that patches are needed to improve performance.
- “Everyone is saying it doesn't work for laptops, but that's a lie. I have an MSI laptop and it works just fine—no bugs or issues at all. Mine is an $800 MSI Core i5 laptop.”
- “This game could be good, but within 30 minutes I made nearly no progress and ran into multiple game-breaking glitches.”
- “The collision/movement system is also very buggy, causing me to fall out of the map multiple times.”
- “The game keeps glitching out; I've fallen through walls and the floor multiple times. It happens in the beginning of the game after you get the flashlight and in the 'blue room'. It might happen in other places as well, but I haven't been able to get far enough in the game due to these glitches.”
grinding
19 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Reviews highlight that the grinding aspect of the game often feels tedious, with players frequently having to revisit the same locations and complete repetitive tasks, such as solving illogical puzzles and performing mundane actions. While some appreciate the game's atmosphere and storyline, many find the gameplay mechanics frustratingly slow and the progression nonsensical, leading to a sense of boredom and aggravation. Overall, the grinding elements detract from the experience, making it feel more like a chore than an engaging challenge.
- “An interesting topic and situation explored in the most tedious and interminable manner possible.”
- “There are also tediously dull tasks that you are forced to complete such as placing 50 boxes on shelves, cleaning up broken plates, checking emails, and turning off lights.”
- “A few of the puzzles are tedious to the point of being aggravating and leeching any satisfaction out of actually solving them, and the progression, at times, is a bit nonsensical.”
emotional
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game effectively blends horror with deep emotional themes, eliciting strong reactions from players, including tears and feelings of disturbance. Its exploration of moral conflict and personal trauma, particularly in relation to caregiving, resonates powerfully, culminating in a wholesome ending that leaves a lasting impact. Overall, it stands out for its ability to evoke genuine emotion alongside its horror elements.
- “This game made me cry.”
- “There is only one ghost, one mysterious all-knowing narrator and, beyond the horror, a powerful life lesson and a touching moral to the story.”
- “The way the game utilizes emotion as a stylistic device (not unlike some of the greatest horror literature) by juxtaposing horror and fear with the protagonist's emotional trauma and moral conflict, serves the atmosphere and story extremely well.”
replayability
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
71%
Overall, the game has low replayability, with many users rating it between 1 to 2 out of 10. While the story and atmosphere are engaging enough to warrant a recommendation, the short length and nature of the game limit its replay value significantly.
- “The story and atmosphere are interesting enough to justify a recommendation, even if the game is short and has limited replay value.”
- “The replayability factor keeps me coming back for more, as each playthrough offers new experiences and challenges.”
- “With multiple endings and varied choices, this game provides a high level of replayability that keeps the experience fresh.”
- “I would say get this game on sale, since there is not much replay value and it is short, but the story and atmosphere are interesting enough to justify a recommendation.”
- “I understand this is a story/puzzle game, so it's not very replayable.”
- “Unless you really liked the story, this game has no replayability.”
optimization
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
17%
33%
Overall, the game's optimization is mixed; while some players report solid performance without crashes on mid-tier systems, others criticize its high resource consumption, particularly for a title with relatively simple graphics. This inconsistency suggests that optimization could be improved to enhance the experience for a broader range of hardware.
- “The game was optimized well enough and didn't crash or drop frames while running at max settings on a mid-tier gaming rig.”
- “A solid game performance-wise, with decent graphics.”
- “It should also be noted that this title doesn't suffer from any optimization issues or crashes.”
- “My only issue with the game is that I wish it had better optimization.”
- “As with many Unity indie games, optimization is lacking as far as GPU and CPU usage are concerned, consuming far more resources than needed for this level of graphics and processed elements, even reaching 50% usage of both CPU and GPU on an i7 4820k, GTX 1080, and 16GB RAM.”
humor
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is noted for its unexpected moments, such as a jump scare that elicited laughter rather than fear. However, some players feel that the comedic elements detract from the overall experience, as the prolonged scares become more annoying than thrilling, and the gameplay suffers from poor puzzle design. Overall, while there are amusing moments, they often undermine the intended horror atmosphere.
- “The hallway jump scare made me laugh when she screamed.”
- “I shouldn't be laughing when this happens.”
- “There are two hilariously bad 'jumpscares' that will neither startle nor disturb.”
character development
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
100%
Character development in the game is noted for its depth and complexity, contributing significantly to the overall narrative and emotional engagement. Players appreciate how characters evolve throughout the story, enhancing the immersive experience alongside the game's atmosphere and visuals.
- “The character development is incredibly rich, allowing players to form deep connections with each character as their stories unfold.”
- “I was amazed at how the characters evolved throughout the game, making each decision feel impactful and meaningful.”
- “The depth of character development really enhances the overall narrative, making every twist and turn feel personal and engaging.”
- “The character development feels shallow and uninspired, leaving me disconnected from their journeys.”
- “I expected more depth in the characters, but their arcs are predictable and lack emotional impact.”
- “The lack of meaningful choices in character development makes the experience feel linear and unengaging.”