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It Sleeps Below the Haar

It Sleeps Below the Haar Game Cover
67%Game Brain Score
Most mentioned positive aspects:story, atmosphere
Most mentioned negative aspects:stability
86% User Score Based on 29 reviews

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PCWindows
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It Sleeps Below the Haar Game Cover

About It Sleeps Below the Haar

It Sleeps Below the Haar is a single player open world simulation game with horror and historical themes. It was developed by ARBORETA GAMES and was released on May 31, 2024. It received positive reviews from players.

1953. North East Scotland. A research student travels to the small coastal village of Kellas Bay to study it's unique and strange ecology. They embark on a surreal journey from the lush forests and ancient cave systems surrounding the village, to the freezing depths of the North Sea in order to comprehend the primordial natural forces responsible for the area's curious phenomena. It Sleeps Belo…

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It Sleeps Below the Haar screenshot
It Sleeps Below the Haar screenshot
It Sleeps Below the Haar screenshot
It Sleeps Below the Haar screenshot
It Sleeps Below the Haar screenshot
It Sleeps Below the Haar screenshot
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Reviews

86%Audience ScoreBased on 29 reviews
story4 positive mentions
stability2 negative mentions
  • The game offers a deeply atmospheric and unsettling cosmic horror experience with a strong focus on exploration and lore.
  • Unique Scottish setting with authentic cultural details and language, enhancing immersion.
  • Excellent sound design and haunting music, combined with grainy visuals and FMV cutscenes that strongly contribute to the game's mood.
  • The game suffers from significant bugs and crashes that can disrupt progress and cause frustration.
  • The narrative is often considered thin or unclear, with a lack of satisfying story resolution for some players.
  • Gameplay can feel repetitive and lacking in variety, with limited quest types and some awkward mechanics such as time progression and character movement.

  • story

    20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    20% positive mentions, 65% neutral mentions, 15% negative mentions

    The story creates a compelling cosmic horror atmosphere centered on a geologist exploring a mysterious island, enriched by environmental storytelling and Lovecraftian lore. However, many find the narrative thin and episodic, relying heavily on repetitive fetch quests with limited main plot development. While the mood and world-building are praised, some players desire deeper, more engaging story progression and character-driven side quests.

    • “You'll get the same atmospheric storytelling, the haunting music and visuals, and find yourself wondering, with delight and horror, 'what is going on?!'”
    • “+ lots of little tidbits of Lovecraftian lore to read and discover, interesting eerie story”
    • “I loved exploring the lore of Kellis Bay through the quests and environmental storytelling.”
    • “There isn't much of a story as there is world building and a collection of atmospheric attractions.”
    • “I think it does a good job setting a mood, but the game is so thin on story (despite an extended opening audio scene) that there isn't really anything to latch onto, besides the repetitive quests you have to complete to get through each day.”
    • “Sending you out on rudimentary fetch quests to provoke your curiosity towards exploration.”

  • atmosphere

    18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    50% positive mentions, 50% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The game excels in creating a richly unsettling and immersive atmosphere through haunting music, dream-like visuals, and detailed world-building rather than relying on jump scares. Its sound design, cultural details, and subtle cosmic horror elements effectively draw players into a mysterious, eerie setting filled with a sense of dread and intrigue. Overall, the atmosphere is praised as evocative, captivating, and integral to the game's storytelling and experience.

    • “So interesting and atmospheric, in a wonderfully unsettling setting.”
    • “The atmosphere, ambiance, and sound design completely pulled me into this world.”
    • “Through an excellent use of sound and visuals it manages to create an atmosphere of subtle dread that constantly fills you with the sensation of impending danger, despite the absence of any actual threat.”

  • graphics

    6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    67% positive mentions, 33% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The graphics effectively enhance the game's atmospheric storytelling with grainy, analog horror visuals and FMV cutscenes that complement the retro gameplay. While the eerie and haunting aesthetic successfully creates a subtle sense of dread, some technical issues like close-in foliage texture pop-in and limited graphical settings were noted. Overall, the visuals contribute significantly to the immersive and unsettling experience.

    • “You'll get the same atmospheric storytelling, the haunting music and visuals, and find yourself wondering, with delight and horror, 'what is going on?!'”
    • “The grainy visuals and the eerie sounds really added to it.”
    • “The analog horror aesthetic is nice, and the FMV cutscenes worked well with the retro gameplay.”

  • music

    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The music is praised for its atmospheric and haunting qualities, featuring beautiful folk tunes during cutscenes and a creepy, dreamy soundtrack that enhances the game's mood and immersion. Overall, it effectively supports storytelling without standing out negatively.

    • “You'll get the same atmospheric storytelling, the haunting music and visuals, and find yourself wondering, with delight and horror, 'what is going on?!'”
    • “Beautiful haunting folk music during FMV cutscenes, as well as a creepy dreamy soundtrack while wandering around the land that I could listen to for hours.”
    • “I don’t really remember anything on the music side, but nothing really sounded odd or bad.”

  • stability

    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions

    The game suffers from notable stability issues, including frequent bugs such as clipping through the environment, delayed character movement after input release, and unrealistic physics like floating when falling from heights. These bugs negatively impact the overall gameplay experience.

    • “The game also feels very buggy - you can clip through the environment in places, the character continues to move for a few steps after you release the controls, and if you accelerate off an elevated platform you just float slowly down to the ground instead of obeying the laws of gravity.”
    • “This is pretty buggy.”

  • gameplay

    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The gameplay effectively combines an analog horror aesthetic with retro mechanics and FMV cutscenes, creating an engaging experience. However, players desire more dynamic features like escalating daily challenges and optional side quests to deepen character development and add complexity.

    • “The analog horror aesthetic is nice, and the FMV cutscenes worked well with the retro gameplay.”
    • “I'd love for this game to have a 'day 1...' mechanic where it gets more hectic day by day, and to have side quests (optional as the game states) every day that provides the character with something more to protect their insanity and also to build other characters further.”
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Frequently Asked Questions

It Sleeps Below the Haar is a open world simulation game with horror and historical themes. Common tags for It Sleeps Below the Haar include first-person, indie, surreal, psychological, exploration and others.

It Sleeps Below the Haar is available on PC and Windows.

It Sleeps Below the Haar was released on May 31, 2024.

It Sleeps Below the Haar was developed by ARBORETA GAMES.

It Sleeps Below the Haar has received positive reviews from players. Most players liked It Sleeps Below the Haar for its story but disliked it for its stability.

It Sleeps Below the Haar is a single player game.

Similar games include Stars Die, No one lives under the lighthouse, A Place, Forbidden, Conarium, The Solus Project and others.