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Loan Shark Game Cover

About Loan Shark

Loan Shark is a single player role playing game with horror, mystery and thriller themes. It was developed by Studio Ortica and was released on August 8, 2025. It received positive reviews from players.

The loan shark is coming for you. Catch enough fish to repay your debt before it is too late. Go fish.

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Games Like Loan Shark

Looking for games like Loan Shark? Here are top role playing recommendations with a horror, mystery and thriller focus, selected from player-similarity data — start with No I'm not a Human, The Salesman or The Convenience Store.

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Reviews

86%Audience ScoreBased on 496 reviews
story58 positive mentions
stability6 negative mentions

  • Unique and intriguing story with strong themes of debt, capitalism, and moral choices.
  • Atmospheric psychological horror with effective use of sound design and subtle scares.
  • Short, replayable experience with multiple endings and good life lessons, all at a fair price.
  • Gameplay and controls can be clunky and repetitive, especially the fishing and gutting mechanics.
  • Short length and limited content, with only one main ending and minimal replay value for some players.
  • Performance issues and bugs reported on some systems, including crashes and graphical problems.
  • story

    120 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    48% positive mentions, 49% neutral mentions, 3% negative mentions

    The story is widely praised for its intriguing, meaningful, and atmospheric narrative with multiple endings that encourage replayability, despite being relatively short and straightforward. Many appreciate its subtle horror elements and moral themes, though some find it simple or feel the message is occasionally forced. Overall, the story is considered engaging and a strong highlight, even if not profoundly complex or groundbreaking.

    • “Discovering every ending completely changed my perspective on the story.”
    • “One of the coolest and most unique horror experiences I’ve played in recent years, wrapped in a story that runs far deeper than you’d expect at first glance – way beyond the usual “evil spirit hunts you” cliché.”
    • “The story flows well and offers several endings, all of which can be unlocked without dragging the experience out too much.”
    • “The story is very bland and rather flat.”
    • “The fishing mechanics are awfully tiresome, the few scares feel cheap, and the story is a messy tangle that fails to make me care.”
    • “It would be a fine storytelling technique, but in an attempt to prove its main point, the game guides you towards a preferred path by offering branching decisions that don’t make sense to be chosen at the time and then needlessly disables you the option to utilize them again or strategize around them.”
  • gameplay

    51 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    20% positive mentions, 66% neutral mentions, 14% negative mentions

    The gameplay is generally described as simple, repetitive, and lacking depth, with some mechanics like fishing and gutting feeling clunky or buggy. While the gameplay supports the narrative and atmosphere adequately, many players find it unsatisfying and limited, highlighting a desire for more polish, variety, and content to make it truly engaging. Overall, it serves mainly as a functional backdrop to the story rather than providing a rich or complex interactive experience.

    • “Immersive worldbuilding, simple core mechanics, and horror teases make this an intriguing psychological horror experience!”
    • “Loan Shark's different endings and main route all use the game's given mechanics to their fullest potential (without being absurdly detailed), both in storytelling and visuals (and in spooking the player).”
    • “The fishing mechanics are very simple, but still satisfying.”
    • “The gutting mechanic is straight up terrible and frustrating.”
    • “Gameplay/controls are clunky and slow moving.”
    • “The fishing mechanics are awfully tiresome, the few scares feel cheap, and the story is a messy tangle that fails to make me care.”
  • graphics

    32 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    22% positive mentions, 69% neutral mentions, 9% negative mentions

    The game's graphics adopt a minimalist, stylized, and somewhat rough or retro aesthetic that emphasizes mood and narrative tension over high fidelity, which some players find charming and cohesive. However, several users report technical issues and crashes, particularly with AMD graphics drivers, detracting from the overall experience. While not visually impressive in a conventional sense, the graphics effectively support the game's haunting and immersive atmosphere.

    • “The visuals of this game are really well stylized.”
    • “This game's graphics match exactly what the aura of the game is; simplistic, haunting, and cohesive.”
    • “Nice graphics, excellent sound design.”
    • “The graphics are very simple and seem to be a lower resolution.”
    • “Dev's don't care enough to fix graphical bugs; it looks like my character is mid epileptic stroke whenever I try to play.”
    • “Be warned, just because it's cheap doesn't mean it has bad graphics. I thought that, and even at the lowest graphic settings you can have, it still runs at like 3 FPS, and when the camera switches to the bait underwater the entire screen goes black so I can't even see the fish.”
  • atmosphere

    30 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    63% positive mentions, 27% neutral mentions, 10% negative mentions

    The game excels at building a tense, unsettling atmosphere through eerie visuals, pacing, and storytelling rather than relying on jump scares. Its creepy, immersive setting—often centered around the deep sea—effectively cultivates dread while balancing moments of humor. Though brief and sometimes limited in mechanics, the strong atmosphere is widely praised as a key strength that enhances the narrative experience.

    • “Rather than relying on constant scares, it builds tension through atmosphere.”
    • “The scenery is ominous, the atmosphere is unsettling, and the game does a good job of creating tension throughout.”
    • “It really knows how to build an atmosphere and engulf you in the location.”
    • “If you want a simple quick game with a horror creepy atmosphere this isn't great but will do ya.”
    • “The uneasy atmosphere of fishing scenes would probably work more if navigating the rod wasn't as weird of a mechanic.”
    • “There is a horror element with the atmosphere alone but really no jump scares, what really sucks is there’s basically one ending where you die no matter what.”
  • humor

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

    The game features a unique blend of morbid and quirky humor that contrasts its unsettling atmosphere, making for an enjoyable and often hilarious experience. Players appreciate its surprising comedic moments alongside elements of horror, with humor ranging from playful fishing jokes to unexpected scares that sometimes feel almost comical. Overall, the humor adds charm and lightness to an otherwise eerie and intense game.

    • “The game also has a great sense of humor despite its unsettling atmosphere.”
    • “The game is a spiraling descent into desperation and madness, all wrapped within a short-but-sweet package with great atmosphere, surprising humor, and a dread that ebbs and flows with the tide.”
    • “Super short, but pretty freaky and most definitely hilarious as well.”
  • replayability

    8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    38% positive mentions, 24% neutral mentions, 38% negative mentions

    The game offers moderate replayability primarily through multiple endings and dialogue choices, encouraging players to explore different outcomes. However, its relatively short length and focused narrative limit long-term replay value compared to other titles with more extensive content. Overall, it's engaging for a few playthroughs but may not sustain prolonged replay interest.

    • “It's short but very replayable, the story has a great moral and the horror aspects are very subtle and not in your face.”
    • “I feel like the multiple endings make it replayable and more engaging.”
    • “Good price for what the game gives you along with replayability to see how other dialogue choices may play out.”
    • “However, the focused structure also means limited replay value once the story’s primary outcomes have been seen.”
    • “The story is good, but could have done with multiple endings to help add some content and replayability.”
    • “It's somewhat replayable and takes roughly 40-50 minutes to beat.”
  • stability

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

    The game exhibits several technical issues and bugs, including scripting glitches, problematic mini-game design, and camera instability that can disrupt gameplay. While these stability problems are noticeable, they are somewhat expected for a small, low-cost title and occur inconsistently rather than constantly.

    • “The game was very buggy, with design flaws such as the fishing mini-game and linear progression feeling faulty.”
    • “The gameplay has occasional bugs; for example, after alt-tabbing, the knife got stuck under the gutting board, requiring blind mouse movements to proceed.”
    • “The camera is horribly buggy and keeps spinning uncontrollably without any mouse input.”
  • music

    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    50% positive mentions, -25% neutral mentions, 75% negative mentions

    The music in the game is widely praised for creating a charming, atmospheric experience that perfectly complements the visuals and mood, evoking a peaceful, nostalgic vibe. Players appreciate its subtlety and how it enhances the feeling of solitude and immersion without feeling forced.

    • “Something about being on that little boat at night with Italian music on the radio, looking up at the beautiful moon whilst having my fishing skill criticised by an ugly, tough-talking fish really charmed me.”
    • “I love the story, the vibe, the loneliness, the silent night, our little boat, beer and companion, and lovely music; I wish I could stay here forever.”
    • “It doesn't feel like the developers are trying too hard in any aspect of the gameplay or music.”
    • “The music and visuals were my favourite things about the game.”
    • “Something about being on that little boat at night with Italian music on the radio, looking up at the beautiful moon whilst having my fishing skill criticised by an ugly, tough talking fish really charmed me.”
  • emotional

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

    Players find the game highly emotionally impactful, often eliciting strong feelings and moments of genuine connection. Despite technical issues like a problematic camera, the emotional depth resonates deeply, especially during key achievements such as paying off in-game debt.

    • “This game made me cry 10/10.”
    • “I've gutted pixelated tuna with more emotional investment than I've put into real life relationships.”
    • “When I finally paid off my debt, I cried.”
  • optimization

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

    The game suffers from poor optimization, resulting in performance issues that detract from the experience, though ongoing patches attempt to address some bugs. Despite this, players still find the game enjoyable overall.

    • “The game is not optimized at all.”
    • “Only drawbacks are minor optimization issues that others are requesting and bugs being patched up, but still a great game.”
    • “Poorly optimized.”
  • grinding

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

    Grinding in the game is generally described as tedious and basic, especially due to the lack of save states when replaying for multiple endings. However, despite the repetition, the experience remains charming and not frustrating, encouraging players to explore different outcomes.

    • “It should go without saying, but having no save states in a game where you have to restart four or more times to achieve different endings feels, in the kindest terms, tedious.”
    • “It is tedious, it is basic, and there's nothing immediately scary to speak of whatsoever.”
  • monetization

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

    The game's monetization includes in-app purchases, allowing users to buy additional content such as DLCs even after the initial purchase.

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Play Times

3h Median play time
3h Average play time
3-3h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 2 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

Loan Shark is a role playing game with horror, mystery and thriller themes. Common tags for Loan Shark include first-person, indie, linear, surreal, psychological and others.

Loan Shark is available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 5 and others.

On average players spend around 3 hours playing Loan Shark.

Loan Shark was released on August 8, 2025.

Loan Shark was developed by Studio Ortica.

Loan Shark has received positive reviews from players. Most players liked Loan Shark for its story but disliked it for its replayability.

Loan Shark is a single player game.

Similar games include No I'm not a Human, The Salesman, The Convenience Store, Last Report, Overcome Your Fears: Caretaker and others.