The Fridge is Red
- September 27, 2022
- 5WORD Team
- 3h median play time
Get on Steam"The Fridge is Red" is a first-person horror anthology game featuring six distinct stories, each with unique themes and gameplay. Players must keep their eyes on the red fridge as they navigate liminal spaces, surreal encounters, and uncanny strangers. Inspired by PSX-era retro horrors, the game offers an immersive analogue post-process and FPS lock, with save slots requiring a memory card. The game encourages players to uncover the red fridge's biggest secret.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game has a unique and intriguing atmosphere that captures a surreal horror vibe reminiscent of PS1-era games.
- The narrative is engaging, with each chapter contributing to an overarching story that explores themes of guilt and loss.
- Some segments provide genuine scares and interesting puzzle mechanics, making for a memorable experience despite its flaws.
- The game is plagued by numerous bugs and glitches that can halt progress, leading to frustration and confusion.
- Level design often feels tedious and confusing, with players frequently getting lost or stuck due to vague objectives.
- The visual filter can be overly aggressive, making it difficult to see important items and navigate through darker areas.
- story49 mentions
- 24 % positive mentions
- 69 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The game's story is a mixed bag, featuring an intriguing overarching narrative that connects six distinct tales, each with its own unique atmosphere and emotional weight. While some players appreciate the depth and twists of the storyline, many express frustration with the gameplay mechanics, bugs, and lack of clear direction, which detracts from the overall experience. Despite these issues, the aesthetic and thematic elements resonate with fans of horror, making it a worthwhile, albeit flawed, journey for those who enjoy narrative-driven games.
“The overarching story packs a punch and reminded me a bit of Silent Hill as you start putting things together.”
“The tragic story isn't quite to my taste, but it succeeds at tying together the chapters cohesively, and with a punch.”
“The game is fun, the story is interesting, and it continues in an appropriate way.”
“However, the storytelling falls short as the game is riddled with bugs, bugs, bugs.”
“I am not sure what this game is trying to do or what even the story is.”
“It tells a bog-standard story with bog-standard gameplay.”
- graphics30 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 57 % neutral mentions
- 10 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received mixed reviews, with many praising the intentional retro aesthetic reminiscent of PS1-era visuals that effectively contribute to the horror ambiance. However, some players found the visuals to be ugly or low-resolution, which occasionally hindered gameplay due to graphical glitches and poor visibility. Overall, while the graphics are celebrated for their creativity and atmosphere, they may not appeal to everyone, particularly those who prefer modern visuals.
“The visuals and audio are wonderful and eerie.”
“The artwork of this game is exceptionally effective, and to be commended for walking a fine line with a task that is more demanding than in a more traditional horror game.”
“This little title uses its PS1 graphics to its fullest advantage and delivers very effective scares through its six diverse chapters.”
“The aesthetic is just horrendously ugly.”
“Lower the amount of foggy filters; it's so difficult to see with so few graphic options.”
“The graphics and audio are from the 1990s, a decade characterized by software rendering and blocky graphics.”
- gameplay25 mentions
- 28 % positive mentions
- 48 % neutral mentions
- 24 % negative mentions
The gameplay has been widely criticized for its clunky controls, tedious mechanics, and repetitive tasks, leading to a frustrating experience that detracts from the overall enjoyment of the game. While some players appreciated the creative visuals and interesting ideas, many found the gameplay to be slow, monotonous, and lacking in engagement, often feeling like a chore rather than an immersive experience. Despite a few enjoyable elements, the overall consensus is that the gameplay fails to live up to the potential of its narrative and atmosphere.
“The cohesion between graphics and gameplay is unparalleled; the sounds are entirely reminiscent of that time.”
“This is a series of horror vignettes that take place in different settings with different mechanics, but all end up tying into a singular narrative that comes together as you go through it.”
“The gameplay involves running around, gathering items, and using them where they belong, and experiencing strange events.”
“From clunky controls to nonsensical puzzles, every aspect of the gameplay felt like a chore.”
“It's full of interesting ideas and creative visuals, but the gameplay is consistently stale and monotonous after the first level.”
“The longer episodes are full of boring mazes with weak stealth mechanics that will just end up frustrating you, and the second last episode is a driving sequence that's so long, so boring and so full of backtracking, I agree with another reviewer who said that it was likely designed that way to pad out the length past the refund window.”
- atmosphere19 mentions
- 32 % positive mentions
- 53 % neutral mentions
- 16 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its unique and chilling qualities, effectively creating a sense of tension and unease that resonates with fans of indie horror. However, some players feel that the atmosphere can be undermined by gameplay issues, such as sluggish controls and low-resolution textures, which detract from the overall experience. Despite these criticisms, many agree that the atmospheric elements, including sound design and visual style, are standout features that contribute significantly to the game's appeal.
“The vibes and atmosphere are unmatched.”
“Don't take the negative reviews for this game too seriously if you're someone who enjoys indie walking sim horror with a strong emphasis on fever-dream passages and chilling lo-fi atmosphere.”
“Now as I'm playing the full version of the game, I should say that I am really impressed by the whole atmosphere and the feeling of some slow madness that is evolving within the game progress.”
“Despite the game's attempts to create a tense and unsettling atmosphere, I failed to find anything remotely scary about it.”
“Real buzzkill because some of the horror elements in this are super strong, the references are on point and I want it to be good, but running in circles is annoying, not scary, and any atmosphere they build gets spoiled by completely lackluster progress gates in each level.”
“I don’t know if they just wanted it to get past the 2-hour mark so you can’t refund it or what, but either way, it results in a waste of time and it kills any atmosphere or spooks they had set up.”
- stability10 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game suffers from significant stability issues, with numerous bugs and glitches reported, including game-breaking errors, softlocks, and frustrating controls. While it shows potential in the analog horror genre, these stability problems detract from the overall experience, making it a challenging and often infuriating play.
“This game has potential, but it is incredibly buggy.”
“Bugs and glitches galore!”
“I encountered various bugs from graphical glitches to softlocks and even a couple hardlocks.”
- grinding7 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The grinding aspect of the game is widely criticized for being tedious and lacking intuitive guidance, often leading players to feel stuck in repetitive tasks. While there are moments of fun and interesting gameplay, the overall experience is marred by confusion and a sense of mediocrity, leaving many players disappointed.
“It's full of tedious tasks.”
“Not great, not intuitive enough for the fact it gives little to no guidance in some sections, easy to get stuck in tedious sections.”
“The developer could've done a much better job here but seems to have settled for a tedious and mediocre mess, and that's coming from someone who loves these indie PSX-inspired types of games.”
- music4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The music and audio design in the game are generally solid, effectively complementing the sound effects to enhance the overall atmosphere. While the soundtrack contributes to a creepy ambiance, it is noted that the limited number of jumpscares primarily rely on loud screamers. Overall, the audio elements work together to create a tense and immersive experience.
“The sound design is another key point here - the sound effects and the music altogether share the same characteristics.”
“Music and audio design is solid throughout.”
“The sound design is another key point here - the sound effects and the music altogether share the same characteristics - the small number of jumpscares here are all screamers.”
“With different episodes to work through, there are plenty of puzzles that will confuse and frustrate you, scary and gross visuals, and a soundtrack that will creep you right out.”
- emotional3 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game delivers a powerful emotional experience through its compelling narrative and stunning visuals, effectively intertwining six chapters that culminate in a tragic and touching story. Players report feeling genuinely scared while also being moved by the deep connections revealed throughout the gameplay, highlighting the lasting impact of the character's heartbreaking journey.
“The narrative is good, the aesthetic and visuals are outstanding, it's genuinely scary, and some of the segments are very touching.”
“The fridge is red definitely influenced me emotionally in the end when I connected all the pieces of the six chapters and realized what a tragic story it was.”
“While all six scenarios are shown in time to be connected (if only seemingly peripherally), when the game is completed, the story told is a truly horrible one from the character’s life, as heartbreakingly permanent as any story imagination could create.”
- replayability3 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- -33 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
The game has limited replayability, with a short completion time of around 3.5 hours and a lack of secrets, alternate endings, or meaningful content to encourage multiple playthroughs. While some users may find it infinitely replayable, the general consensus leans towards a lack of engaging elements to revisit.
“The game is infinitely replayable, offering new experiences with each playthrough.”
“Every run feels fresh and exciting, making me want to dive back in again and again.”
“The variety of choices and outcomes ensures that no two playthroughs are ever the same.”
“Even with all these headaches, it only took me 3 and a half hours to finish the whole thing, which has no replay value, no secrets (aside from one achievement that is a grind) and no alternate endings.”
- humor2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is characterized as intentionally absurd, with players finding amusement in its poorly executed physics and overall comedic ineptitude.
“I just found this hilariously bad.”
“The physics are funny.”
- optimization1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
The game is reported to be poorly optimized, making it difficult to play while streaming, particularly when using virtual technology solutions.
“Unfortunately, the game is totally unoptimized and unplayable while streaming with VTS.”
“The performance issues make it impossible to enjoy the game, especially during intense moments.”
“Frequent frame drops and stuttering make the experience frustrating, even on high-end hardware.”
