This review contains spoilers
SEPTEMBER 1999 is a short-form P.T. styled two room horror "walking simulator" developed by 98Demake, a developer whose mostly known for creating short form trailers of modern games and what they would be like if they were made in the style of Playstation 1. This stuff blew my mind when I was younger and I eagerly followed him and his work for more content like this. Along the way, I discovered that he created two games: SEPTEMBER 1999 and OK/Normal. I ended up streaming both for a friend of mine years ago, and today I streamed this and Lake Haven: Chrysalis for another friend today (OK/Normal in the future at some point). Both were released on Itch.io and Steam, with SEPTEMBER 1999 being released for free a couple of months after OK/Normal with one concept in mind: what if the cancelled P.T. demo was a timed 5 Minute 30 Seconds with no interaction except walking through two rooms and watching the environmental story telling unfold?
Well that's basically the gameplay, and the plot is a series of cutaways that seem to reveal a series of days in which a killer holds people captive and kills them in their house before the police sirens appear outside. It doesn't really give you much context other than what you see, and truth is it's really up to you and your interpretation of your events, which can be good or bad depending on how you want the timeline to go. How about the graphics and atmosphere?
The graphics will make you choose between Low and Ultra High but the truth is it doesn't really matter, as either way it's grainy and downgraded behind a VHS filter in a way that's highly reminiscent of old video cameras from back in the day. I love the old Analog Horror style so no complaints, and as for the atmosphere it's a very slow burn horror vibe that while you don't feel like you could die, you feel trapped in place as the days pass by and you're forced to see out of the eyes of what could be a serial killer. The sound design is pretty good too, between the static grain sounds and the sounds of the house settling all providing creepy vibes that go well in a horror game.
Regardless it's been about 5 or 6 years since we last saw any games by 98Demake, less heard much about him at all. He had a discord at one point I was apart of, but I dropped off due to personal life issues which sucks. I'm not sure what they're up to, but I hope they come back some day because they have a lot of talent. If you like short horror walking sims, I'd say give this game a go, it's free so why not right?
Links:
https://www.youtube.com/@98DEMAKE/videos
https://store.steampowered.com/developer/98demake
https://www.backloggd.com/games/september-1999/
Well that's basically the gameplay, and the plot is a series of cutaways that seem to reveal a series of days in which a killer holds people captive and kills them in their house before the police sirens appear outside. It doesn't really give you much context other than what you see, and truth is it's really up to you and your interpretation of your events, which can be good or bad depending on how you want the timeline to go. How about the graphics and atmosphere?
The graphics will make you choose between Low and Ultra High but the truth is it doesn't really matter, as either way it's grainy and downgraded behind a VHS filter in a way that's highly reminiscent of old video cameras from back in the day. I love the old Analog Horror style so no complaints, and as for the atmosphere it's a very slow burn horror vibe that while you don't feel like you could die, you feel trapped in place as the days pass by and you're forced to see out of the eyes of what could be a serial killer. The sound design is pretty good too, between the static grain sounds and the sounds of the house settling all providing creepy vibes that go well in a horror game.
Regardless it's been about 5 or 6 years since we last saw any games by 98Demake, less heard much about him at all. He had a discord at one point I was apart of, but I dropped off due to personal life issues which sucks. I'm not sure what they're up to, but I hope they come back some day because they have a lot of talent. If you like short horror walking sims, I'd say give this game a go, it's free so why not right?
Links:
https://www.youtube.com/@98DEMAKE/videos
https://store.steampowered.com/developer/98demake
https://www.backloggd.com/games/september-1999/