During the early 00s most of the game developers were just figuring out how to distribute their games over the internet. The potential was clearly there, but it wasn’t until later in that decade that we will see a true boom of digital distribution and a huge boost in indie development popularity. Possibly due to that, a lot of the smaller independent games released during that period were free and often were quite open and honest about their influences. In case of the white chamber, the game originally released in 2005 as an expansion of a university project of a small team, the biggest influence was Silent Hill. The series were quite alive and well at the time and it wasn’t too long since SH4: The Room was released. So seeing a “Silent Hill in space” as a concept was really fun. But it’s been 18 years since – does the game still hold up?
the white chamber is a quite short horror themed story driven point and click adventure game that is still available to download for free in it’s “Definitive” version from 2008. With this new version released on Steam titled “Anniversary edition” and having several updates and fixes, an integration of a backstory audio drama the grey tower (that was first hidden in game files and later available as a separate download) and some little new features. It doesn’t really change much from that earlier version and it isn’t the remastered version that was once announced, years ago, and has never come to be.
Which is perfectly fine, as the game still has a really neat tale that mixes horror and sci fi in a way that isn’t anything new (even for 2005), but still well delivered. The sound design remains pretty good, although the mixing has always been quite poor. The visual style is… well, not for everyone, but it works for the game. And the script is a bit too talky and tryhard edgy at times, but it’s still entertaining. And the horror scenes that the game occasionally throws you in still look nice. While the adventuring is mostly solid and fun to go through. There are a couple of buggy moments that remained unfixed, a couple of moments are a bit too dependent on you randomly wondering around after doing some story actions, but overall it’s a pleasant experience even today.
Would I recommend the white chamber in 2023? Sure. It’s simple, it’s short, but it has its charm and its still adorable to see such earnest attempts at doing a Silent Hill story that tries to have its own identity, despite borrowing so much from its influence. And as I said last year, as far as the mood goes, I appreciate this title over Signalis, as odd as it may sound.