When playing some of the older top-down horror games, did you ever wish you could have fought the undead in first person? Welcome to You Will Die Here Tonight, developed and published by Spiral Bound Interactive LLC., a game that will fulfil that dream.

You begin your adventure as Dr. Katherine Olsson. After being transferred to a new sector, you join a small team called the ARIES Division at their headquarters. After a short tutorial, you take on your first mission, but everything changes after a mysterious lamp knocks you and your team out. You take control of Lt. Ashley Kowalski as she awakens, alone in the lobby, and you’ll need to find your team as you make your way through a horrifying mansion, and hopefully, escape the madness.

The game takes place in Breckenridge Estate, a cursed 19th-century mansion, and you have a squad of 6 members, each with different traits. Cpt. Vincent Charles leads the team, a strong-minded man who can take a hit. Next is Sgt. Javier Rodriguez, the demolition specialist, so you know he’s good at blowing things up. Lt. Ashley Kowalski leads support and medical, using her medical expertise to aid the team, and Lt. Eric Downs, the weapons specialist who can modify and upgrade standard-issue weapons at a workbench. Specialist Mike Kelly is very good with electronics, and last but not least is Dr Katherine Olsson, whom we only know a little about, except that she outranks everyone, even though she joined as a civilian.

You start with a 9mm pistol, the standard issue sidearm for all members of the ARIES Division, but while fighting your way through the undead husks that used to be humans, you can find ammo, health, and weapon upgrade kits, plus another two other weapons that can be found later on.

You’ll also find notes and other critical items throughout the mansion but note that once you die, it’s not necessarily over. You can continue the mission as the other members of ARIES, but keep in mind that even in death, your previous actions and decisions will carry over, either empowering or endangering those who remain, so remember, take only what you need. Your squad mates will thank you as they run from deadly enemies and solve complex puzzles.

You Will Die Here Tonight is pretty simple to control. As previously mentioned, the tutorial at the beginning helps you to understand the game’s mechanics, however, going through menus can feel like a drag – you have to use the keyboard to navigate. Playing the majority of the game in a third-person top-down view, you’ll mainly WASD for movement and hold Shift to sprint, but things get a little more interesting when you enter combat, and You Will Die Here Tonight does something exciting.

Holding down the right mouse button will zoom you into a first-person mode, allowing you to aim your weapon and fire with the left mouse button. It’s a pretty neat mechanic, and it gives you a face full of undead horror, and a near-perfect segway to the graphics.

While playing in the third-person top-down view, it’s a little like the original Resident Evil games on the original PlayStation. Characters can feel a little blocky in their appearance, and the details can feel somewhat pixelated. Animations, on the other hand, are nice and smooth, with characters responding well to keyboard inputs, and the estate is beautifully detailed, full of shadows and giving off a very sinister vibe. Moving into combat, as mentioned before, opens up the first-person firing mode, bringing you face-to-face with undead horrors and utilising a full range of attacking animations. Enemy details are magnified and intense, and even though they might not reach today’s “standards,” they still give you a genuine sense of fear.

Given You Will Die Here Tonight is set in a somewhat haunted mansion, it’s full of ominous background noises. The sounds of distant screams and scratching on the walls will keep you on your toes, but the sounds that feel like they are coming from right behind you will send shivers down your spine and have you sink into your shoes. Every thud of a door closing, every creak of the floorboards, and all of the atmospheric sounds will put you on edge. The only thing that could make this more immersive would be if the character’s dialogue was voiced, but the short bursts of text really help to drive home the retro feel.

You Will Die Here Tonight brings a lot of unique ideas to the playing field, such as the third-person gameplay to first-person combat transitions. While this makes it stand out from the crowd, the lack of mouse control hurts the overall menu experience. However, the game makes up for it with exhilarating chases and gruesome fights as you try to complete the puzzles to progress further. You Will Die Here Tonight is a must-play game for retro enthusiasts who want a good challenge and who love a good scare.

Written by: TypicalCambieAU