Life Eater is a stalking horror game from indie developer Strange Scaffold

The protagonists of most games are heroes who shoot down villains or try to save the princess. One could argue that the protagonist of Life Eater is something of a hero. Sure, he pursues people relentlessly before murdering them in the service of a dark god. But if he didn’t do that, the world would end. So when you think about it, this really is a noble mission – and by carrying out Zimforth’s will, I’m saving the world.

Life Eater is a strange little game that I’ve never played before. When I first played it after its release in April, I was struck by the impressive visual and audio effects, and the short cutscenes between campaign chapters sent shivers down my spine, but I found the actual meat of the game to be pretty minimal.

Here’s how it works: I’m presented with targets, each with their own schedule. Each victim’s personal schedule is initially blank; I must uncover the details of my victim’s life by probing and probing. For example, I can find out that my victim eats breakfast around 9 a.m. by leisurely rattling the doorknob and then scurrying away. By hacking into their computer, I get a clue about their weekend habits, and by hiding in the bushes, I can find out whether or not they commute. Only when I truly understand the victim and their schedule can I strike and sacrifice them in the dark to bring our world another year of peace.

Image: Strange Scaffold/Frosty Pop

At first I bounced off Life Eater hard. The final ritual of sacrificing the victim would always be the same – removing The Organ when they have to commute, and break The rib if they slept a certain number of hours per day. It took a lot of the joy out of digging into a victim’s life because I always knew exactly what facts I needed to gather, so I wasn’t very curious to do anything else. The campaign also introduces several targets early on, but some of them are innocent and must not be touched. I had a hard time figuring out which person was the “right” victim, and eventually I got frustrated with the game and put it down, thinking it was ambitious and admirable, but not for me.

A recent update from developer Strange Scaffold has changed things. The sacrifice at the end is now much more varied, and now I want to go into the ritual with as much information as possible. Additionally, a new endless mode has been added to the game, and I found this to be a good way to practice my stalking skills. After a few rounds of endless mode, I felt like I could tackle the campaign, and the narrative heft of the story finally grabbed me.

Image: Strange Scaffold/Frosty Pop

The trick to Life Eater is that every action takes time, which is of course a limited resource. Moreover, a failed action arouses suspicion – if I try to break into someone’s house and get caught, I risk being discovered and possibly stopped by the police. I can mitigate suspicion by performing any number of non-stalkerish actions, like going to work, sleeping, or meeting others… but that takes my time, and if the clock hits zero without me making the necessary sacrifices, the world ends.

The minimalist style of the game pays off here, because each of the procedurally generated victims can become relatively complex. The game is never directly told You if someone lives alone – but I can check the information I’ve uncovered and see the blocks of time when the victim is alone and find out if they have company at a certain time of day. And sometimes I find really gruesome secrets, like a Saturday ritual where my victim goes into the woods to drink blood with their buddies. It’s a game that actually makes me feel like a stalker, which is a truly novel horror experience.