I’ve played plenty of driving games and plenty of horror games, but before Dead End Road, I don’t think I’ve encountered a game that fuses those two elements together in such a serious manner. Sure, I’ve seen car-based games that involve zombies or other typical horror elements, but such things are generally just window dressing for an action game that doesn’t seriously try to scare you. Dead End Road, on the other hand, is a psychological horror game that’s also a driving game.
Before you start driving, there’s a prelude in which you visit an archetypal elderly lady who’s privy to occult secrets. She tells you of a ritual that can grant you a wish, but not without a price. It’s spin on that old but effective horror trope, the deal with the devil. She also tells you what items you’ll need to bring back to her should something go wrong: a bell, a book, and a candle.
Next, you begin the ritual by solving a simple puzzle in which you rotate three stones into their proper positions. At first, I confounded myself by assuming this was much more complicated than it is. Just be sure to pay attention to the sound cues. Once you’ve summoned the dark forces, you can make your wish by typing in the name of the thing you desire.
After that, you find yourself behind the wheel. By checking your roadmap, you can see that your ultimate destination appears to be the titular Dead End Road. The map also shows the locations of various towns and the segments of road that connect them. As you make your way down each stretch of road, a meter ticks down showing how far you have to go until the next stop. On your dashboard, there’s also a clock, a radio, and a fuel gauge.
On the road, you need to contend with those hazards familiar to all drivers everywhere: other vehicles. Fender benders and running over small objects in the road will damage your car, but a head-on collision will result in a fiery death. You also need to keep your eyes on your fuel gauge, lest you run out of gas in between towns and end up stranded. Some towns have stations at which you can refuel, and are indicated on your map; some have mechanics who can make repairs or even sell you upgrades.
As you cruise through the night, you’ll encounter far worse things than these typical driverly concerns. You’ll glimpse creepy phantasms in the night, such as a baby carriage careening down a train track. Ghostly figures will appear in your headlights, which prove to be all too solid when you run them over and leave behind a pile of torn meat. Every so often, your windshield will suddenly transform into a vision of hell. The demons that chase you may even reach through the 4th wall and appear to crash the game, dumping you to a DOS-like command prompt that begins informing you of your impending doom.
Your essential task is to carefully dash to the next town while trying to keep your sanity and your car intact. In addition to gas stations and garages, towns have stores that you can visit, from which you can purchase a variety of items. You might pick up something to relieve your stress, like cigarettes from a supermarket or pills from a pharmacy. Maybe you’ll buy a scratch-off lottery ticket in an attempt to replenish your funds. Or perhaps, buried in an old pawn shop or antique store, you’ll find one of the items requested by the old woman.
During your hellacious road trip, you might think you’d find some respite by listening to a cheery tune on the radio, but you’d have no such luck. The only channels you receive play distorted old-timey music that’s periodically interrupted by dispatches from the darkside. It’s just another of the many ways that the game messes with your head and transforms a nighttime drive into a delicious descent into madness.
Dead End Road (for Windows, Mac, and Linux) is $2.99 on itch.io. It’s also currently on Greenlight.
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