Homicipher is a clever horror game about female desire and monster language

Being lost in a dark and unfamiliar location is a common fear, and a great start to a horror game. Filling that place with weird, menacing monsters is even better. One horror game adds another novel twist to the formula: I have no idea what anyone is saying, and I have to piece this strange, foreign language together before I’m viciously murdered. Welcome to Homicipher, a “female-targeted language deciphering and exploration ADV based on the concept of ‘romance with horror men.’” I’ve never played anything like it.

Homicipher starts out with a very simple premise: I’m alone in a new place, I’ve lost my bag, and I’m in a rusted-out old hallway with flickering lights and a hunched, menacing figure called Mr. Crawling. I sprint away, only to be confronted by Mr. Hood, a Grim Reaper-style specter. Luckily, Mr. Hood is much nicer than his colleague, and we take part in a little impromptu language lesson. He teaches me a few basic words like “me” and “you” before I stumble onto the next hallway.

Gameplay wise, Homicipher is super simple. I click down the paths I want to explore, hoping I don’t get murdered. I’m no Leon S. Kennedy or even a James Sunderland; if I approach a nasty monster in the dark, I’m probably going to get murdered and sent back to the last checkpoint. I also have to make a solid attempt to communicate where I can. It’s only through dialogue, context clues, and trust that I can begin to understand the blunt, coarse language of this new world. 

Every time I’m exposed to a new word, I can open up my log and mark down a guess as to what it means. That log is saved, and the next time a phrase comes up in dialogue, my English note will be marked above it. At one point, I approached a red-lit door, and Mr. Crawling hissed a short phrase. Thanks to my hard linguistic studies, I knew exactly what he was saying: “should not open door.” Thanks for the tip, buddy — that’s one brutal murder I got to avoid!

You may notice that Mr. Crawling started out as an antagonist, but he developed into being a protective figure of sorts. Homicipher plays with the visual novel tropes of monstrous, attractive men, but the language barrier makes things more complex and intriguing. Some of these strange figures are patient, taking the time to teach the protagonist a few key vocabulary words. Others are impatient; if I smile at the wrong point in the conversation, or refuse to take some advice, it can be a death sentence.

This is ultimately a low-stress horror game, which I appreciate — it’s scary, but in a chill sort of way. Every jump scare or death sequence resets back to an earlier stage of exploration, and I can regularly stop to check my conversation log and see if I can puzzle out any other vocabulary phrases. It’s a very interesting trick that I haven’t seen a horror game attempt before, and it adds a whole new dimension to exploration that I really enjoyed. All the sexy monster boys are just a sinister bonus.

Homicipher released on Steam on Nov. 1, and is available for $15.99.