There is something instantly appealing about Dead Format before you even really get stuck in. Maybe it is the 1990s Scotland setting. Maybe it is the idea of a cursed VHS format called GHL, short for Ghoul. Maybe it is just the fact that “Video Ghastlies” sounds like exactly the kind of thing I would have been nosing around if I lived in that world. Either way, it hooked me fast. Officially, the setup is that you arrive at your missing brother’s flat after weeks of silence, and from there you begin falling through a chain of cursed tapes in search of answers.
And honestly, it is a very clever game.
You turn up at your brother’s flat, find clues pointing towards a birthday gift, slot in a GHL tape, and suddenly the whole thing starts opening up in a way that feels genuinely exciting. These are not normal VHS tapes. They drag you into the worlds of the films themselves, and from that point on, Dead Format becomes this really neat mix of survival horror, puzzle-solving, light resource management, and tape-hopping nonsense.
That alone would have been enough to get my attention, but it is the way it all fits together that makes it stick.
The film-hopping structure is where it really comes alive
The first tape, Symphony of a Severed Soul, sets the tone nicely. It gives you this eerie black-and-white world to stumble through and immediately makes it clear that Dead Format is not just going to be one flavour of horror all the way through. The official pitch leans into that too, with worlds inspired by things like silent era cinema, Italian giallo, 80s body horror and more, with each tape acting as a doorway into its own nasty little universe.
What I liked most is that Dead Format does not just throw you into these settings for the sake of visual variety. You actually move between them to piece puzzles together, find key items, and slowly work your way through your brother’s trail. That makes the whole thing feel more interconnected than it first appears. You are not simply clearing one level and moving on to the next. You are bouncing between grim little film worlds, dragging clues and tools from one nightmare into another.
It gives the game a nice sense of momentum, because there is usually something just out of reach in one place that nudges you towards poking around somewhere else.
The Vulture is the real star of the show
For me, the big threat in Dead Format was not the occasional creature that pops out and makes you flap about while trying not to get boxed in. It was the Vulture.
That thing is horrible.
You first run into her in Spider Who Snared the Marionettes, or at least I did, and from then on, she basically becomes this lurking, crawling menace hanging over the whole experience. She was already after other people in the tapes, including your brother, but then she seems to decide you are worth her time as well, which is honestly a bit rude.
You hear her moving through the walls. You get that little rising sense that she is somewhere nearby. Then she starts climbing out of television screens, and suddenly the whole area feels hostile in a way that is more interesting than just being jumped by another random enemy.
The good thing is, she is not unstoppable in the sense that you have no options. She is more of a stalking problem than a straight-up fight. Hiding under tables, slipping into vents, ducking somewhere out of reach, all of that works well enough if you keep your head. Your gun, which fires teeth because of course it does, is not much use on her, so wasting ammo is pointless. Later, though, you can unlock a violin that lets out a little shockwave to disable her for a moment, and there are distractions like telephones that let you buy yourself some breathing room.
That all makes her more interesting than a standard invincible stalker. She is dangerous, but she is also manageable if you stay calm.
It is more tense than terrifying, but the idea behind it is strong
I would not say Dead Format was the sort of horror game that had me shrinking into the chair or dreading every corridor. It is not that kind of experience. There were definitely moments where enemies caught me out and left me scrambling, but in terms of pure fear factor, it was more tense than truly frightening.
That is not really a deal-breaker, though, because what it lacks in outright terror it makes up for in creativity and atmosphere. The mixed-media angle helps massively. The developer, Scottish solo creator Chris Evry of Katanalevy, recorded and edited the VHS footage specifically for the game, and that gives the whole thing a very particular identity that would not land the same if it were just aping old film styles without doing the extra work.
Each world feels shaped by the film it comes from. The black-and-white opening has its own mood. The more overt old-school horror feel of the next tape lands differently. Then the later, more modern-feeling material shifts things again. It all helps Dead Format feel like more than just another retro horror thing trading on a nice gimmick.
There is actual craft here.
The apartment hub is a great idea, even if one puzzle had me muttering at the screen
Your brother’s flat works as the central hub in Dead Format, and that is one of the game’s better decisions. Officially, it is where you review clues, prepare, and save your progress, and that structure works nicely because it gives you a breather between dives into all the cursed cinema weirdness. But you can run back mid-adventure as well, to drop stuff off if you’re close enough, freeing up your inventory space.
Another thing you will find as you explore the worlds in Dead Format is blank cassettes and number plates. These can be combined and inserted into the GHL player to obtain useful rewards like ammo or healing items. It all adds to the sense that you are slowly learning how this bizarre system works rather than simply surviving it.
Most of the puzzles in Dead Format are fair enough, too. Not insultingly easy, but not the sort of thing that leaves you pacing the room, wondering whether the answer is hidden in the wallpaper pattern three rooms back. That said, there was one bit with a single little dial hidden away where I ended up stuck, muttering to myself because I could not work out what the game wanted from me. Going back through the documents did not really help at the time either. Then I found another in one of the other films. I was stumped.
The funny thing is, once you finish Dead Format, it makes a bit more sense in hindsight. And going back through the game to replay it and enter the codes reveals a secret ending. I actually quite like that. It is not a perfect bit of puzzle communication in the moment, but it at least feels like it belongs to the larger design rather than being nonsense for its own sake. And while the secret ending doesn’t really change the story, it does have a cool little reveal I enjoyed watching, but I won’t spoil it for you.
One extra annoyance I had with Dead Format before we wrap things up. My curious mind caught a glimpse of a gap at the side of a small staircase in Spider Who Snared the Marionettes. I saw I could drop down and get underneath the stairs. Maybe there was a hidden reward or something cool down there. Nope, I just got stuck. There was no way out. And, I had to reload my game from the last save point. Fortunately, when it happened to me, I’d only got about a minute in, so I didn’t lose much progress. But it was still incredibly frustrating.
Is Dead Format worth your time?
Dead Format is one of those games where I ended up admiring the thinking behind it as much as the moment-to-moment experience. The tape-hopping structure is clever. The mixed-media presentation gives it real personality. The Vulture is a genuinely strong recurring threat. And even when the horror itself did not completely get under my skin, the atmosphere and film-world concept kept me invested.
I do think there is room for it to hit harder. I would have liked a little more from some of its ideas, and there are moments where it feels more intriguing than truly frightening. But as a survival horror game built around cursed films, strange tools, puzzle pieces scattered across cinematic worlds, and one deeply unpleasant wall-crawling menace, it absolutely does enough to earn a recommendation.
It is smart, distinctive, and full of good ideas.
Dead Format is worth exposing yourself to.
Dead Format, developed by Katanalevy and published by Oro Interactive, was released on PC in December 2025. Grab it now on Steam. For even more game reviews, click right here.
