Don’t Scream Together is a co-operative horror experience based in a forest, with you and several friends investigating a woodland as you either attempt to escape together or rise up against the survivors as a hunter.
Most of Don’t Scream Together is portrayed in that classic Blair Witch, video camera ‘found footage’ style. This makes it feel somewhat akin to Bodycam but with less action and much more horror. The idea is that you leave your microphone on as you adventure into the depths of the woods, slowly discovering lots of different areas filled with jump scares and creatures that attempt to get you to make noise loud enough to kill you.
If you do make a noise — one that is considered too loud — the forest instantly kills you and you either have the options to restart or press the “I didn’t scream” button (which for PC is backspace) which will allow you to get back up and give it another go. This is particularly forgiving and helpful when learning how to play, as you generally make a lot of noise at the beginning. This is further assisted with an initial safe zone by a fire where you can talk as normal and get yourself prepared.
As soon as you have simmered down and prepared for the spooks that are yet to come, you step away from the safe zone and venture out. At first the forest seems quite calm, the sun is up and it’s very serene, but night swiftly takes over and you are subjected to all manner of horror as you attempt to fumble around in the dark quietly.
There are two versions of Don’t Scream Together available to play. One where if one of you dies you instantly need to reset and try again while maintaining your progress, moving onto the next day. The other has you take on the role of a hunter and work with the monsters to try to either catch your friends or at the very least make them create enough noise to have the forest do the job for you.
When venturing through the woods you have a limit to the amount of camera battery and stamina that you can use. Cameras can be found in most locations and I never really found myself wanting for more battery as they’re pretty much everywhere. The stamina, however, was at times a bit annoying. The map itself is very large and whether it’s just general movement or trying to run away from creatures it at times felt difficult to get around.
There’s not really any way to defend yourself and you mainly need to rely on outsmarting hunters with efficient flashlight use or being able to reach the various marks that are dotted around the points of interest. There is one enemy that was the absolute bane of my group’s lives which was the black bear located at and around the farmhouse. Trying to get in there was a nightmare all on its own and it guarded the pick-ups like it meant life or death.
If you’re looking for a similar experience, but in a more liminal world, you can check out our review of Backrooms Company featuring a similar style to the shaky camera as well as being chased by a number of creatures but all tied up in a Lethal Company styled package to keep the gameplay loop going.
After some extended time with Don’t Scream Together the jump scares do start to wear off. Adding in the hunters after trying the main mode does spice it up a bit with friends, but the odds are very much stacked against you surviving and the jump scares become secondary to the threat of the hunters, in the end we had resorted to humour to try and trick people into laughing themselves to death rather than actually chasing them at times.
Don’t Scream Together is definitely a great experience enhanced by having your friends play it with you, but it is just that, an experience. It’s not necessarily a game where I see myself trying to go back to it and gather all of the items or find the locations but as it’s a relatively affordable game it’s overall enough bang for your buck to have an enjoyable experience even if you do only play it sparingly.
The Steam page for Don’t Scream Together does also mention how this is a relatively simple horror game, which is nice to see the developers being so honest and straightforward with their player base but this is definitely worth a try and will have you either terrified in a corner or laughing to the point where you drop dead.
If you would like to try your hand at surviving the night in Don’t Scream Together you can find it on Steam.
