After previously covering the original demo for Butcher’s Creek back in October 2024, I admittedly let the game’s pending release date slip to the back of my mind. Color me surprised, then, when on a small stroll back home after a particularly bitter and cold day, I was notified that Butcher’s Creek finally dropped on Steam. From then on, my luck seemed to turn—you know, until I spilled a drink all over my bed a few hours later.
Developed and self-published by David Szymanski, aka DUSKdev, Butcher’s Creek is touted as a love letter to games like Condemned and Manhunt, all while embodying the grim atmosphere and gameplay conventions of Szymanski’s other self-published titles. But does it hold a candle to his other games? Does it even stack up against a multitude of other indie horror games, old and new alike? Let’s talk about that.
Condemned to Die
Butcher’s Creek is, admittedly, pretty bleak. You play as a nameless loner whose obsession with cinematic gore has unfortunately driven him to pursue some less-than-ethical video tapes. After finding a presumed source for authentic snuff films in the heart of Appalachia, the protagonist attempts to make contact with the mysterious group that produces them. But nobody’s home. Refusing to go home empty-handed, he ventures deeper into the forest, discovering an abandoned cabin, traces of human blood and bone fragments, and a rusted shovel swung directly into the back of his head.
Now stripped of his clothing, dignity, and any weapons he may have had, the protagonist is left to fight for his life as he escapes the confines of his gory captors, all while unveiling a wider plot that involves mysterious cult activities and a much greater threat looming in the distance. He’s not one to waste an opportunity, however. By taking a camera along at his side, he can finally fulfill his own desire for snuff by beating the teeth out of whoever gets in his way.
There’s really no upside here. Unlike Szymanski’s other horror games, like Squirrel Stapler and The Pony Factory, the level of morbid humor to cut down the horror is turned down pretty significantly. It’s still there, mind you, but it’s something that gradually fades away as you make your way through the game’s numerous “scenes” or levels. It’s all very grimy and gross, with enemies bellowing curse-laden insults upon discovering you, the protagonist cheerfully calling out graphic scenes of murder, and the score either screeching in your ears or thudding malevolently throughout. The score borrows a few tracks from Impact Hammer, a musical project led by Szymanski himself, with other tracks being wholly original compositions. It’s heavy, oppressive, and perfect for the occasion.
The same kind of feeling extends to the game’s visuals. Drowned in VHS filters and visual noise, the world you wander around is as desolate and dirty as you’d expect—a perfect melding of the gritty presentation of Manhunt and the grungy environments of Condemned. The former doesn’t come into play too often here, but you’ll occasionally find some inspired UI elements based on the use of VHS tapes. Whenever you die, for instance, there’s no prolonged death sequence a la Dead Space or The Callisto Protocol. Instead, the instant you take a killing blow, your video feed immediately ends, and you’re greeted with the searing blue of a VHS screen. It’s great.
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You’re not just limited to dingy basements here, either. Once you clear the initial area originally teased in the demo, you’re treated to an interesting assortment of environments to clear out: an expansive cabin, the backstage area of an erotic club, an underground mining area, dank facilities, and, my personal favorite, a stretch of Appalachian woodlands. This area is nearly pitch-black, forcing you to rely on your short flashlight and the distant cracks of lightning to light the way forward, all while enemies occasionally trickle out from between the trees. There’s also an exhilarating sequence involving a pickax, but that’s best left as a surprise.
If I had a personal gripe, I wish Butcher’s Creek committed more to its straightforward roots than indulging in otherworldly horrors. As fun as it is to toy with forces beyond our imagination, I think it treads some familiar ground that could’ve been used for a more down-to-earth story. It’s the same gripe I had with Condemned 2: Bloodshot, exchanging serial killers and some hallucination sequences for cults, shouts that can blow up heads, zombie bears, and mutated dolls that can explode—there’s a fantastic foundation that I just can’t help but feel is undercut by too many supernatural elements. For reference, imagine if Manhunt turned from a gritty game about snuff films and murder and other unpleasantness into having spooky demons take over everything in the final act. At least here, you know it’ll come into play as soon as you look at the game’s store page.
Walk Softly and Carry a Big Stick
Combat in Butcher’s Creek is limited. As in, you’re given just about every tool you can work with from the get-go with only minor variations in how they function throughout. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily
If you’re used to Condemned, things will feel familiar almost immediately. Without a weapon, you’re limited to just grabbing items from the environment and tossing them at your enemies or just kicking foes away with your bare feet. Weapons are plentiful but carry unique characteristics that make them more or less valuable in specific situations. A pocket knife, for instance, hits fast but without dealing much damage. A sledgehammer, meanwhile, hits incredibly hard but has the longest wind-up time for a swing. Every weapon has a “condition” meter as well, marking its current state of repair. Once that meter hits zero, your weapon shatters into nothing. In addition to your melee attack, you can also parry enemy attacks as long as you’re holding a weapon that can do so.
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Every attack you make depletes stamina from an accompanying meter, with sprinting also reducing this meter. It can regenerate if you don’t do anything that uses stamina, or if you want to play dangerously, you can attempt to parry an enemy attack. Should you be successful, your stamina will refill completely. Parries, however, are occasionally difficult to pull off. Unlike in Condemned, where you can nail down when to parry specific attack animations, the limited movement of the game’s enemies makes timing your parry a bit more difficult due to their varying attack speeds.
I never felt “safe” in Butcher’s Creek like when I played Condemned. There’s a level of confidence you eventually build up once you see all the game has to offer, especially when it comes to specific enemy encounters. You eventually learn what all the different attack animations are, what weapons are best for certain situations, and so on. In Butcher’s Creek, there’s a level of unpredictability here that really threw me for a loop at points. Enemies will occasionally peel back from a fight. Others may take a second to fully engage you upon making contact. Some may not even make an alert sound if you draw their attention. This isn’t even taking their attacks into account, where their varied swing speeds may mean the difference between dying immediately and narrowly avoiding damage. The amount of damage you take depending on an enemy’s weapon instead of the enemy itself only adds to the uncertainty that goes into every brawl.
Should you get hit, you have a few ways to fix that. For one thing, your camera acts as your most accessible way of restoring health, allowing you to take photos of dead bodies, viscera, and other gory scenes for varying boosts to your health. The more gruesome a scene, the more health you get back. You can also find developed Polaroid photos in the world that’ll refill your health fully, in addition to photographing the decapitated heads of your enemies if you use a powerful bladed weapon. You also have your VHS tapes, a resource that presents an interesting survival horror scenario.
VHS tapes serve a dual purpose, both as a way to boost your maximum health and as a form of currency. Simply put, the more tapes you have in your inventory, the higher your maximum health. However, certain doors require a set amount of tapes to be inserted into a television in order to unlock them, whereas other televisions require tapes in order to save your progress. It presents an interesting scenario where you have to sacrifice your maximum health for a permanent point to restart from should you die or for a useful array of goods that would otherwise be locked away.
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Notes are also plentiful, serving to both build the game’s lore and establish some firm connections between Butcher’s Creek and David Szymanski’s other self-published games. Fans of Squirrel Stapler and The Pony Factory will surely appreciate the growing universe shared between these games, with one enemy type in particular even donning a familiar pony skull as a helmet. Notes also hold key information needed to progress. Should you ignore them, you’ll be flying completely blind as to how to access an important basement or how to find a particular key needed to progress. It’s here that you’ll find the unfolding narrative as well, giving you some clues as to what’s really going on underneath the bloodshed.
As for what you’ll be doing with all of these abilities and resources, it’s pretty straightforward: walk around, smack baddies in the head, occasionally solve puzzles and read notes, and repeat until you clear all 12 of the game’s scenes. Sounds great, right?
My big issue here, though, is that I was ultimately left wanting more. Butcher’s Creek isn’t necessarily as brief an experience as Squirrel Stapler and The Pony Factory, but I couldn’t help but feel surprised at the game’s short length. There’s just not a lot of time to really explore some of its mechanics in greater detail.
Take the tapes, for instance. You would think they’d be a deliberately limited resource to instill greater tension as you turn every corner. I ended the game with about 15 without ever feeling like they mattered.
Or what about weapon management? Losing your weapon in the middle of a fight should, in theory, lead to a frantic scramble to find another one. But more often than not, you can just grab anything in the environment and use it as an impromptu projectile until your opponent finally keels over.
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However, the one that perplexed me the most was the inclusion of broken glass. You’re barefoot for the majority of the game after you’re initially kidnapped, meaning that stepping on broken glass not only creates an unpleasant sound but shears a bit off of your health as well. I would’ve thought it’d eventually be used for a brief stealth section or maybe a tense chase where you have to pick your path carefully. But it only appears a few times as a small annoyance or deterrent.
Sure, I see the positives of delivering a shorter, more concise experience. The tense buildup to the game’s ending, for instance, works much better in this kind of environment than something much longer. But that itch for a new, grisly horror game like the ones Butcher’s Creek borrows from just hasn’t been scratched enough for me. It makes the price point of around $10 a bit harder to fully endorse, too, at least when it comes down to other games that cost a little more or less.
Should You Play Butcher’s Creek?
It should be noted that David Szymanski has been pretty transparent about the game’s development. This is most evident in a YouTube video posted to his official channel titled, “The ‘Butcher’s Creek’ Codebase is a Disaster.” In it, he sums up the state of the game as of December 2023:
“So, uh, do you guys remember Butcher’s Creek — that game that I’m releasing in 2024? Uh, so this game’s a f***ing mess. This code base is a mess. . . Why did I do this?”
Jokes aside, the final game is, thankfully, mostly free of bugs and other minor issues, at least from my experience. Other players weren’t so lucky. A noted bug a few players noted in the game’s Steam forums was that, upon their weapon breaking, they’d be effectively stuck as they wouldn’t be able to interact with anything. This was quickly fixed, thankfully. But more minor issues, like taking damage through doors, still occasionally pop up.
Was I ultimately happy with my time in Butcher’s Creek, though? Absolutely, yes. But this comes from someone who already enjoys much of Szymanski’s work outside of DUSK. And also someone who unabashedly loves Condemned and Manhunt. I’m biased, is what I’m saying.
If you’re not already familiar with what Butcher’s Creek is trying to do or the person working on it behind the scenes, I could see how this game would be a bit of a hard sell. The combat, in particular, seems to be a big sticking point for those who dislike it, which I can perfectly understand. It’s not complex, but it’s enjoyable enough in spite of the simplicity. However, I wish this project was a bit bigger in scope.
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Butcher’s Creek is ultimately a game that showcases the indie scene’s ingenuity. If someone wants to make something, by God, they’ll do it. Because of this, even if we never get another official Manhunt or Condemned game, talented people will make that dream a reality, albeit with their own original twists.
Though Butcher’s Creek may not have met all my (admittedly unfair) expectations, I am grateful it was made. I’ll certainly revisit it every now and then whenever the mood strikes me. Most importantly, though, it’ll remind me that there’s still a devoted audience for the kind of edgy and unpleasant terror seemingly left behind in the 2000s. In short, just keep your expectations in check, and you’ll have fun with Butcher’s Creek.
Butcher’s Creek is available on Steam.
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