Hide is a quirkly little lo-res 3D title, in shades of grey, created by Andrew Shouldice for a Super Friendship Club "pageant."
It's an eerie, disturbing little game; you are in a snow-covered wood, with the sounds of sirens and search lights in the distance. As you walk, you breathe heavily, apparently having a hard time moving through the deep snow, and can move a little faster by tapping the up-arrow. (Two key controls not mentioned in-game; you can mouse-look, and you can crouch with the space-bar). The lo-res trees and buildings are more disturbing precisely because dimly seen; this, combined with your labored breathing and the crunch of the snow reinforce the disturbing feel.
Scattered about the landscape are five signs, with disturbing messages; searchers with flashlights appear, moving about the forest. You must evade them, or the game ends with an eerie sound suggesting that they may be eating you.
Hide's gameplay is not particularly notable; it's a simple, if difficult, evasion puzzle. What's interesting about it is its ability to evoke emotions unusual in games; a chill of fear, discomfort, eeriness. And it does so not with highly polished monster models and eerie music, with with simple sounds and minimalist imagery.
Very Tense
Very tense. Made me feel like Thief once did. And Thief did rely on sound and suggestion, too.
Being in the open, on the run, yet barely able to move (I made a silly decision to try and walk uphill) felt very nightmarish. This kind of stuff actually scares me, unlike typical alleged horror games such as Dead Space.
I couldn't bring myself to play this for longer than a couple of minutes. With a mood like this, I need a strong incentive to stay, and this game doesn't give it. Exploring, looking for pieces of backstory, is the exact opposite of what a fugitive should be doing.
I like how the visual noise emulates the difficulty of seing in the dark, without actually making everything pitch black.
Spooky and Exhilarating
I definitely agree with the comments by JZW before me. This game is incredibly simple, but has all the right elements to give you an adrenaline rush and a good scare. Although it may be hard for some to go back to, I keep on playing it, despite being pretty damn frightened, just because I want to be able to finish it and never look back.
For a pixely game, Hide spooks me more than Alan Wake or Dead Space. As a lover of 8-bit games, Hide furthered proved to me that it really doesn't take good graphics to make a great game. While the story behind Hide is short and simple, it can be interpreted in several different ways, which I won't detail here for fear of spoiling any part of the game.
Honestly, if you've read this far, you're already lessening the initial experience. I saw this game on PlayThisThing last night, skimmed the info, figured it wouldn't be too scary, and started playing at 4 in the morning. Bad idea. But also great idea. Made my first experience scary enough for me to want to go back to it.
Major props to Andrew Shouldice for this quick put together of an indie game.