Slay Bells is a free action video game that has you trying to get away from a crazy ax-wielding Santa Claus who has massacred most of the town. Developed by Blake McKinnon Productions, this is a Christmas-themed survival horror game that takes inspiration from both 80's slasher movies and PS1 horror games. You play in the first-person perspective and get to enjoy nostalgic 3D graphics from the PSX era.

Here comes Santa

In Slay Bells, you play as Sally, who’s delivering a present for her estranged young son at the last minute. He no longer lives with her due to her financial instability so she has to travel across town to reach his father’s home. That task is easy enough and you soon have to go home before midnight strikes. Unfortunately, it’s a tragedy that strikes when she gets to the subway station—and now she must run for her life.

The main goal is to get away from Santa and most of your objectives will involve breaking down doors to escape locked areas. Much of the gameplay is about you sneaking around to retrieve items you can equip to do this—although there are no actual stealth mechanics. You simply have to avoid going near Santa when you see him in the distance, as he can easily kill you. Eventually, you’ll get a better weapon to fight him.

You can quickly finish this game since the objectives are pretty straightforward. The areas are quite massive and using the mini-map to find where you need to go can be tricky but it won’t take too long to figure out. The whole vibe is quite atmospheric, however, and the classic jumpscares with horror music can actually startle you. The foggy low-poly graphics really add to the terrifying aspect of being stalked.

Better behave this year

Overall, Slay Bells is a nice indie horror game to try out for the holidays if you’re a fan of PS1-style games or even titles from Puppet Combo. It’s only too bad that you can’t choose difficulty levels to give yourself a challenge despite its short length. Nevertheless, if you’re looking for Christmas-themed horror games that are easy to play through, then this is a good option.