The Drowning Machine is a free-to-play role-playing game that tackles a number of serious and mature themes. This psychological horror from Rabbit Run Games uses dated graphics to deliver an emotional, black-and-white world that addresses topics like departure and existence. More importantly, the game has a backstory that makes the game even more poignant in its content. 

In terms of visuals, The Drowning Machine feels like a monochrome analog to First Land. On the other hand, its mature themes about sexuality, mental health, and its overall somber vibes feel reminiscent of CURTAIN. 

Immerse yourself in a harrowing experience

The first thing to note about The Drowning Machine is its backstory. Upon playing the game, you get to see a section that explains what happened behind the scenes. One of the developers passed away before completing the project. Learning about this adds weight to the whole game, both as an experience and as an indie project. Somehow, the serious topics in the game are made even more relatable.

For the graphics, it sports a consistently black-and-white motif. This works with the rest of the environments such as rain, snow, or the darkness of an apartment while watching the TV. However, the game feels like interactive artwork instead of a conventional video game where you try to complete a task. With that being said, it’s an immersive and emotional experience.

The game has amazing content to offer but its packaging can still use some work. The game has optimization issues for Windows, with some players experiencing no problems while others can’t press the Play button and get started with the game. Additionally, as a demo version, it presents six episodes. Of these, only four are currently available with the other two, including the first episode, being teased as “Coming Soon.”

Needs more optimization

Overall, The Drowning Machine is still recommended as an experimental horror game. Drawing on the actual experiences of its developers, they managed to create an immersive game that is both frightening and sad to a certain degree. Still, although the developers managed to create this experience, the game itself still needs more fixes to ensure that all players access the same quality of content.