Every time I get off an elevator, I accelerate furiously in case the elevator drops without warning and splits me in half, my front and, all things considered, my lower body wobbling in place for a second before collapsing in a cloud of split bones and organs. Don't laugh: I know you do too. Kletka doesn't help: a horror game reminiscent of Lethal Company and Golden Light, created by in404, in which you slog through the layers of an “infinite” post-Soviet Gigastructure as you search for fuel, parts, and bait for an elevator that wants to eat you.
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The elevator roof is a creaking, lipless mouth with a flashlight drooling beneath it like a drop of saliva. The roof slowly opens and closes as you run around with hunched shoulders, recharging the generator and repairing the machine. You can almost feel its breath in your hair. Needless to say, you'll want to keep it fed with edibles you steal from the surrounding world. I spent the first 15 minutes of the Steam demo with both eyes glued to the screen displaying the creature's hunger, my cursor hovering over the brake lever.
The rooms and corridors of the Gigastructure aren't much safer than the elevator. It's as dark as a dog's nest and chocabloc full of traps like landmines and electrified pools of water. The game's rusty, lichen-strewn PS1-era visuals make it hard to spot resources and items, and your all-important torch needs to be switched off and recharged at regular intervals. Worst of all, you'll have to deal with Samosbor. I'm not sure what Samosbor is, but you can't kill him. If you see too much red light, you'll run away like a Balrog with the mumps.
Kletka’s demo includes a multiplayer mode for up to four people — which won’t allow for cross-play in the full release, which is expected later this year. You can watch online games and join in when the host finds a vending machine in the Gigastructure, like rescuing Survivors from lockers in Left 4 Dead. Also like in Left 4 Dead, but for different reasons, co-op partners are worth having around, even if they suck at the game. Teamwork makes the dream work, yes, but Kletka’s Steam blurb makes a nice counter-argument that “friends make good fuel.”