Pestilence Review: Creepy Horror, Frustrating Puzzles

The Jump Scares Were Fine. The Puzzles Beat Me.

A creepy bunker, a prisoner, a working fuse box, and an hour spent wondering what I had missed.

5/10

Reviewed on: PC (keyboard and mouse)

Playtime: About one hour

Review status: Ending not reached

Jump scares? Fine. Creepy sounds in a dark basement? No problem. But puzzles? Puzzles always seem to puzzle me. And after about an hour with Pestilence, I was far more frustrated by its puzzles than frightened by its horror.

There is an interesting premise here. According to the Steam description, you play a father whose daughter vanished after calling from a payphone in 2001. Two years later, he has a man locked in a bunker, determined to get answers. That should be a strong setup for a psychological horror mystery. I just struggled to work out what I was supposed to do next.

Watch My Pestilence Gameplay

Watch my Pestilence gameplay on YouTube — contains puzzle and story spoilers

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Three Cables, a Fuse Box, and Some Progress

At least I managed one small victory. After some trial and error, I repaired three cables connected to a fuse box and finally got the electricity working. There were a couple of jump scares along the way, and some unsettling sounds that helped the basement-or-garage setting feel suitably creepy. That part was fine.

A narrow concrete staircase in Pestilence with a blue cable running up toward an open doorway.

Following cables through the bunker was part of my search for the next clue.

I also came across a man locked in a prison cell. I understood that he was important, but during my session I never found enough clues to feel sure what I was meant to do with him. The phone rang, I heard strange noises, and I read notes scattered around the place. There were files on a computer, too. It all suggested a mystery worth uncovering, but I couldn’t put the pieces together.

A blindfolded, restrained person sits against a blood-stained wall as another character leans toward them in Pestilence.

The prisoner is central to Pestilence’s unsettling mystery.

I do enjoy horror games that can make ordinary surroundings feel uncomfortable. That’s something I liked about the atmosphere in Bleach & Blood. Here, the sounds worked well enough, but getting stuck kept pulling me out of the experience.

Those Valve Wheels Were My Undoing

Then there were the valve wheels. I assumed I was supposed to turn them, but I couldn’t figure out how. I tried keyboard keys, the mouse, and combinations of both. No luck. Did they need to be used in a specific order? Had I missed something earlier?

The game’s Steam page mentions finding, fitting, and turning valve wheels, so I may simply have missed a step. I can’t call it a bug when I don’t know. All I can say is that I couldn’t get them working during my playthrough.

There’s a difference between a puzzle making me think and a puzzle making me wonder whether I’m even using the right controls. I spent too much time doing the latter.

Walking Around, Around, and Around

So I kept retracing my steps, looking for the clue I’d overlooked. And as far as I could tell, holding Shift didn’t let me sprint. With no obvious way to move faster, all that backtracking became tedious.

Dark garage-like bunker interior in Pestilence, with overhead pipes, scattered cables, a metal stairway and red lights.

I spent too much time retracing my steps through the bunker.

I did solve part of a photo-and-map puzzle in an office room, and I even spent some time playing Solitaire on the computer. I checked the notes, looked through the computer, followed the sounds, and tried to make sense of the ringing phone. There were things to investigate, but after about an hour I still wasn’t sure where the story was going or what I had missed.

I’m sure some players will find these puzzles straightforward. Maybe someone who loves environmental puzzles will see the solution immediately. I didn’t. Eventually, I stopped feeling challenged and started feeling annoyed.

My Verdict: 5/10

Pestilence has an unsettling premise, a few decent scares, and a setting that could support a good short horror story. But I never reached a clear ending, so I won’t pretend to know how the narrative pays off or how every later puzzle works. This score reflects the hour I played, not a completed run.

A short horror experience can absolutely make an impression. Incident Archives – Flight 882 certainly did for me. With this one, I spent too much time walking in circles to enjoy the mystery. Maybe puzzle fans will have a better time, but it wasn’t a good experience for me.

5/10. Some creepy moments and an interesting setup, but unclear puzzle progress and slow backtracking left me more frustrated than scared.

Pestilence

Release: October 15, 2026

Genre: Psychological horror, adventure, indie

Developer / Publisher: Kooky Studios / Kooky Studios

Platforms: PC (Windows) — Steam

Pestilence Review: Creepy Horror, Frustrating Puzzles (5/10)