The creator of Dusk and Iron Lung is making a gruesome but surprisingly funny horror game about beating killer cultists with lead pipes and 2x4s

GamesHorrorThe creator of Dusk and Iron Lung is making a gruesome but surprisingly funny horror game about beating killer cultists with lead pipes and 2x4sWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: David Szymanski)

Dead man wearing unicorn skull as helmet against concrete wall in Butcher�s Creek

I’m always down for a David Szymanski joint. The Dusk and Iron Lung dev has a real way with making games thatfeelgood, no matter the genre⁠—really tactile weapons and interactions, great sound design, just a general attention to detail⁠—and his games always have an anarchic sense of humor that I really dig. Szymanski’s next game,Butcher’s Creek, feels like another winner. It’s a melee combat-focused first person horror game where you square off against torture cultists in rural Appalachia.

BUTCHER’S CREEK - Pre-Release Gameplay Teaser - YouTubeWatch On

BUTCHER’S CREEK - Pre-Release Gameplay Teaser - YouTube

Butcher’s Creek trades Condemned’s platonic ideal, Fox News wet dream of a run down American inner city for some classico rural isolation. You play as some manner of Scum Bag who’s come out to the boonies in search of VHS snuff films and gory polaroids⁠—to sell to the highest bidder? For his own edification? Either way, the cannibal cult stuff couldn’t happen to a nicer guy, and Billy Butcher’s Creek quickly finds himself squaring off against a gang of nasty boys.

All that sickening ambience just built and built, and then I found some of the cult’s workplace correspondence: Apparently these guys trade loose leaf notes like interoffice emails, letting you read all about their little squabbles and complaints. A psycho axe murderer named Gary writes, “Like, why do we all have to wear these same outfits? Surgical gloves and a burlap hood are really uncomfortable when you’re hacking limbs off and working up a sweat.” Another note gushes about the opportunity to finally work with “The Port City Manhood Masher,” with the Masher in question replying in a curt request that they try to stay professional.

I quite enjoyed the melee combat as well, though I think it needs some refining ahead of the game’s planned January release. Mostly, I just wish these cult guys were more aggressive: They’d often hesitate or hang back in a way that left me a little too much breathing room, and I found that doing the old Elder Scrolls shuffle of “step forward, attack, step back” was more effective than trying to parry. Comboing a melee attack into a Duke Nukem kick into another melee attack always felt fantastic though, and the intro sequence presented in the demo is likely the easiest part of the game.

I’m pretty much sold: I felt stressed and unnerved playing Butcher’s Creek’s demo, a tension the game satisfyingly relieves with its humor and the “fuck yeah” feeling of winning a melee brawl. You can check out the Butcher’s Creek demo and wishlist the game over onSteam.

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Image1of5(Image credit: David Szymanski)(Image credit: David Szymanski)(Image credit: David Szymanski)(Image credit: David Szymanski)(Image credit: David Szymanski)

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(Image credit: David Szymanski)(Image credit: David Szymanski)(Image credit: David Szymanski)(Image credit: David Szymanski)(Image credit: David Szymanski)

(Image credit: David Szymanski)

Forest shack at night dimly lit in Butcher’s Creek

(Image credit: David Szymanski)

storage room interior in Butcher’s Creek

(Image credit: David Szymanski)

Rec room with CRT TV visible in Butcher’s Creek

(Image credit: David Szymanski)

View through doorway of murder in Butcher’s Creek

(Image credit: David Szymanski)

Dimly lit view of burlap sack hooded killer in Butcher’s Creek

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