Suffer solitary horror in this horror adventure game

The Shadow Over Route 80 is a horror adventure game in which you take on the role of a gas station worker. One quiet night, strange things begin happening around your place of work, beginning an eerie experience. You must explore the gas station to get to the bottom of the mystery and save the world — or doom it.

Like other indie horror games, The Shadow Over Route 80 relies more on atmosphere and imagery than fancy graphics. It shares some concepts with games like Layers of Fear, though it lacks that game’s polish and in-depth narrative. Its reliance on atmosphere and simple visuals also recalls games like Visage.

The loneliness of the late-night worker

The Shadow Over Route 80 features very simple controls. You control your character’s movement; when you encounter an object that you can use, you click to interact with it. The game features almost no combat or dialogue; most of the gameplay is focused on developing the atmosphere. Nonetheless, there is some meaningful choice, with four different endings available.

This game is a small-team labor of love, and that shows in some of its limitations. The game is short, with a typical playing time of around fifteen minutes. Its graphics are simple, evoking the blocky imagery of an earlier era of games. Despite this, it’s genuinely eerie and uses simple graphics to create uncertainty, emphasizing the bleak environment.

A small slice of American roadside horror

The Shadow Over Route 80 combines a mundane setting with notes of cosmic horror. As a low-budget production, it lacks eye-popping graphics, dialogue, and complex gameplay. Still, it makes the best of its limited resources, delivering some atmospheric scenes in its short runtime. While not essential, it will reward fans of unconventional horror games.