Play... if you're really good at holding your breath.
Don't play... if you simply cannot keep quiet and have no way of disabling your microphone.
In many ways Lurking reminds me a lot of Slender. A free, relatively short, indie, minimalist, psychological horror. Lurking is unique however in its game mechanics and how those mechanics make you interact with the game. In addition to your standard first-person controls, you also use your computer's microphone. The majority of the game is pitch black, but whenever you make a noise in the game (by walking or knocking things over) or in real life (by speech or other sounds being picked up on your microphone) the sound waves bounce off your surroundings and light up, so you can see using a form of echolocation. Unfortunately, so can "they."
As horror games go, this one is on the milder side of the spectrum, but still quite scary the first time through, and for a number of reasons. The graphics are very simple, but that works in the game's favor. There is some voice-acting which, to be honest, is quite cheesy, but it doesn't detract too much from the game experience. One place this game really shines is level design. The using-sound-to-see mechanic is unique, and yet as you go through the game you learn more about it and using it becomes intuitive.
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My favorite moment from this game was the final level. My brother-in-law was watching me play and we discovered we could use one of the tape players left behind by the inventor to distract the monster on that level. However, in order for that to work I had to back myself into a corner and thanks to the microphone we had to stay perfectly silent. We failed a number of times but finally succeeded after literally clamping our hands over our mouths, scarcely daring to breathe as the creature stalked past us. Loved that added element of immersion!
The best part of any psychological horror game is the lurking insinuations (no pun intended) that it brings to mind. As the game progresses, you begin to gather hints that these red monsters that are hunting you are something even more sinister... perhaps something buried within your own psyche. Your deepest fears or the worst part of your nature? Whatever it is, it's so ingrained within your being that it cannot be escaped, as demonstrated by the very end of the game. Just when you thought you'd escaped the laboratory and into the light, you walk down a path and find another small building. Wary, you open the door only to find the very room you began in, and just as you realize this, the inner door leading to the darkness opens of its own accord, inviting you to give up running and embrace what's lurking inside of yourself. A chilling end; I loved it!
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Lurking is a fun little horror game, but not too scary in my opinion... at least it didn't give me nightmares like Slender has! The download is free and playable in about 30-60 minutes. As usual for these types of games, it is best played in a dark room with a good pair of headphones. The "microphone calibration" didn't work very well for me, but it turned out to be unnecessary, because the default settings worked just fine. Give it a try; step into the darkness!
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