Control Room Alpha 1.0

Low-budget indie games tend to be some of the most creative around, assuming they aren't just flipping assets poorly in Unity. Without the budget to dazzle the audience with beautiful graphics, they instead need to focus on something else to stand out. These restrictions can lead to some very creative premises. Let's look at Control Room Alpha.

To install Control Room Alpha, simply unzip the files inside the archive into any folder you want.

The premise is simple. You play as somebody who is operating a claw crane machine inside an underground research facility. You're ordered to lower the crane into a nest of spiders and retrieve samples. Seeing as this is a horror game, you can probably guess how this goes.

The most engaging part of this game is the subtle worldbuilding. There's a calendar behind you that tells you the year, the enthusiastic man on the PA system drops important lore tidbits like how much each sample you're working with is worth in Vietnamese currency.

Despite the effective horror in the back half of the game, there's a comedic undertone to the whole thing. The man over the PA is incredibly jovial, assuring you that you're doing a great job when things start going wrong and cracking jokes the whole time.

The worst part of this game is how it ends so quickly. It introduces a new piece of interesting lore, and then it just cuts off. Knowing the developer, it won't get a follow up, which is disappointing.

All in all, Control Room Alpha is an incredibly unique game that everybody should check out.