A Place, Forbidden
A DARK AND EMPTY PLACE
A Place, Forbidden is a first-person lo-fi horror-puzzle game that takes place in a cursed Library. It is and shall remain completely free, and features a variety of puzzles and no small amount of reading. Though the notes and books are not always imperative to gameplay, skipping them will detract from the experience.
AN UNPLANNED STAY
The Library of Ouroboros. You awaken here with no memory of how you’ve arrived – though faint recollections of searching, of the Library’s name, stick in your mind like scraps of torn paper.
The reek of dust, of old wood, and of something… more difficult to place hang in the air. Is that a distant ringing you hear, or merely your imagination? And why do you feel so strange? So hot? Like a pair of eyes – no, much more than a single pair – are watching your every movement, reading your every thought, like words on the yellowed pages of an ancient book…
A Place, Forbidden was initially released as a demo on the 2020 Haunted PS1 Demo DIsc.
CREDITS:
Conor Walsh, Writing and Design
Dennis Müller, Scripting and Design
Gábor Papp, 3D Modeling and Materials
Aidan Cushing, Scripting
Steam User 2
A SHORT, BUT CREEPY ADVENTURE!
A Place Forbidden is a charming short puzzle game that contains some horror game aspects without any jumpscares. The game has you trapped in an empty library, and mostly relies on reading notes left behind to escape. Upon exploring around, and finding a few of the secrets that the game has left to uncover, I managed to get the secret ending in just a little over an hour. This is one of two possible endings that I know of.
This game is an easy recommend if you like the genre, and have an hour or two to spend.
Steam User 3
a beautiful & haunting cosmic horror piece, thoughtfully constructed and deeply impactful, with a harrowing narrative that slowly unfurls around you the deeper into the library you descend. i genuinely cannot believe a game this good is free. if you're interested in cosmic & psychological horror, it's absolutely worth playing!
Steam User 1
A nice little light horror game with a few puzzles. It relies heavily on reading notes and "books" for a lot of the story, puzzles, and atmosphere building. More to discover in other playthroughs but I'll probably save that for another time.
-Free Game Amasser
Steam User 1
Flesh book.
Steam User 1
Follow "First Person Exploration and Puzzle Games" for more games like this!
There have been a rash of PS1-style horror games which provide horror not with jumpscares but with unnerving atmospheres, outlandish liminal spaces, and non-sensical storylines. While this one is (very) far from perfect, it's still one of the better ones.
The game involves wandering around a small library, looking at items, reading pages from books and notes from previous inhabitants, and solving simple puzzles. Aside from occasional phone calls, there are no voiceovers. Certain events cause the library to change, giving you new areas to explore.
The game has a "bad" ending, which you will almost certainly find on your first playthrough. Finding the good ending requires either extreme diligence, or more likely, a guide. The game took me an hour to beat and I did not feel like playing through it again, so I watched the good ending on Youtube.
Overall, it's really good, and I'd recommend playing it even if it costed money. It's not my favorite PS1-style horror game (so far that honor belongs to Fatum Betula or maybe The Music Machine, if that counts), but it's still a great entry to the genre.
Steam User 1
book is spook,very good. I give 11 Teeps out of 5 Painticus :>