Steam new free horror is '100 percent worth trying', fans agree

An imaginative new horror game on Steam is racking up some incredibly positive reviews, and, best of all, it’s completely free to download.

The Children of Clay is a fresh horror title from developer Balazs Ronyai that, as of writing, has an "Overwhelmingly Positive" score on Steam, with over 99% of its 688 reviews being positive.

The developer describes The Children of Clay as “a short stop motion archeology horror game” that is inspired by Hungarian Mythology.

You’re tasked with examining a mysterious ancient artefact that clearly has some kind of odd, dark past, and according to reviewers, the story is the main hook of the game.

Speaking of the reviewers, here’s what some of the folks on Steam had to say about The Children of Clay.

“Excellent investigative psychological horror game,” states user Guilherme in their review.

“The mechanics are point and click and typing words into your research book. A great example of how, even with few gameplay elements, it is possible to create a completely terrifying atmosphere, without canned jumpscares or deafening sounds.”

“Absolutely fantastic short horror game!” writes user Gav1n.

“Doesn't try to answer everything, leaves things open to the player. Very natural controls, love the book search feature making you have to read the information to progress. Absolutely worth a go due to it's short nature!”

Perhaps the most impressive part of these glowing reviews is that, according to Balazs Ronyai’s itch.io page, this was made during the Cosmic Horrors Jam III. That means it was, based on how long the Cosmic Horrors Jam III ran for, entirely put together within the space of two weeks.

It seems the Steam version of the game has some extra stuff added that wasn’t present in the Cosmic Horrors Jam III build of the game however, so those that played the game back in October will still have some new secrets to uncover.