Welcome to Elderfield's free demo blows Steam players away as Stardew Valley with a horror twist

The spooky season is almost upon us, and while we wait for all the usual Call of Duty and Fortnite Halloween makeovers, one game is going bump in the night on Steam as a horror take on the cosy farming genre.

It's been a decade since Stardew Valley had us tending to our crops, and with no sign of Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone’s Haunted Chocolatier, Welcome to Elderfield can scratch that itch...quite literally.

There are more Stardew Valley homages out there than we care to count, and while many fall far short of its legacy, Welcome to Elderfield is already proving popular among Steam players.

We previously said Welcome to Elderfield felt like Resident Evil meets Stardew Valley, but now that its demo is out, we can try it for ourselves and see if it lives up to the hype.

What is Welcome to Elderfield?

Describing comfort as finite, Welcome to Elderfield injects Lovecraftian horror into the world of farming sims with critters ranging from black goats to tenacows. After a long day of running your farm, you can kick back in the local saloon and hang out with locals ranging from rattling skeletons to slimy swamp things.

You can find your true love or your scariest nightmare, romancing other characters or fighting foes.

All of this sounds like hard work, so you'll need to make sure you're fed well as you cook up a storm in the kitchen.

Unlike typical deterministic loops where getting 40 winks is safe, everyday tasks like sleeping or taking a bath can awaken monsters or even trigger negative events, meaning you’ll need to plan your day to the second.

Still, don't let that put you off from decorating your homestead or taking part in a bit of wholesome fishing – just be careful what you reel in.

We're told to plant, harvest...run.

Over on Steam, it seems you can't get enough of Welcome to Elderfield, as its demo currently has an impressive 96% positive reviews (based on 553).

One clearly impressed fan said the demo offers around 20 hours' worth of content and cheered: "A spooky take on the Stardew Valley style, and it pulls it off well. The artwork is perfectly done for the tone it's giving off, where everything is made to seem *just* off enough to make you feel uneasy about simple tasks."

Another added: "If this is a vertical slice of the complete game, I want the whole pie. Preferably with some eyes and viscera still moving as garnish."

A third said: "I played for 106 minutes straight and didn't even realize how much time passed😂 I love the beautifully creepy, unsettling atmosphere and the bizarre monster designs. They give me that creepy-crawly feeling."

READ MORE: Free Stardew Valley PC expansion adds 151 Pokémon to your farm, collect 'em all

Does Welcome to Elderfield have a release date?

For those who might be put off by the horrors of Welcome to Elderfield, rest easy, you can play on cosy mode to test your skills with a hardcore mode that adds turn-based combat to traditional resource building.

The game's free demo features one area of the town, your own farm and ranch, and the first 'dungeon' area, which is the local mall, meaning it represents just one-sixth of the full game.

We're told the final game’s map will be three times larger and have at least two more dungeons, as well as multiple levels for each area.

If that wasn't enough, the full game will include other features like Old God alignment, calendar-based events, quality-of-life features, and so much more.

Welcome to Elderfield fans can keep up via the game's Patreon, which has alpha updates beyond the demo. Importantly, Cote wants your feedback to make things better.

If you're sold, Welcome to Elderfield comes crawling out of the basement on September 10, meaning there's not long to wait.

Just don't come crying to us if you have nightmares.