Steam-Banned Horror Game HORSES Gets Japanese Release, and It Is a Slow-Burn Silent Film
The piece clarifies that HORSES is not a shock-value gorefest but a deliberately paced, metaphor-laden silent film whose unsettling power comes from depicting mundane routines of animal husbandry applied to humans.
Reporting from 1 source: Game Spark.
The first-person horror ADV HORSES, banned from Steam and the Epic Games Store last November, received a Japanese-language update on June 16. A new playthrough report describes a three-hour black-and-white silent film-style experience set on a farm where humans are treated as livestock, with sexual content mosaicked but present, and horror that comes from showing everyday life rather than gore.
The first-person horror ADV HORSES was banned from Steam and the Epic Games Store last November, drawing attention to its content. A Japanese version updated on June 16 has now been played and described in detail. The game is a three-hour black-and-white silent film set on a farm where naked horse-masked humans are raised as livestock. The protagonist works 14 days watering fields, carrying tools, and cleaning excrement. Sexual acts are depicted with mosaics. The horror comes not from gore but from the eeriness of daily life: being fed unknown food, washed with water jets, and treated soothingly by a farmer. The report notes the game layers metaphors for religion, labor, capitalism, and totalitarianism but does not develop them into a sharp conclusion.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.