The Fridge Is Red Review (PC)

I’m a father trying to get home to his daughter, forced to live through an elevator ride through something resembling Hell. Eyes have replaced some of the buttons and I am currently trying to find a generator that might get the elevator to a real-world ground floor.

The building design makes little sense, presumably because of the arcane forces that have shaped it. But I know where to pick up some coins, which in turn will give me the employee access that should lead to the generator. To get there I will have to navigate a few corridors bathed in blood, seemingly coming from the building’s conduits.

There’s plenty of gore here, delivered effectively, but there’s little in the way of actual scary moments. While I seek my objective, I’m wondering why the two people trapped in this basement with me don’t seem to be aware of the mysterious things happening around them. I shall leave them be and get back to the elevator to see what horrors wait at the next stop and how the narrative progresses once my character is done with all his tasks.

The Fridge Is Red is developed by 5WORD Team, with publishing from tinyBuild. I played using Steam on the PC. The title delivers an adventure experience with a focus on narrative and elements of horror.

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There are six chapters in the video game, tied together by a relatively short narrative about a family and their relationship with the strikingly red refrigerator. There are post-chapter cutscenes that deliver more details about the story, heartbreaking in their own way despite the small scope of the narrative.

The game features a limited number of conversations and the writing mostly works well. Everything the title has to offer can be seen in a little over two hours. I like how quickly the chapters can create a sense of place and clear stakes but I really wanted to get more atmosphere and even some extra world-building.

The Fridge Is Red is relatively simple in terms of gameplay. Players will be able to explore locations, solve puzzles, deal with a limited number of threats, and take in the weirdness of the universe. The first chapter is all about looking and reading but manages to convey tension and a feeling of creeping dread.

The game can and does sometimes create impressive moments, like those of this first chapter, short and incisive. The problem is that once the interesting premise of the experience wears off and the mechanics become clear, returns diminish quickly.

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There’s more walking and puzzle-solving in the next five chapters. Gamers need to pay attention to their environment to gain items that will help them make progress and get them to move past obstacles. There are a few gimmicks but the game does not feature any gameplay innovations.

There isn’t too much depth to the mechanics and navigating the various environments can sometimes feel frustrating. Don’t be afraid to resort to a guide or walkthrough when the puzzles don’t seem to make sense. The narrative is more important than the mechanics.

The Fridge Is Red might aim for horror but it does not manage to terrify. The game has severed hands, fountains of blood, coffins that move with the dead inside, and supernatural barriers. These pretty standard elements of the genre are used as expected, with little surprise.

But The Fridge is Red features no monsters jumping out of closets, accompanied by screeching sounds and flashing lights. I like that the chapters create an atmosphere of uneasiness and weirdness that lingers even after finishing them, even if the game did not make me jump out of my chair.

But despite the great idea of the menacing red fridge, the title never finds good ways to use it. The story goes to some very familiar places and most players will guess the outline of the ending after the third gameplay sequence. In some ways, all of it, other than the first chapter, would have worked better as a movie or comic.

The game also fails to pair its atmosphere with interesting gameplay moments. There’s a lot of potential in a VHS-style psychological horror experience but the package needs to be weirder to keep players engaged. The development team should find ways to subvert the tropes they are working with and give players more unexpected moments to experience.

The Fridge Is Red also fails to respect the player’s time, despite its limited length. There’s a lot of walking through repeating rooms, even if one has a clear idea of how to deal with a situation. Some objects that gate progress are very easy to miss. I had one crash that erased a good 20 minutes of progress.

The Fridge Is Red aims to push gamers’ nostalgia buttons by using a PlayStation-era look, with limited detail and a fuzzy filter over the entire universe. I think the idea is to enhance the scares that the title offers but it simply shows the limited resources the team worked with. There are a few interesting visual moments in the game but they are too far apart and most of the environments are bland. The sound design is equally limited. It would have been better to avoid any sort of voice work and the soundtrack never manages to add to the atmosphere.

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The Good

The Bad

Conclusion