Cold Shelter

Cold Shelter is a walk-and-discover horror game played entirely in first person. You push through the snow, explore the frozen woods and the shelter you stumble on, and interact with the environment and the people you meet along the way. Progress comes from paying attention and following the trail of what you find rather than from combat or inventory juggling.

The scares are built on atmosphere first: isolation, cold, darkness and a creeping sense that the place you have found is not safe. Expect jumpscares too; the developer warns about them up front. Violence is brief and non-graphic, though you will come across blood, animal remains and a body.

There are no timed inputs and you can move at your own pace, which suits a game this compact. At around half an hour, it plays like a single tense evening's story with a clear beginning and end, plus six Steam achievements for anyone who wants to go back through it.

It starts with a breakdown. Driving through a forest in heavy snow, your car gives out and leaves you stranded far from anyone. The temperature is dropping, the storm is not letting up, and the only sensible move is to find shelter before the night gets worse.

You do find somewhere to hide from the cold, but escaping the weather is only the beginning. The story stays tightly focused on one night and one situation, revealing through exploration and encounters why this patch of forest is a bad place to be stuck. Blood trails and grim discoveries make it clear the night will not stay quiet.

Cold Shelter is out now on Windows PC through Steam. List price is US$2.49; local list prices are RM6.66 in Malaysia, S$2.74 in Singapore, ₱107.43 in the Philippines, ฿54.97 in Thailand, Rp 29,146 in Indonesia and ₫42,500 in Vietnam, each 20% off at launch. It supports seven languages, including Japanese and Simplified Chinese, but none from Southeast Asia. Minimum spec is 64-bit Windows 10, an i5-8400 or Ryzen 5 1600, 4 GB RAM and a GTX 1060 6 GB, with 4 GB of storage.