The Street 10

Believe it or not, it has been ten years since Hideo Kojima unveiled P.T., the playable trailer for the proposed (but eventually canceled) Silent Hill reboot. In that time, we’ve seen a lot of really good horror games inspired by Konami’s short but effective horror preview. Unfortunately, we’ve also seen a lot of truly awful P.T. imitators. The Street 10 by Moldovan developer RandomSpin definitely falls into the latter category. It’s a game that promises scares and spooky situations, yet underdelivers in the most frustrating way possible. Is this the year’s first truly awful game? That’s what we’re about to find out when I review The Street 10.

Where do I even start when describing The Street 10? This is a game that claims to be a “walking simulator” where you’re stuck in an infinite alley in Tokyo and are trying to find a way out. The developer hints that there’s a puzzle to solve and terrifying situations around ever turn, but this oddity doesn’t neatly fit into either the puzzle or horror genres, and I’m not even sure I would classify it as a walking simulator. The truth is, The Street 10 is a baffling exercise in patience, almost daring you to have a good time.

At its most basic, this is a game about trying to escape a back alley. Much like P.T., it’s a game where the linear path seemingly loops, so the goal is to break the cycle and find a way out of the ten stages. As you loop through what feels like a series of identical alleyways, you’ll start to notice the small things on your path, such as the man walking down the street, a couple vending machines, the neon signs, the flowers and bikes parked on the sidewalk. The game wants you to memorize this layout, that way you can react accordingly when the walking guy suddenly has a clone or the signs start talking about UFOs.

Presented in the first person, this is the kind of game where you really only have two choices. You can walk to the end of the path and have the game loop right back to where you started, or you can turn around and leave through the way you just came ... and have the game loop right back to where you started. In other words, you’re stuck in this loop, no matter which way you choose to go.

What this teaches you to do is pay attention to the number on the crosswalk sign. You start at one and work all the way up to ten, where you can exit the loop and beat the game. But watch out, because one wrong choice will take you right back to the first stage, so the goal is to correctly choose the right path ten times in a row. The tricky part is that the game doesn’t tell you what it’s looking for, so you’ll probably spend the first ten or twenty minutes just trying to figure out what’s going on.

The first thing you’ll notice is that sometimes the levels will change. A lot of this involves the walking guy, who might be bald in one loop and grey in the next. Sometimes he’ll stare you down as he walks the street, while other times he’ll stumble around diagonally, literally bouncing off of the walls. Your instinct tells you that this is important. It must mean something. But what? What way am I supposed to exit if the guy is really big or teeny tiny? Should I go the same way in both cases, or does one signify going forwards and the other wants me to go backwards? A little clarity would be nice.

Of course, there’s a fairly obvious reason why the game wants you to solve the puzzle. Once you’ve figured out what the game is looking for, you’ll be able to blow through the ten looping stages in just a few minutes. Probably less than ten. And then you’ll be treated to a truly terrible ending that is only there to remind you that the whole thing has no point and adds up to absolutely nothing. It’s just a colossal waste of time.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the trophies actually hint at a much more compelling horror game. They’ll say that you “dared to purchase from the possessed drink machines,” “survived the ghostly ride on the anomalous bicycles” and “discovered the secrets of the ancient, silver-haired phantom,” but I’m here to tell you that I didn’t do any of that. The trophies talk about ghosts and hauntings and phantom and demons and spooky events, yet there’s nothing like that in the actual game. It honestly feels like these trophies are lying to you, and the whole thing comes across as nothing more than false advertising.

Look, I get it, this is a cheap game that is supposed to be a short experience. I have no problem with that, and have given plenty of smaller, shorter games high marks in the past. My complaint is that there’s nothing here to recommend. The graphics look like the alley is constructed of pre-existing assets that the developer copied and pasted with no care at all. The story is non-existent, complete wish an ending that feels like a slap to the face. There’s no music, as we only hear sound ambience that doesn’t match the location. The only thing good about this game is that it has a menu page where you can adjust the first-person controls, which is the only reason why The Street 10 is not getting a failing grade.