A Psychological Horror with a Peculiar Premise
Life is filled with defining moments in which the choices we make have everlasting consequences. Sometimes these decisions come about naturally, and other times it is possible they are forced upon us either by our own actions or those of others. Regardless of the why though, this fact is inescapable. And no matter what you do, things will never return to the time before that decision was made.
So now you are faced with a very simple choice, whether or not to shake the rat.
With a name like Ratshaker, you may do a double take reading the game description and then the game genre which lists it as a psychological horror. After all, it’s a game about shaking a rat. The premise seems a bit weird, but certainly no one would be horrified by those actions. Well, those naive thoughts are what will lead you to ruin in Ratshaker’s dark world.
The gameplay is true to the name, every action in the game is a result of shaking the rat. Need to open a door? Shake the rat. The generator is dead? Shake the rat. Deep-seated trauma causing your life to crumble to ruin? Shake the rat.
Shaking the rat comes about by holding down the right trigger and then vigorously moving the right analog stick back and forth. There also is the option to squeeze the rat, which is used as an action to activate specific objects in the environment. Of course, squeezing the rat is only effective after the rat has been shaken. Never before.
Ratshaker begins in a golden field with the rat providing instructions between its screams and demented laughs at the actions you take. And after a short while a house appears with the rat and voices directing you to go inside.
Psychological Terror
Without spoiling the game anymore than I already have, Ratshaker is a genuinely creepy game that uses the environment, imagery, and sound design to great effect. The house is creepy to explore and things only become more unsettling the deeper in the player goes in.
There is also a dark humor to the game in how everything is presented. The rat screams with the energy of a man that realized halfway through his take that he didn’t take a deep enough breath to make it to the end. At which point it turns to a high-pitched shriek which a 90s high school bully would mock any man for making, before devolving into a maniacal laugh that brings the entire experience back to unsettling.
This Rat knows everything and between shake sessions will taunt the player with the knowledge it knows. And it is also immortal. Squeezing the rat will cause its eyes to bulge out, its colours to change, and to its ultimate end. But as you stare into the rat’s now X shaped eyes, suddenly a swarm of rats will begin to fill the screen. Reminiscent of the cuccos from Legend of Zelda, the rats have come to collect, and once the swarm has swelled to an uncontainable size, the screen will go black and the player will find themselves at the beginning of the area they are in.
Ratshaker is goofy and uses that humor to break some of the tension of the horror house it places you in.
Influences from games like P.T. are evident, which for those who don’t know was a playable teaser for a Silent Hill game that was scrapped after the public falling out of Hideo Kojima and Konami, which is an entirely separate story on its own. The key takeaway though is that P.T. had a massive influence on horror games in general, and Ratshaker definitely feels inspired in part by it. There are looping corridors, opaque storytelling, and unnerving environments that keep you wondering what is going to happen next.
A Brief But Brutal Encounter
Unfortunately, that sense of morbid wonder will not last long, as Ratshaker can be completed in its entirety in about 30 minutes. The game is incredibly short and was actually made in a very brief window of time. Ratshaker is meant to be played in a single sitting. There is no manual save system. There is no title screen and the pause screen gives the option to access basic settings, continue, or restart.
The main criticisms of the game are the implementation of the shaking mechanic and the simplicity of the gameplay, as well as the overall length. Ratshaker was released originally on PC so shaking the computer mouse (which in itself is a funny correlation to the on-screen visuals) is how the player would shake the rat. This is fine because stick drift isn’t a concern on a mouse, but it very much is on a $70 controller. I would’ve preferred, or at least liked, the option to change the shaking action to a toggle of some kind. Possibly making it so holding the right trigger primes the rat for shaking, but then mashing the A button is what actually causes it to shake.
It’s not a major issue, but it is essentially 30 minutes of torturing your controller’s thumbstick. Beyond that it’s very much a walking sim type game, which is a divisive genre on its own.
A Unique Experience Worth the Short Shake
And as mentioned earlier, Ratshaker is very brief. Now there is a slight comfort to this because it is one of the creepier games I’ve played in recent memory and the short run-time does ensure any elevated blood pressure doesn’t remain so for too long. But it’s going to take less than an hour to beat regardless of who you are.
However, if those things aren’t an issue to you, then at the price point and for the experience, Ratshaker is definitely worth checking out.
Important Links
Shake Your Problems Away – RATSHAKER Arrives on Xbox – https://www.thexboxhub.com/shake-your-problems-away-ratshaker-arrives-on-xbox/
Buy Ratshaker on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/ratshaker/9P9W8WL5MLB5/0010
