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0 If data entry wasn’t bad enough, Mike Monroe with Belief Engine have added psychological horror into the mix with new release DEAD LETTER DEPT. After moving to the big city, you find yourself working the night shift at a data entry job. Lost letters make their way to your desktop, pleading for you to get them to their home. There are multiple endings to uncover and story hidden in every letter. It’s time to clock in and start your shift.
DEAD LETTER DEPT. is currently available on Steam for £12.79
Is that a 3 or an 8? Or is it a 0?
Gameplay
DEAD LETTER DEPT. puts you in the position of a ‘data conversion operator’. It is your job to go through all of the mail that the computer cannot decipher and manually input the information one letter at a time. There’s a bit of roaming around that you can do on your way to work, with your neighbours around you filling the world with volume. However, it’s a pretty lonely life. You wake up, you go to work, you come home and repeat.
Your first shift is pretty easy. There are a few letters where the address is spelt incorrectly or the writing is too hard to read. It feels relatively normal aside from the whirring of the machine that breaks the otherwise silent shift. Then, as you take on more shifts, it’s almost like you are being spoken to. The mail that comes through your desktop speaks to you, tells you that you’re in trouble. How far can it go before you start to become paranoid?
As these messages start to appear more frequently, the world around you shifts. New post-it notes appear on your desktop, the screen starts to split, the background noise becomes a bit more disturbed. Letters now contain strange images and scrawled words over the data that you’re meant to be analysing.
Belief Engine have managed to create something so tense that it’s hard to explain. There are no cheap jump scares which they could have made the most of, which is only to its credit. The world changes as you uncover more mysteries in your data entry. Everything works together really well. Nothing ever feels overshadowed by something else in the game which can be difficult to get right.
Even your home is off-putting
Save or continue?
The game operates as a one save per playthrough game which I believe only amplified the tension. It made it difficult to put down because I wasn’t sure whether there would be a better use of my save. It plays into the idea that this is just a day-in day-out job for the main character and emphasises the monotonous life they’re living. Not only that, but it also plays into the decent into madness pretty well. There is so much to uncover and the messages become so obscure that you feel compelled to carry on.
This can be turned off in the settings but I would recommend leaving it turned on for your first playthrough so you get the full experience.
Graphics & Audio
The sound design for DEAD LETTER DEPT. is unreasonably good. Unlike other games, this game focuses on the background noise and makes it a key component. On the other hand, I did have a few issues with the graphics.
DEAD LETTER DEPT. has some pretty basic graphics when you’re sat at your terminal. There’s some screen fuzz and distortion that will definitely cause a few people some nasty headaches. There is a setting in the accessibility menu that allows you to decrease the tearing but I had this turned on the entire time I was playing and felt like it didn’t make enough of a difference. The graphics only get more intense as you play further into the game which means that if you feel like you’re suffering on day one, it’s not going to get any better.
Similarly, the handwriting can get really hard to read. Again, there is a setting that allows you to reduce the cursive handwriting but as the letters become more distorted, it feels like it doesn’t change enough as a setting.
Longevity
Overall, DEAD LETTER DEPT. is a pretty short game and a run through can be completed in as little as a coupe of hours. The shortness of it only makes it better. When I first loaded the game up, I was worried that it would be too long to keep me interested but the devs have found a good balance of intensity and story telling. Despite the short narrative, it has multiple endings. Some of these are based entirely on your actions at the very end of the game, whilst some require you to think a bit harder about your actions and pay closer attention to what’s going on.
You can easily play through this game a couple of times either in one sitting or after taking some time away from it. I know I’ve definitely missed some key clues and I’m looking forward to going back to try and unravel the story more.
Final Thoughts
DEAD LETTER DEPT. truly turns atmosphere into an art form which only enhances the simplicity of the game. Previously, I haven’t picked up a typing games as I was sceptical on how much can be done in them. This has been an amazing introduction to the genre. In fact this game has made me excited to try out other games of the same style to see whether they all live up to this standard!
Ultimately, I have to give DEAD LETTER DEPT. the Thumb Culture Platinum Award as it’s up there with some of my favourite horror games.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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