Game EXP: The 18th Attic (PC)

[Disclaimer:  I received a review key for [HERROR] Gas Station Case through Keymailer, a third-party website/company that connects publishers and developers with content creators.  The game was given without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be played, and content be created through the playing of the game and the experience.  Unless otherwise noted, all content in the following article is from my own playthrough of this game.]

The 18th Attic
Systems: Windows
Release Date: January 23, 2026
Publisher: Steelkrill Studios
Developer: Steelkrill Studios
Time Spent: 2 Hours 45 Minutes
Playlist on YouTube

Before starting The 18th Attic, the visuals and description looked to me like a mix of the gameplay loop of P.T., the 'notice something wrong' of The Exit 8 and MADiSON, and some semblance of the camera mechanic often used in the Fatal Frame series.  We could even just start listing games that have similar elements to different aspects of this game, but then we'd be here all night, so let's get to the actual game.

The 18th Attic is a narrative walking sim with paranormal 'spot the difference' mechanics as you climb the stairs to the same attic space over and over again.  The first time you enter the attic, you pick up a Polaroid camera and continue climbing the stairs at the back of the attic to find yourself back on the floor of the attic that you originally entered.  You cannot climb back down the stairs because the door leading up to the attic space closes behind you.  Your only way out is to continue up the stairs at the back of the attic.  The function of the camera is to take pictures when there are differences in the setting, and the attic is full of objects to be out of place or just completely missing.  When there is a difference between the first (default) attic space, you have to take a successful picture (more on that one in a bit) of the anomaly and if the picture is taken correctly, you are awarded with a flashback voice over from the player character's past, and a notification that the anomaly was found and you can safely proceed to the next floor.

If you fail to find the anomaly and walk up the stairs, you are assaulted by a humanoid creature that drains you of 40 points of health; you start at 100 health.  Thankfully, scattered throughout the various attics are bottles of pills (health) that are stored in your inventory and when used can restore 40 points of health.  Your inventory is made up of five slots, although two of those slots are taken up by your camera and an optional lighter to use for illumination in darker areas of the attic.  In typical survival horror fashion, you cannot stack either extra film or pill bottles, so at any time, you can only have an additional three consumable items.  One nice mechanic that isn't explored narratively is that while the camera only holds five photos, those photos are only consumed when you take a picture of something that isn't an anomaly.  So hypothetically, if you only take pictures of anomalies, then you'll never use up any of your film, meaning that the pack of film you picked up never gets used, and I never found a way to drop unwanted items.

While not being able to drop unwanted items was an annoyance, I certainly wouldn't call it an issue.  One other thing that I became frustrated with during my playthrough in Chase Mode was that I was unsure why the picture of the anomaly I was taking was not registering with the game.  I had something similar happen when taking a picture of an anomaly, and I was sure that it wasn't accepted because the object wasn't centered, but it was accepted after another take.  This time, during the Chase Mode, I saw something that should have been in the attic, but it wasn't; it was missing.  So I took a picture at a slight angle because there were other objects in the way for me to be head-on and get a full picture.  I tried again, and the picture was again not accepted, which left me with 0 remaining pictures.  I ended up having to go through two attic spaces where I saw anomalies, but without film to take pictures, I ended up taking 80 points of damage and only found some extra film four floors higher. The thought of dying and ending my run because the game didn't recognize what I thought was a successful picture, and being forced to take damage didn't feel great.

My only other critique was that after the second time of not recognizing an anomaly and taking damage from the jump-scare, goopy-looking-creature in the stairwell, I wasn't so much scared about going up the stairwell as I was annoyed at myself.  The feeling of "please don't be there, please don't be there" out of fear was replaced by annoyance at myself for not recognizing that something was out of place.  That's not a great feeling to have with a horror game that uses jump-scares as one of its primary sources of terror, but I also felt the same way in the last third of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, so I think it's more that it's an issue within the nature of horror games rather than something specifically wrong with The 18th Attic.

I do applaud Steelkrill Studio, though, for the slight variance in anomalies between the two different game modes.  Because the gameplay loop is centered around looking around a room for differences and there might be a span of two attics where there haven't been any changes, followed by four alternating rooms where there is an anomaly, then there isn't, then there is, and then there isn't, means that you're frequently wondering if you're missing something.  In the Chase Mode, you're doing this while facing where the creature is coming from because it has a "only moves when you're not looking" mechanic, and while some of the anomalies are identical between the two modes, there are several that are unique to that particular mode.  In one mode, I had noticed that a drape/towel/blanket had been placed differently, so when I saw it the same way in the other mode, I knew what to take a picture of.  What I wasn't expecting and gave me a fright was when I turned around and saw the attic now filled with this same draped asset all around the attic, which I then had to navigate like a maze.

Without getting into spoilers for the content of the story, I will say that I liked that there was a story here that felt relatable in some sense.  It wasn't a game where a mechanic existed just to have it, but the anomalies existed to help tell the story, which unraveled as you progressed through the 55 attic spaces.  I also appreciated that the game didn't overstay its welcome, even though at first 55 floors felt like an annoying amount of floors to trapse through looking for differences from the original floor.  About an hour to complete the Story Mode and just over 30 minutes to complete the Chase Mode felt like the perfect amount of time to dedicate to a single run without feeling that there was chuff added to pad out the game.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Instrumental