The Cabin Factory Review (PC)

There’s something awfully unnerving about the way certain shacks creek, or perhaps the way that the structural integrity of their shoddy wooden bones predate the breadth of modern architectural blueprints. The same goes for fresh-out-of-the-box cabins, too—temporary homes that, although still remarkable in their own eerily vacant ways, still bear all of the hallmark qualities of a terrifying, undeniably paranormal-infested perpetual nightmare. Alas, when push comes to shove, somebody has to inspect such shoddy carcasses, if not to prove to their investors that they’re structurally sound enough to reside in, but to abolish the universal notion that ghosts can, on a frequent basis, call such places home. And that, funnily enough, is where The Cabin Factory puts you: on a conveyor belt of potentially haunted cabins, armed with a clipboard and a to-do list. The goal: figure out whether each shack is in need of a good cleansing. Simple.

The Cabin Factory labels itself as something of a love letter to the likes of The Exit 8, Pools, and, rather fittingly, P.T. And, to be fair, I can sort of see those influences built into the woodwork of this otherwise short and somewhat harrowing concept. Like its sources of inspiration, the game itself doesn’t stretch much beyond the traditional psychological walking simulator formula. Sure enough, there are one or two puzzles to sift through, but naturally, the bulk of its material resides within a short, somewhat linear sixty-minute experience that favors tension over anything majorly practical. The question is, does it work? Eh — it has its ups and downs, I’ll say that much.

Curious to hear more about The Cabin Factory now that it has finally found its rightful place on the Steam storefront? Then let’s jump right into the anomaly hunting!

Checking Boxes

If you’ve ever so much as considered applying for a job in the inspection department of any major factory-based organization, then you’ll most likely have already seen the criteria for the perfect candidate: must have experience in analyzing core components with a fine-tooth comb; must be willing to work out of office hours to ensure the structural quality of the product; and must be willing to bend over backwards for the sake of keeping unwanted manual labor costs from toppling the company’s financial stability. Well, that’s basically what you have in The Cabin Factory: a relatively steady job that consists of manually inspecting homes, and then ultimately trying to figure out whether or not the homes in question carry some form of paranormal activity before signing off on the paperwork. And if you think that sounds all rather straightforward, well, that’s because it is — at least to some extent, anyway.

The game itself is presented as a short timeline of events—chapters, if you will, in which you are invited to enter the husks of these seemingly habitable cabins, and divulge your experience of the paranormal world to complete a series of basic tasks. The question that you’re asked to provide a plausible explanation for, really, is whether or not the homes are fit for purpose, or if they’re far better off being left to the local priest to cleanse and, in some worst case scenarios, assign a bulldozing squad to completely obliterate the foundations in favor of something a little less, shall we say, threatening. How do you go about acquiring such information, you ask? Why, by combing through the nooks and crannies of each room and looking for anything out of the ordinary, of course. Simple enough.

Right Under Your Nose

At first glance, I thought The Cabin Factory would play out in an almost identical fashion as The Exit 8—yet another “spot-the-difference-type” ordeal that gives players the opportunity to make trips into an otherwise regular metro station while simultaneously searching for subtle differences in the environment and how its inhabitants interact with certain objects and what have you. However, that isn’t so much the case with The Cabin Factory; in fact, it’s more the case of taking a single trip into a chain of cabins, and using your eagle-eyed intuitive mind to spot various forms of otherworldly happenings. And when I say otherworldly happenings, I’m essentially referring to cliché activities such as, I don’t know, a portrait floating around a living room, or a ghostly apparition conveniently choosing to manifest in a bathroom mirror. Think generic horror that’s rife with all the textbook tropes, and you’ll get the picture.

The Cabin Factory isn’t a difficult game by design, though it does require you to take the time to carefully analyze a lot of different components before deciding whether or not to progress further into the story. And yes, there is a story, albeit a shortsighted one that doesn’t really stretch much beyond the usual meat and veg of a bog-standard B-movie horror flick. But, naturally, you don’t have to be a wizard in that regard to make perfect sense of what it is that you’re doing, or even what is happening around you, for that matter. Simply put, there is a conveyor belt, two buttons—Clear, and Danger—and a series of unusual events that transpire over the course of several minutes. Is it a little formulaic? Sort of. Yet, thanks to each cabin having a unique twist of some kind, I can’t say that it’s predictable.

Jump Scares Galore

Let it be said that, while the gameplay is a little dull and repetitive, The Cabin Factory does actually have a surprising amount of quality jump scares and tense moments for you to unravel. From its spine-tingling atmosphere to its twisted shack-dwelling anomalies, each cabin does genuinely manifest a whole lot of full-bodied horror, few of which have enough material to warrant a second, and perhaps even a third trip to the back catalog of unfinished cabins in the post-credits portion of the experience. Granted, a lot of the scares are purely psychological, but for when the game does attempt to cough up a chase sequence or some form of interactive play, it manages to balance the board and keep you on your toes incredibly well.

There is one thing that bothers me about The Cabin Factory, and that’s the sheer lack of content that it has in its core. In a nutshell, you could quite easily scrape through most of what the game has to offer in roughly sixty or seventy minutes, give or take. And that’s a shame, really, as I would’ve happily spent another couple of hours touching gloves with the paranormal forces of its world. Perhaps, if we’re lucky, a DLC will come along to scratch that itch in due course. Honestly, though, it’s hard to say at this point whether or not The Cabin Factory has the capacity to broaden its scope, or if it’s far better off settling as a rudimentary but irresistibly captivating standalone project. Either way, I’m just sort of glad it exists, to begin with. I’ll give credit where it’s due for that.

Verdict

The Cabin Factory delivers a short but entertaining descent into an atmospheric cabin-quartered world that, while largely based upon the four basic pillars of cliché horror, carries a surprising quantity of genuine scares and heart-pounding thrills. It isn’t the longest indie horror you’ll play this year, but if you’re on the hunt for a cheap alternative for the likes of The Exit 8 and its fruitful love letters, then there’s every chance you’ll enjoy just about everything that fleshes out this simple but charismatically pleasing pocket of bite-sized suspense. And, when all’s said and done, for as little as $3, you can’t really be picky enough to pick holes in it.

If you’re a bit of a die-hard fan of one of two genres—walking simulators with fairly limited gameplay mechanics, or short atmospheric horrors with oodles of creepy characters and anomalies, then you’re sure to get a kick out of The Cabin Factory. Is it a perfect game? No, no it isn’t. But is it worth your investment? A hundred percent, yes — and that’s putting it mildly, all things considered. Needless to say though, that if it’s an actual cabin that you’re currently on the housing market for, then you’ll probably be better off looking elsewhere for inspiration.