Cry of Fear was originally a Half-Life mod that evolved into its own independent horror game. And being that it’s a Half-Life mod, the game is free to play on Steam!

I knew this was a Half-Life mod immediately, because it always gave me a “Half-Life Launcher” error and crashed when I tried to load it in 4K resolution. Also, the pause screen was the old classic settings menu from the original Half-Life game.

I apologize that the subtitle in the first screenshot is so tiny. This game wasn’t originally designed for 4K resolution. I normally run my display scale at 200% so text is easy to read, even at 4K. But this game tried to launch at 4K, blown up to 200% display size, so I could only see a quarter of the screen. Bringing it back down to 100% meant text, and my interface as a whole, was going to be really tiny throughout the game. Good thing I have a 48" monitor; I could still see my interface and read subtitles while playing.

Just a note: These screenshots are automatically squished and blurred a bit to fit here, but if you click to view them separately, you can see the full high-def 4K resolution. (On desktop, right-click and select “Open Image in New Tab.” In an app, depending on what app you’re using, you may just be able to click on them.)

Cry of Fear takes place in a Scandinavian town. You play a young boy named Simon who stops to help an old man lying on the ground… before a car drives right at you!

After some flashes of some creepy-looking doctor and a padded room, you wake up in a bedroom (with a Half-Life 2 poster on the wall!). You have blurred vision and are carrying a camera in your hands. You leave into a dark room and snap photos on designated spots to find your way out.

After you escape, you find yourself in a back alley in a town, with text messages on your phone to guide you. As you navigate the town, you run into numerous bleeding ghouls who attempt to stab you to death.

You also find creepy murder rooms and child-zombie-things that attempt to kill you too. The more you wander through the streets, the more Simon descends into madness…

Cry of Fear has multiple endings and over 20 unlockables, including an extra campaign after you beat single-player. You can also play co-op with up to four people. And of course, this is a horror game, so there are plenty of surprise enemies and jump scares. I actually scared my wife in another room when the first jump scare popped up. I was so surprised, I apparently let out a loud curse that spooked her too!

The graphics may be outdated (and my game crashed several times just trying to get it to load on my 4K monitor), but the spooky atmosphere is there. I actually got a lot of requests to check this game out. It’s not exactly my thing; I prefer a more defined storyline instead of flashes of horror scenes and aimlessly wandering around, trying to figure out where to go next or what to do. But if you like dark atmosphere, supernatural horrors, and haunting music, this is the game for you. Don’t forget to play it after dark and turn out all the lights first!