Killer Frequency Preview
Killer Frequency is Team 17 Digital’s loving tribute to the slasher movies of the 1980s to which they have added their own twist. You, as the DJ, have to save the citizens of Gallows Creek. When the town police station is attacked and someone kills the sheriff, you become the de facto 911 switchboard operator. Naturally, this makes you the hero.
It’s the 1980s and you are a down on his luck late night Radio DJ banished from the big city market of Chicago to the grimly named Gallows Creek. And like all small towns, Gallows Creek has a dark legend. A dark legend in the persona of a serial killer known as The Whistling Man. It is no surprise then, the Whistling Man is back.
Since the Whistling Man is back, people will call you and they may be the Whistler’s next victim or they may be the actual killer. If they are a victim, they will beg you for help. Their fate lays in your hands. Through branching dialog, you work with them to find solutions to help them escape. It could be to help jump start a car or using office phones to lure away and try to capture the killer.
Manning The DJ Station
The bulk of the action takes place in first person view at the station at your DJ Station, beautifully depicted in the game. The cell art styling adds to the 80s ambiance and analog devices and switches. It’s all sliders, switches, and buttons, along with a turntable and cassette player. There are no digital devices to be found anywhere. No CDs. No MP3s.
Besides saving people, you still have to do your DJ duties. This includes answering listener calls, playing commercials recorded on cassettes, and spinning records. Appropriately, the discs you spin pays homage to the music of the era.
The entire radio station, KFAM – The Scream, is also beautifully rendered. Your producer, Kelly, is almost a ghostly apparition, only partially visible through the tinted window of her control booth. You never see her face because she is so scared, she locks herself in the control room.
Searching The Scream
The rest of the station plays into the game too. This includes the lobby, hallways, washrooms, and offices. Callers will be in situations that require you to search for items that can help them solve a problem. In one instance, you search for a magazine which details how to hot-wire a car.
The game, appropriately enough, feels like a radio play. The actions of the callers play out in your mind through the dialog and the characters describing what they are doing. This mechanic may be off-putting for younger players, but like reading a good book, there remains no substitution for the power of suggestion and how it fuels imagination.
Undoubtedly, this mechanic lives or dies on how well the voice acting is of the other characters. My verdict is that the voice acting is very good and definitely works. You can feel the spectrum of emotions they are going through from fear, anxiety, hope, dismay, triumph or failure.
Killer Frequency will launch this June 1, 2023 on all platforms, including a VR version for the Meta Quest 2.