Locked Up

At A Glance

• Released: 4/24/20

• Reviews: 929, net mostly positive, as of 8/2023

• English Reviews: 509

• Localized in: english, russian, german

• Had Publisher: no

• Majority of reviews:

  • English ~50%

  • Russian ~19%

  • German ~7%

• Price: $12.99

• Review report:

  • Negatives: confused about how to proceed in the game and gets frustrating, not scary after awhile, very scripted experience

  • Positives: spooky and creative, good graphics, effective sound design

Gameplay

• New game starts with a note about how game should be played and what to expect

  • Plays as if seen from a vhs camcorder

• Player is locked before they get too close to the cultists, video ends with satanic symbol

• Stuck in a new room, searching a desk, drawers open on a timer

  • Time period seems to change

• In the hallway outside the room you have to move between doors to make events pass

  • Unnerving, dark, requires flashlight

• Stuck in the room and had difficulty getting to next steps

  • Had to try opening desk drawers which activated a scare

  • Scary crouching girl above closet

• In the child bedroom someone gets up and turns on the tv

  • Have to put toys away (doll in center disappears)

• Back in tv room patient lady points at book that unlocks wardrobe

• Unlocking wardrobe reveals nothing, but after lighter goes out and VHS turns on a title appears ‘She’s close’

  • Once you put it down the zombie girl appears and jumpscares

Music

• Creepy ambience plays at the main menu, sounds decent

• Music is the exact same track I bought for PTTB

Art

• Exact same car model that was used in PTTB is present at the beginning of the game (green jeep, free on UE marketplace)

• Room goes dark and is only lit by a candle

  • Voices start, necronomicon on the desk

  • There’s a photo of the desk candle, and the UI reticle is visible

• Nice looking zombie girl model

• So far I’ve seen 4-5 models in hallways

  • Zombie guy, boy, zombie girl, bloody woman, tall ghost lady, regular old man getting dragged away

• Hair on models is noticeably static

• Scene changes back to forest, beige truck is used (free?)

• Little girl appears in summoning circle, girl scout outfit

• Clock goes from 2:20 - 2:30 AM and loops

UI

• Splash screen at the start (had the same one since the first release by Emika_Games)

  • Epilepsy warnings

• Title screen looks great, buttons are slanted along the wall, respond by turning orange when hovered over

  • VHS effect is playing with a timer at the bottom left, how far does it go?

• Settings are somewhat barren except for graphics

  • Audio has global audio slider only

  • Controls only have sensitivity and inversion

  • Key bindings look good

Writing

• Seems like family lost daughter, then employed satanists to bring her back

  • Pentagram summoning circle

• Key found under briefcase in new section of house, revealed polaroid camera in drawer

  • Picture taken of clock reveals ghost lady and another apparition in photo

  • After photo goes down the clock disappears, and the lady is partially hidden behind door

• Game seems to switch between past and present with/without a camcorder

• Start new video tape

• Inside house halls again, boxes confine you to half the area

  • Unsettling notes found

  • Picture on chair disappears (interesting detail if caught)

  • Once ke is picked up and out in the hallway scary lady is jittering under the flickering light

  • Getting closer turns it off and plays some cracking noises

    • Getting even closer she bends forward, light turns on, then camera glitches

• Bald guy is recorded watching something and tall ghost lady controls? Him

  • Then ghost lady stares at camera

• It's revealed that tall lady controlled Mother?

  • Also revealed that main character is Dad, and declared insane after ghost lady possessed mother and forced her to kill child

  • Ghost lady appears and says we have to stay

Scare Factor

• Off the road i can already see bodies in the trees

  • Approaching them i can hear footsteps very close, but see nothing

• Child scream laughs again, unexpected

• Outside the door i can see a lot of hooded figures and cultists

  • ‘Fuck’ / ‘oh shit’

• Light turns off and a ghostly breathing starts, then it flicks in and out revealing a tall ghost lady facing the door

  • Light strobes and walls look torn and old

• The subtle changes and transitions in the game are unexpected, leverage that

• Religious symbolism, reversed crucifix, pentagram summons

• Ghost lady appears in hallway, animated and facing the other way

• Knock at the door makes flashlight go down, lady can’t be seen because of darkness

• Painting falls off wall, startles

  • Footsteps naked go into another room

• Tall lady was in hallway, hobbled just out of sight and disappeared

• Bedsheet cultists appear in the first and burn some bodies

  • Zombie guy appears at the end and it cuts out

• After reading final note (which may have been self-written) a ghost lady appears from behind, turns off lights, sniffs? Player, and they die

Extra

• Credits are a recording walking through forest (Credits at top)

  • Markiplier in credits

  • Vsauce Joel too

  • jacksepticeye

  • Game got quite a bit of press attention

  • Started me in a game right after credits

• Level select is a level in itself, and all locations are available

• Post credits there is more game

Overall

• A well-done experience for the Emika Games debut

• Graphics and atmosphere were excellent

• At points the game relied very heavily on scripted sequences which took away from the experience