When you wake up at school during the night, it’s clear that something’s gone wrong. The doors are locked and you can’t leave. As you try to find a way out, something’s pursuing you endlessly. You must learn why you are trapped in the school and how you can escape. Along the way, you learn about the circumstances of your imprisonment. The truth isn’t the most pleasant but if you want to escape, you must face it.
High School Dirty Secrets creates great horror tension as surprises appear during your exploration. Well-timed jumpscares and sudden enemy appearances keep you on your toes while instilling fear. The story isn’t the clearest and objectives can be vague, keeping you playing more than necessary. But the game doesn’t wear out its welcome on purpose and creates a fantastic horror atmosphere.
High School Dirty Secrets is available on PC for USD 12.99 or PS5 for USD 12.49.
The low lighting doesn’t hide the figure that’s chasing you.
Story – Locked in School
You play as Kasuga, a young high school girl who wakes up at the entrance of the school. She can’t leave or make phone calls, leaving exploring school her only option. As she explores the hallways, it’s clear that something isn’t right. Mysterious figures stalk her in the halls, threatening her existence. By solving puzzles she comes across, Kasuga learns the truth about her situation but she may not like what she learns.
It’s a similar story to The Bridge Curse 2: The Extrication as you are trapped in an educational facility but can’t leave. There isn’t much in terms of exposition that you can gleam. Some important cutscenes reveal horrific moments but you must make several assumptions about what really happened. Story elaboration would strengthen the game’s potential even more and feels like a missed opportunity.
More information on previous events would be fantastic.
Gameplay – 1st & 3rd Person View
High School Dirty Secrets is primarily psychological horror, with jump scares scattered around the school to startle you. Enemies appear throughout the school but you don’t always know what is chasing you until the pursuit starts. You can escape enemies by running long distances, hiding in cabinets, or proceeding with story objectives. Some puzzles require solving and you must find items to give you clues.
Unlike games such as Massacre in the Mirage, you can switch between first and third person perspectives. The first person perspective lets you pick up items and use your phone as a flashlight, but your field of vision narrows. Playing in third-person is less scary and you can view your surroundings better but it’s much darker. Both perspectives have their advantages and switching between the two lets you experience horror in different ways.
First person perspective puts the horror in a new light.
The puzzles aren’t inherently hard to solve but there is a lack of direction at times. You must figure out what the puzzle is and what you must do to solve it. It’s not hard guesswork per se but you don’t know what your goal is until you stumble upon a puzzle. More direction would be useful to avoid wasting time. While it does help increase tension, fear is replaced by frustration when you don’t know what to do.
Audio & Visual – Sudden Noises
One of the best aspects of High School Dirty Secrets is the sudden noises. Everything might look calm and normal only for the scene to rapidly change. The sudden noise makes you jump, even if it’s not supposed to be a jumpscare. Continuous noises are the worst as that means there’s an enemy chasing you, forcing you to run or start over from a checkpoint.
The school’s visuals are dark and there’s not much light, forcing you to rely on your phone flashlight. Nothing out of the ordinary appears at first until you meet something distinctly supernatural. That’s when the rooms change their appearance and the environment slowly becomes twisted.
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- Seeing a ritual circle means something is clearly wrong.
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- Your phone is your most important lifeline and reference tool.
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- Items are easy to spot even from the third person view.
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- Various figures are chasing you inside the school.
High School Dirty Secrets was reviewed on Steam with a code provided by JanduSoft.
