Posted on: December 4, 2025

dudepersonThe

Games: 107 Reviews: 1

Not Worth the Controversy

This game really, really isn't as deep as it thinks it is. The attempts to censor it were based in a prudish and inherently anti-art way of approaching any media that's strange and offputting, and I think GOG did the right thing by giving this game a platform. That said, this game is not the crown jewel of artistic expression people are making it out to be. Mechanically, it feels like something thrown together in Unity in a matter of minutes; the game simply doesn't look, sound, or feel good to play, and not in a way that feels intentional. It feels more like a demo than a video game, and the same can be said of the game's message. Its core message - that authoritarianism is bad - is about as surface-level, uninspired, and lacking in any new or unique exploration of the themes it presents as a middle school theatre production. Once you break through the initial bizarreness of the story's presentation, everything is about as clear-cut, obvious, and predictable as is humanly possible. No new ground was tread here; everything this game has to say has been said before, and said better. Again: weird and offputting art is a necessity. The world needs artists willing to create discomfort in its audiences. But the "discomfort" (it can really only barely be called that, honestly; there are darker games made in RPGMaker 20 years ago than this game tries to be) that gave this game its short stint in the spotlight isn't held up by the story or message. It's shallow. The game, Horses, does nothing but beat a dead one badly.

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Posted on: December 3, 2025

Gavin G Whiz

Games: 16 Reviews: 1

Good if you're on its wavelength

This game exists in a weird part of a bell curve. If you've only seen one giallo movie from the 70s and hated it, you'll roll your eyes at the presentation of HORSES. If you're a massive fan of giallo from the 70s, you'll roll your eyes at the by-the-book giallo-ness of HORSES. If you're kinda-okay with giallo, or know absolutely nothing about it? Bingo, you're in with a shot. I will always applaud an artsy game for swinging for the fences. That said, there are just enough bits that feel unpolished to make me geuinely question where the two years of production time (enough so that if this fails the company shutters) actually went. The inventory system is rudimentary and forces several sequences to be intentionally repetitive to work around said inventory system. Occasionally mechanics that are used once or twice for the entire game show up that break ludonarrative dissonance in an unfun way where it does not feel intentionally fourth-wall breaking (mainly because whenever HORSES breaks the fourth wall it's in an incredibly over-the-top way, as if it's terrified of an audience not paying attention). I enjoyed my time with it, but as an intentionally-pretentious arthouse piece it never made a legitimate argument as to why multiple people needed to make this a video game instead of an animation, a live-action short film, or even write it as a transgressive novella. I am glad it exists, but as an actual narrative video game the only thing separating this from a thousand artsy fartsy visual novels is you holding W to walk your character to another area to trigger another cutscene where artistic choices cover up for lack of animation, voice acting, and in-game trigger capabilities until you hit a binary or trinary choice that I'm not entirely sure actually impacts gameplay.

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Posted on: December 3, 2025

HotCircuitYT

Verified owner

Games: 5 Reviews: 1

A short escape meant to be experienced

In short, this was a few hours well spent. Not a long game, not a difficult game to play, but an escape into a surreal isolated rural landscape. I felt immersed in the claustrophobic environment and like the developer poured love and effort into producing this unsettling experience. The FMV cuts were really effective with the game's mood and in keeping with the overall aesthetic. I came out of it feeling like I would from a well-crafted movie, even if every scene wasn't "fun" in the traditional sense. You're certainly not wrong if you played this and thought about subtexts like class inequality, treatment of farmed livestock, oppression of "undesirables" in society etc. However, I preferred to think of it like a David Lynch production: Not everything here HAD to have a deeper meaning or a right answer, it was just made to be experienced in your own way. Even for its themes, which may occasionally be challenging for some, it certainly doesn't feel like something that should be banned media. Thank-you GOG for seeing sense and letting us buy this to make our own minds up.

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Posted on: December 3, 2025

Johelian

Verified owner

Games: 15 Reviews: 1

Disorienting, disturbing - and powerful

Like Surrealist cinema of the 1920s, Horses is a disorienting, disturbing, and psychologically-challenging experience - and it's meant to be. It delves deep into constructs of humanity with surgical precision, shocking the player in impactful, thought-provoking ways. Unlike some of that Surrealist cinema, there is a defined plot: you play a young man who's taken a 2-week job at a local horse farm. You have a small list of activities to complete each day, but this isn't a drudgery/work sim: unexpected events regularly disrupt your preconceptions, simple - yet deeply disquieting - chores will need to be carried out, etc. Superb use of light and sound drive the atmosphere, alternating between moments of light-hearted whimsy and almost unbearable tension. There's always been an argument for games being as much an artistic medium as cinema, and games like Horses prove that point. Yes, it's heavy, and it requires something of an open mind and mental (and perhaps physiological) fortitude to endure - but it will make you feel and question the human condition in a way that relatively few pieces of gaming media will. That can only be a good thing.

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Posted on: December 3, 2025

MorganLeFaye

Verified owner

Games: 63 Reviews: 1

I hate censorship...

... and the ban on Steam and Epic was the sole reason I even was made aware that this game exists. It is weird and disturbing at times, but nothing sooo horrifying that would warrant a ban from any platforms. If you're an adult, you've probably seen worse in your favorite (horror/action) TV show. The triggers are stated in the documentation, read them and if you think you can handle them, you'll be completely fine. I've seen worse in my 35+ yrs of gaming. It is a piece of art that wants to tell a story, and does it in a very clear way.

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