Dead Letter Dept. (video game)
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| Dead Letter Dept. | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Mike Monroe, Belief Engine |
| Publisher(s) | Belief Engine |
| Composer(s) | Mike Monroe |
| Engine | Unity |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release | 30 January 2025 (Steam) |
| Genre(s) | |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
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Dead Letter Dept. (stylized in uppercase) is a 2025 indie psychological horror typing game developed by Mike Monroe, and published by Belief Engine. It was released on Steam on January 30th 2024.[1]
Plot
[edit]The game revolves around the premise of the player having moved to a new city- the reasons as to why are decided by the player in the opening sequence in which they are writing a letter. The player obtains a temporary job doing data entry work for a firm outsourced by the Postal Service to handle interpreting undelivered mail of which whose address was not able to be successfully parsed by the Optical Character Recognition system.
The work consists of manually reviewing the undelivered mail and typing in what the system is unable to understand and wants to have processed- signaled by a yellow highlight. As the game progresses, the system begins to request the player type in additional prompts that are unrelated to address delivery—including sections from various postcards that range from vacation details, to ominous details about death and murder.[2][3][4]
Gameplay
[edit]The gameplay consists of two main modes - the first is the transversal from the player's home to their work, with the second being sat down and locked to a computer terminal typing in various texts.
In the transversal segment, the player can look around and inspect various items on their home. As they leave for work, the apartment complex they live in tends to shift and change in its visual and audio presentation.
In the typing segments, of which the majority of the game is played, they are prompted by the computer to view images of scanned mail and type in whatever is highlighted in yellow. Eventually it expands to more than just scanned mail, and becomes more puzzle-like in trying to figure out what is required to be typed in order to progress.
Development
[edit]The concept for the game was originally inspired by Belief Engine co-founder Scott McKie's part time job in college for the United States Post Office, in which he travelled to a distant warehouse in the middle of the night and sat in front of a computer that presented him mail that needed interpretation.[5][1]
A demo was developed and released to be included on the HauntedPS1 Demo Disc series (Spectral Mall) compilation in August 2022.[6][7] A revised version of the demo was released onto the Steam platform one month later.
Reception
[edit]| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Destructoid | 8.5/10[2] |
Dead Letter Dept. received favorable reviews.[2][8][9][10][11][12][13] VICE praised it saying "an incredible Indie Horror game that plays on the monotony of office work and what it means to be stuck in one place."[3]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "DEAD LETTER DEPT. Presskit".
- ^ a b c Handley, Zoey. "Review: Dead Letter Dept". Destructoid. Retrieved 15 May 2025.
- ^ a b II, Anthony Franklin (27 January 2025). "'Dead Letter Dept.' -- The Indie Horror Masterpiece That Made Me Wish I Never Took That Typing Class in High School (Review)". VICE. Retrieved 15 May 2025.
- ^ Marshall, Cass (24 January 2025). "These two games demand you type if you want to survive". Polygon. Retrieved 15 May 2025.
- ^ II, Anthony Franklin (23 March 2025). "'Dead Letter Dept.' -- A Look Into the Creation of an Indie Horror Classic (Interview)". VICE. Retrieved 15 May 2025.
- ^ "Haunted PS1 Demo Disc Spectral Mall". Itch.io.
- ^ "The Haunted PS1 Demo Disc: Spectral Mall | Alpha Beta Gamer". www.alphabetagamer.com. 28 August 2022. Retrieved 15 May 2025.
- ^ Drucker, Mike (6 February 2025). "Dead Letter Dept. Is Silent Hill Meets Severance". TheGamer. Retrieved 15 May 2025.
- ^ Fields, Sarah (12 February 2025). "DEAD LETTER DEPT. Review". Game Rant. Retrieved 15 May 2025.
- ^ Silbert, David (31 January 2025). "Dead Letter Dept. Review: Dear Fearful Reader". The Punished Backlog. Retrieved 15 May 2025.
- ^ Hermanson, Nate (12 February 2025). "REVIEW: Typing is terrifying in Dead Letter Dept". video games are good. Retrieved 15 May 2025.
- ^ Crooks, Alex. "DEAD LETTER DEPT. - PC Review". www.thumbculture.co.uk. Retrieved 15 May 2025.
- ^ Acevedo, Madeleine (17 March 2025). "TEAM REVIEW / Dead Letter Dept. (PC)". That VideoGame Blog. Retrieved 15 May 2025.