Rock Paper Shotgun crawls its way through the madness of the interwebs in oneway.exe by Disordered Media, a first-person single-player horror puzzle game where the darkest corners of the internet become reality, out now on Steam.
Created by Disordered Media – who wholesomely describe themselves as “a husband and wife duo with a small group of friends with the shared passion of creating” – Oneway.exe is about being stuck inside another, abandoned game, Untitled.exe, and trying to work out what happened to its three developers, whose notes litter the desktop, and who are hopefully fictional.
It combines snatches of first-person exploration and puzzling with a seeping collage of impressively parodied aesthetics from across the history of the internet: gobbets of MySpace, video streams of a Minecraft-like game, discussions of “controversial indie games” on “Glitch”, you get the idea. It’s both a celebration of digital culture, and a putrid palimpsest of “the worst aspects of internet nostalgia”, to cite a trailer blurb.
Navigate a virtual environment modeled after an operating system, complete with real, fully clickable programs and documents that reveal terrifying realizations. Follow threads of truth laced with despicable dangers and fall down interwoven rabbit holes to stitch reality back together. Wander through haunting 3D environments brought into existence by real Internet subcultures, and stay alive long enough to unravel what cannot be unseen.
Feel the joy of Anita’s terrifying turn as a mascot model cheerleader. Bear witness to Fiona becoming host to hatching eggs buried in her body. Become Kitty’s best friend (you already are, you just don’t know it yet). Brave Billie’s slasher-inspired beauty and brawn to discover critical clues, and don’t look at Meaty where her eyes used to be, either — we are not responsible for the reality that appears if you do.
oneway.exe invades existence with Module 1.0 on PC/Mac via Steam today. For more information, visit the Disordered Media website, join the official Discord, check out the oneway.exe ARG (if you dare), and follow @disorderedgames on X/Twitter.
