Creej’s Corruption Demo Review – PlayStation Universe

Boarded up houses, notes pinned on doors by neighbours warning of danger, and a mysterious man who clutches his stomach in pain and lives in a house engulfed in purple fog, are big signs that something is seriously wrong in Forenious, the leafy fictional setting of Creej’s Corruption.

Created by Black Fire Studios and heavily-inspired by Tiny Build’s Hello Neighbor series, Creej’s Corruption is a stealth horror that encourages you to explore the secrets of its corrupted town, starting with a sinister kidnapping.

Steam Demo of Creej’s Corruption is Live

In the Steam demo, which features Chapter 1 of the full game, you play as Jeremy, who is searching for his kidnapped friend. Early on, we learn that the game’s main protagonist, Creej, is behind the kidnapping. “I’ve kidnapped a child and it’s getting worse,” says Creej in a chilling opening statement as you play through an initial tutorial that introduces you to some of the game’s mechanics.

Gameplay begins simply as you navigate Jeremy’s house, finding shaped keys and matching them to their respective locks as you complete your first objective of finding your friend, Kenny. The first hint that this isn’t a straight-forward kidnapping case comes through an ominous cut-scene when a radio message broadcast by Creej warns you to stay away from his house and not to call the police. The words “this wasn’t my choice” leave you eager to find out more.

Impressive Outdoor Locations

Once you leave your home, the world of Forenious opens up, with numerous houses dotted around one of the streets in the town begging to be explored. The first thing that struck us as we wandered past a car stuck in a ditch was the graphics. Creej’s Corruption is a lovely looking game. The outdoor environment is particularly impressive, with a semi-realistic aesthetic that features high-definition textures across a meticulously crafted environment. The day and night cycle impresses too, offering two different dynamics and impressive dynamic shadow and lighting effects that add to the atmosphere as you explore the town.

On the flip side, some of the indoor environments and character design don’t quite match the quality of the outdoor exteriors, with some rather empty-looking indoor spaces that are begging for some extra props to bring them alive, and character models that could do with an upgrade. Fortunately, these are being addressed for the final game, promising a graphically impressive debut for Black Fire Studios.

It’s also worth mentioning that Creej’s Corruption has been updated multiple times already as Black Fire Studios reacts to fan feedback and makes tweaks ready for the full release. This has included adding new custom and paid models, performance improvements and quality-of-life upgrades.

As you start your adventure in Creej’s Corruption, a quick chat with Kenny, who you spot wandering down the street, confirms that you should look for keys that are hidden in neighbour’s houses. If you paid attention during the tutorial in Jeremy’s house, you’ll spot a map of the Forenious Loop, complete with question marks over buildings in the area.

As you set off armed with just a flashlight to unlock the secrets within, gameplay involves a mixture of stealth, puzzle-solving and parkour. As you get ready to explore your first house and discover the front door locked, Hello Neighbour fans will instantly recognise objects in the environment conveniently laid out to create a parkour path enabling you to infiltrate properties or access a hidden area.

Solve Puzzles

After finding your first coloured key, it’s then a case of finding which lock it fits. This is where you come face-to-face with Creej and the game’s adaptive A.I. Living in the largest house in the street, which contains several padlocks you need to unlock, Creej patrols his abode with the ferocity of a man possessed.

If he spots you in his house, he will chase you and once captured you become “corrupted”, getting your first glimpse into his piercing purple eyes as you’re thrown back to your last save point. As you’ll be visiting Creej’s home frequently, going back and forth with keys, Creej learns your behaviour patterns making it increasingly difficult to enter his house and open a padlock successfully. This creates intense and exciting gameplay segments as you dash like crazy or creep around trying to avoid his wrath.

The demo features five locations, with each offering a slightly different way to find a key. For example, in one house, there’s a lady upstairs in the bedroom and she’ll run like hell if she hears you, so you have to creep behind her to steal it from her pocket in a tense piece of gameplay. In another location, you’ll find a box with a key in it, but discover that you need money to be able to buy it.

Indeed, throughout the game, there are also Crecoins to collect. These can be found littered around and hidden in the houses of Forenious. As well as being able to afford a key that unlocks a basement door, you can also use them to unlock speed boosts and a dash feature, which come in handy from running away from Creej.

The demo offers a good variety of puzzles, which bodes well for the full game, as you attempt to work out which keys fit where and how to find them.

The music is also worth mentioning, ramping up in excitement and tempo during intense situations and then adapts to more ambient electronic music during less tense moments.

Unlock the Mystery of Creej

The mysteries of Creej are not fully unlocked during the demo. However, we do discover that Creej’s kidnapping exploits don’t mean he’s a bad person. It’s clear that Creej is ill and corrupted with something. The demo does enough to make us want to come back for more, but doesn’t reveal its intriguing secrets.

Overall, Creej’s Corruption offers a tantalising glimpse of what to expect in the full game, which is expected in 2025. And with numerous updates already to the demo, we can expect a more polished version of a game that is already high on our list of games to buy next year.

Try out the Creej’s Corruption demo. Check out the Patreon and support Black Fire Studios.