AFAR: An Interactive Horror Film

Loved this. Great visuals and cinematography. Amazing soundtrack. and damn, just loads of fun to play! Highly recommend!!! Thank you Jason Trost!

I made it 10 minutes in. Sub Alan Wake writing, terrible acting, and the effects, yes I get it...overkill much. Its a disaster and I got a refund.

AFAR: An Interactive Horror Film decisions echo in the place between places where whispers take you I played 'AFAR: An Interactive Horror Film' (2025) on Valve's Steam, which (at the moment) is primarily a gaming platform. AFAR is less a game than it is a movie, but unlike the experience you get from video streaming platforms, it isn't entirely passive. Its deliberate pacing contrasts with the hyper-reactive demands of modern games, yet making a decision every 3-5 minutes hits a surprising sweet spot of immersion, just enough to draw you into the mystery and the mind of the protagonist. Unlike other narrative works that use interactivity as a gimmick (Black Mirror: Bandersnatch comes to mind), AFAR integrates choice into its very fabric. The design, writing, compositing, score, sound effects, and acting... every level of the whole works together to evoke the eerie atmosphere of late-90s horror games, and it's very well done. AFAR explores the liminal space between movies and games, tapping into another vein of the same primal energy as its creator's similarly excellent experimental gamer-film, The Waves of Madness (2024). AFAR feels both nostalgic and new, which is exactly how to do nostalgia right. It's not shallow "memberberries" pandering; it's a masterful multi-instrumental composition, and one of the instruments happens to be your childhood Pyramid Head panic. I'd love to see what an artist like Jason Trost (aka JTRO) could do with the resources of a major studio, a small team, a healthy budget, and a couple of years to just go creatively wild. But JTRO clearly thrives under constraint, so whatever the scale of production, I can't wait to see what he creates next. I might be the perfect demographic for AFAR, but even if you don't have first-hand experience of the era of gaming that it draws from, it's still a worthwhile experience. Whether you consider it a game or a movie, AFAR is a work of art.

I died! I'll be going back for more. Fun story.

AFAR is a game by an accomplished film maker trying their hand at interactive fiction on Steam. Their film making chops are on full display here. The effects are well integrated, maybe not seamless, but good enough to tell the story. Said story is decent, all the pieces fit together in a way that makes sense, and depending on what ending you get, are tied up in a satisfying way. The way they used the VHS effect to enhance intense moments was fantastic. The creature design is very neat. They seem to share a thematic design with the monster from their film "The Waves Of Madness", which has strong Resident Evil vibes. Worth checking out. On the note of inspiration, this game seems to be hold more homage to Silent Hill. Unfortunately, while there is a lot to like on the Film making end of things, the interactive game side of things falls flat. Every few scenes, you are presented a choice without the context to make that decision meaningful so you pick one at random. Most of these choices hold no weight. They simply lead to alternate scenes conveying some info about the world before funneling you back to the main plot line. An example of a choice you get is 3 items, Journal, Phone, News Paper. Currently, you pick one, learn about the situation a bit, and then move on to the next scene. The game would probably have been stronger if instead, there was a 4th option to move on, then you could pick one, loop back to the choice, and decide to learn all the info, feel like you're exploring the world a bit. Then on repeat runs you could just skip with the 4th option. Same goes with exploration, having 3 places to go, and the 4th option could be resting for the day. Sure, there would be less replayability, but it would have made the core EXP of your first run much stronger. As is, the first run has the chance to fall super flat depending on which ending you get. Which you get by making arbitrary choices like Camp, Grave yard, or Aurelius Gate. Only one branch of endings feels satisfying from a narrative perspective, as it actually deals with why you're there and the hero's damage. Otherwise, [spoiler]one seems to be a loop ending and the other is just that you were crazy the whole time. [/spoiler] [b]I appreciate how much effort the Director put into all this, and for the right price, it'd be an okay way to spend an hour or so.[/b] While AFAR didn't grip me, it did expose me to "The Waves Of Madness". I'll be looking forward to "The Castellum Of Blood", or what ever else ends up coming next. Should they decide to continue their journey designing games, I hope they'll focus on improving that aspect of their craft till it's on par with the film making aspect.

I have not played many FMV interactive games, so this was a new experience for me and it was a ton of fun. It's beautiful and aesthetic, really paints a mood and gets you into it, both visually and musically. An early death let me retry the same choice again, so that was nice. And once I reached a final ending, I was able to briskly get to exactly where I was and see what the other choice would have led me to by pressing space to skip the FMV sequences, so it'll never be a slog to see every path that this adventure has to offer. Looking forward to my next few runs and enjoying more of the story.

Looking forward to playing again and making different (and also bad?) choices.

If you're already into Jason Trost's style of cinematography, writing, and storytelling then you'll enjoy this. If you're not then I wouldn't recommend this being your first experience with it. Go watch FP 1, 2, or 3, Waves of Madeness, or All Superheroes Must Die. Wet and Reckless is also a solid choice. Then after that come back to this. Overall I recommend this. Its unique. Not quite a FMV, Not quite a regular movie. There is alot of flashing lights. Like, an excessive amount. So FYI if you're sensitive to that. A key to getting the most out of this is in the replays. You're limited on choices and which pieces of backstory info/exposition you unlock on each playthrough. So it is more rewarding to go through multiple times. You can skip through cutscenes to make this faster each time so you can get past things you've already seen before and get to new stuff. Its not perfect but it is consistent with what I expected.