ORDER 13 Review

When it comes to Cybernetic Walrus’ latest game, ORDER 13, it’d make sense for me to give you the typical rundown — it’s a first-person psychological horror game set in a large, eerie warehouse, and packing orders is easy as long as you evade the monster. That doesn’t entirely encapsulate it, though. The best description is that it’s the perfect example of the lengths pet owners will go to keep their furry friend happy and fed. Crouching next to severed arms and pools of blood? Not a problem. Hallucinating naked individuals crawling on the floor? All good. Grabbing decapitated heads for an order? Call me “Employee of the Month”. Coming back to my cute little orange cat in our cosy office makes working in this digital capitalistic hell worth it.

ORDER 13’s gameplay loop boils down to three elements: collect items, pack orders, and ship them. Each day, you’ll have a quota to meet, and the more orders you complete, the more money you’ll get at the end of the shift, which can be reinvested into your toolkit or spent to spoil your cat. You can still finish the day before achieving the quota, but you will have money deducted from your wallet. Don’t have enough to cover the cost? Then, you’re terminated and need to restart the day.

Termination is less likely than death, though. The warehouse’s biggest threat is a deformed creature lumbering around on different floors, and if you’re spotted, a chase begins, leading to your untimely demise if you deplete your stamina while running for your life. You can’t fight back, so naturally, you’ll want to hide, crouching underneath the shelves or getting to the high ground. However, you can’t do this for very long: You need to get back in time before your cat’s happiness meter depletes; it’s essentially a timer that begins the moment you leave the safety of your office.

As someone who loves the horror genre, I’m accustomed to managing my character’s sanity and/or health across most titles, but I can honestly say that ORDER 13’s cat-based system made me care so much more. “This cat will not die on my watch” is somehow a more motivating goal than protecting my own livelihood; it’s a simple yet unique twist, and with it, I think the game becomes quite compelling, as the stakes feel raised when your survival is directly tied to your feline friend.

While your cat naps on keyboards and boxes, you’ll go back and forth between different levels of the warehouse, such as the two Basements and HR office, which are unlocked when you purchase their certificates. The initial area is pretty easy to navigate, with the alphabetical rows of shelves being neatly organised, but the deeper you go, the more disorientating it gets. Your sense of direction gets turned around, and the layouts condense, so you can’t put as much distance between you and the creature. This progression of difficulty keeps ORDER 13 tense all throughout, and while the loop of grabbing items and packing orders can get repetitive, that tension is the salve to boredom.

In terms of jumpscares, Cybernetic Walrus executes them well. They don’t fall into the trap of “excessively loud equals scary” and they’re quite varied. Sometimes, you’ll have an individual staring at you from a forklift, and other times, you’ll be spooked when someone appears behind you while you’re hiding. They can’t hurt you like the main monster walking around, but they do add to the creepy atmosphere.

Since you’re spending much of your time hiding and evading, you’ll definitely be listening to the loud stomps echoing through the warehouse to indicate whether you’re safe or not. With this type of game, good sound design is crucial for both your immersion and gameplay. Eerie whispers and distant scurrying were done well, but I thought ORDER 13 could’ve been more accurate with the enemy’s footsteps. At times, the monster would be standing right in front of my hiding place, not moving at all, but the sound effect of its stomps would still be playing as if it were walking. Other times, I found it difficult to judge how far away or in what direction the enemy was, as it could sound very close but actually be multiple rows away from me.

It took four hours to complete ORDER 13, which feels like a good length for the game (you can always keep playing afterward if you wish). In-game, I was able to complete 12 days, and in that time, I bought all the cat toys/furniture as well as the extra tools, such as the running shoes, backpack, and scanner. I do think the shop is the feature that felt the most unfinished once I bought all it had to offer, as it seemed like you should get to purchase at least a few more upgrades or cat-related items once you unlock the final location. I also would’ve loved to see my cat interact with the toys and actually use the fancy bed I bought for it, as it mostly sat on the empty boxes on the shelf (though, knowing cats, this is kind of realistic).

ORDER 13 is definitely a well-made indie horror game, as I didn’t experience any bugs throughout my playthrough, and its gameplay loop is quite fun. It could flesh out the tool upgrades more and fine-tune the sound effects, but if you’re looking for something scary and cute to play, it’s still worth a go.