Image: David Konecny & Shoreline Games

Today's deluge of horror games begins with a fascinating nightmare train ride. Describing itself (awkwardly) as a "psychological horror metroidbrainia", Dreadline Express is much closer to a classic point-and-click adventure but with some fun twists. Set aboard the last human train, the few survivors continually outrun an eldritch apocalypse happening outside, all while their memories slip away. Every piece of thought you can hold onto becomes a new part of your inventory, represented as a collectible card.

It's a fun alternative to the usual point-and-click protagonist behavior of stuffing every loose object (up to and including full-length ladders) into your bottomless pockets, and from what I've played so far, a clever way to tie the game's unsettling setting into the mechanics.

On this train, people forget things, and at the beginning, you wake up knowing nothing. Not about who you are, where you are, or what it means that you've been 'chosen' by lottery. But given that there are dark, slimy tentacles lashing against the windows, it probably can't be good.

Every thought, no matter how small or basic (such as 'light'), becomes a card that you can play in the world, either by itself or combined with others to create a more complex verb. Need to read a bottle in the shadows? The 'light' thought allows you to use nearby candles to illuminate it. Otherwise, your character will just stare blankly into the shadows. It's like rebuilding your brain, one concept at a time.

Need to unlock a suitcase with a two-part code? Find the two memories with the closest relation to the answer and use them both at once. This applies to dialogues as well, letting you come up with complex things to say by finding the right combination of ideas. It's a creative take on an old point-and-click format.

All of this is wrapped up in a deliciously dark and crunchy explorable first-person environment. While characters are intentionally blocky, this feels closer to PS2-era art, especially in the detailed lighting, coming from whatever candles are left burning.

From the chunk that I've played (less than I would have liked), the only gripe I have is that some voice acting would have been a great fit for this game, given the right cast. The writing is properly doom-laden cosmic horror prose, and while fun to read, I think these characters could have been given a little more life, given a higher budget.

But such is the nature of experimental indie games, and I'll happily take what's being offered here, and it's just the first of many genuinely chilling releases happening today. Halloween really has become a month-long event.

Dreadline Express is out now for £11.79/$15, with a generous 20% launch discount running until October 30th. I guess Halloween is where the scares happen - paying full price!