Killer Frequency REVIEW

In Killer Frequency, you’re a radio station DJ trying to save civilians from a maniac terrorizing the city. Is it possible to catch the villain prowling the streets without leaving the building? We’ll tell you in this review.

• Developer: Team17 Digital
• Publisher: Team17 Digital
• Release Date: June 1, 2023

It’s the ’80s. Forrest Nash is a once famous radio host, who for some reason lost his former popularity and moved from Chicago to a small town, where he got a job as a DJ on the night shift. Now his audience – two and a half dozen listeners, and his work is reduced to a selection of records with music and tapes with advertising records, and conversations with the rare people who want to chat from nothing to do.

Everything changes one night when Nash receives a call from a 911 operator. It turns out that someone has killed the local sheriff and wounded his deputy, so the operator decides to take the latter to the hospital, and calls to the emergency service temporarily transferred to the radio station. It seems that Whistleblower has returned to town – a maniac who once killed a lot of people, and then allegedly killed himself. Now our hero must try to save those hunted by the killer, while staying at his DJ machine.

Killer Frequency is, for the most part, a conversational game. Considering that it was developed for VR as well, you won’t have to move around much here, and the location is limited to a radio station office with a few rooms, with the character spending most of his time in a compact booth, with a minimum of interactive elements.

It’s annoying, because there’s a lot of chatter, and while listening to the characters’ conversations, the player can only look around and flip through music records. The host and his producer, who is in the next booth, like to meticulously discuss every little thing, and it kind of makes them more lively, but at the same time stretches the passage.

Events liven up a bit when the radio station gets a call from potential victims of the maniac. Here a certain dynamic appears: you need to assess the situation and help the interlocutor to make decisions that will save him from almost certain death. For example, to tell how to start the car without the key, and this will require an instruction, which must first be found in the office – somewhere on the desk of auto mechanics that lead on the radio program. Or together with the poor man, pursued by the Whistleblower, to develop a trap for the killer, using the plan of the room and improvised objects.

At this time, the dialog system is activated: you can not only listen to your interlocutors, but also respond to them using prepared lines. There is always an opportunity to lead the caller right into the clutches of the hunter, although often the game indirectly warns about the wrong choice by asking the characters whether you really want to make this decision.

That’s why you can get your victim killed only by trying very hard – in this respect Killer Frequency is very loyal to mistakes. If you decide to make a slasher (we’re talking about the movie genre) in your passage, you will be able to enjoy the screams of the victims and a series of crossed out photos of the characters in the end credits.

The story takes two to four hours, and this is not a disadvantage at all: given the rather long dialogs and limited locations, such a duration becomes optimal to keep the player from getting bored. Dialogues are full of black humor, but you will have to put up with the abundance of unnecessary information. In between calls you can DJ, and the soundtrack with 80’s vibes is worth listening to separately from the game.

Despite all the claims, “Killer frequency” is worthy of your attention. The gameplay of the game can’t surprise you much, but the story keeps you interested until the very end.

PROS

• Retro atmosphere of the ’80s.
• Good plot
• Good voice-over
• Nice soundtrack

CONS

• Overlong dialogs
• Small locations with minimal interactivity