Free indie horror game
5 Nights At Shrek's Hotel is a free horror game for Windows where you rent a room for a few days, just to realise something is demonically wrong. It only lasts for about half an hour, but it depends on how well you outlast the monster chasing you at the end. For other horror titles, you can try Eyes - The Horror Game, Backrooms Buff Doge Horror, and Cleaning Redville.
The controls are easy to use, and you won’t have a lot of hints on what to do. The survival horror game isn’t too challenging, but the final timed round might frustrate you. It’s a fun title to play if you’re into quick jump-scare thrills, but hopefully, the developer will make it longer.
Staying a few nights
The premise of 5 Nights At Shrek's Hotel is that you’re planning to relocate from your old house to a new one in a different town, but you haven’t secured the funds yet. While you wait, you decide to stay at a nearby hotel for five days. Shrek is the owner, and he’s more than willing to lease you a room.
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The graphics have a retro horror game atmosphere, while the sounds serve to make you scared of what’s coming next. There’s even a mounted head of Donkey from the Shrek movies by the staircase leading up to your room. The areas you have access to aren’t too big, so it feels cosy. The game controls are simply moving around and interacting with objects.
When things go wrong
Shrek strangely asks you to run some tasks for him on the second night, and by the third night, his mood changes from happy to angry. When he asks you to clean up a bloody mess in the toilet area, that’s when you realise something’s wrong. The final night sees demonic Shrek asking you to collect 40 onions in a minute, after which he hunts you down and kills you if you fail.
Short game time
If you don’t waste too much time running around in the maze at the end, you can complete 5 Nights At Shrek's Hotel in under 30 mins. There’s a secret on the second night, whereby you can actually kill the ogre if you pay attention to detail. In that case, the game ends much sooner.
Surviving the horror timer
5 Nights At Shrek's Hotel might be a short game, but it has the potential to be something bigger. While some of the visual effects need to be fixed, the retro horror atmosphere delivers a sense of nostalgia.
It’s worth playing for a quick thrill, but don’t lose your head if you take forever to solve the maze at the end.
