The ESRB rating for this game reads like a rap sheet. You would be forgiven for thinking this is another over-the-top, gory, exploitation horror game – because you’d be right. But you’d also be glossing over the fact that Ghost at Dawn is, at its very core, a game about empathy.

The central location of the game, The Pines Hotel, has all the trappings of a film noir setting – the seedy hotel littered with corpses, the dames to kill and die for – but the reason our reluctant detective subjects himself to the nightmare within these walls is that Emi Kosuke is missing, and nobody but her sister seems to give a shit.

It’s 1947, and private eye Ben O’Hara would rather be at the bar than digging around an abandoned hotel with a couple dozen too many stiffs in it. He’s got his own problems. The docs tell him he has something called “shellshock”. He ain’t been the same since coming home from Germany, and even though a little whisky or a quick smoke usually sets him right, he’s a little in over his head on this one. He’s used to tracking down cheating spouses and deadbeats. This is a job for the coppers.

Except the coppers don’t care. You see, Emi is Japanese, and her papers aren’t exactly in order, if you catch my meaning. And the other gumshoes in town? You think they care if there’s one less Japanese girl in Seattle? Let me tell you, my friend, they do not.

And that’s where Ben O’Hara comes in. Because “Ben O’Hara” ain’t his real name. It’s Benjiro Ohara. And as far as Emi’s sister, Yuhiko, can tell, Ben’s the only Japanese American private detective in the city.

But here’s the thing. Ben can leave the hotel whenever he wants. Or I should say you can decide when he leaves. In fact, that’s the only way to end the game. You decide when you’ve seen enough. You’ll see an ending cutscene based on the clues you’ve found during your investigation.

Ghost at Dawn pays homage to the Survival Horror classics that inspired it but also takes that formula and twists and turns it in unexpected ways. The ending mechanic is one example. Another is the permadeath system.

Ben only has a limited number of lives before the game erases your save, and you’ll have to start your investigation over. So maybe you’ll want to check out of the hotel before it’s too late.

Or maybe you push through. Because you know if you don’t find her – no one will.

Ghost at Dawn is available on Xbox Play Anywhere June 24, and you can wishlist it today!

GHOST at DAWN

Blue and Red Games

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

Horror Game Awards Player’s Choice and Best Indie Game Award–nominated Survival Horror cult hit. In 1947, hard‑boiled private eye Ben O’Hara is searching for a missing girl in an abandoned hotel. Investigate room by room, piece together clues, and give the living dead lead poisoning in this Detective Noir nightmare. Can you push through your fear and uncover what became of her?