Dying of Thirst 2.0

Rehydrate in the middle of the night

Dying of Thirst is a free simulation video game wherein you must get a glass of water in the dead of night. Developed by Pizza Party, this 3D first-person indie horror game is a short interactive fictionthat features simple gameplay mechanics and subtle jumpscare elements that aren’t too harsh for most players.

This game is similar to TV Night in which you have to walk around your home in the dark for a normal reason but you end up encounter something terrifying. Unlike TV Night, however, Dying of Thirst is much shorter and has less aggravating jumpscares.

It should be a normal kitchen trip

The premise of Dying of Thirst isn’t introduced in the game itself as you are just immediately equipped at the start with a red cup. To win the game, you just have to fill it with water using the fridge. You can’t turn on the lights around the house but the dimness isn't bothersome since there are some faint light sources around. Unfortunately, you’re not actually alone.

Despite the lack of a tutorial, the controls are easy to figure out. The WASD keys are for movement and the mouse is for camera panning. Meanwhile, the left mouse button is for interaction and the Esc key for quitting to the menu. Aside from these, you get a visual cue of your water amount in the form of a blue meter on the left of your screen.

This game depends on creating an eerie atmosphere—with its low-poly graphics and startling sound effects in the midst of the silence. The graphics also add to the creepiness of the creature stalking you in the house. However, the build-up of this terror is cut short far too abruptly once you come face-to-face with it. There’s only one ending but it finishes too quickly to ever feel satisfying.

Still feeling thirsty

Overall, Dying of Thirst is a nice little horror game to bite into if you’re a fan of titles that don’t shove so many jumpscares into your face. It’s quite short in length and doesn’t actually require any complicated gameplay mechanics or controls. The ending feels like it’s incomplete, however, and it doesn’t help that there’s no way to change it since the story is rigidly linear.