‘Don’t Get Got’ Mixes ‘Among Us’ With Jumpscare Horror for a Game I Won’t Soon Forget (Hands-on Impressions)

The social deduction genre continues to evolve, pushing boundaries further and further. It started with Among Us, a simple game where you needed to find out, simply, “whodunnit?” Lockdown Protocol pushed things even further, making the social deduction elements more pronounced and profound, and offering plenty of goofy moments. Now, it’s time for Don’t Get Got to shine; combining these social deduction elements with a jumpscare simulator sounded confusing at first, but after some matches, it gels together into an excellent package.

No Matter What Happens in ‘Don’t Get Got’, Just Keep Moving

After setting up a private lobby, I was dropped onto a basketball court. Scribbled around me were a few notes, pointing to how to play the game. Beyond this, I was forced to figure things out on my own. “Check the Maps”, “Get the Codes”, and a few other notes littered the ground before me. I awaited another member of the crew to join, and we jumped right in. Armed with nothing more than a flashlight and a scanner, we set off on an adventure to find… well, anything we could.

We spawned at different points on the map, and our first goal was to try and find one another. Since it was just me and one other person for these initial rounds, the challenge was more difficult than we could have imagined. As I crept through the halls of this decrepit school, I suddenly heard the rapidly approaching pitter-patter of feet. I quickly swung around and was greeted by horrors beyond my comprehension. A small girl, positioned on the floor like a spider, face as white as snow. Smeared makeup adorned her plastic face, with a disturbing smile taking up a large portion of it. I jumped out of my seat a little, and may or may not have yelled.

Thankfully, Don’t Get Got has proximity chat. I could use this to my advantage, as my partner in crime was also just as terrified as I was. Using our shouts to guide each other, we finally found the only other humans in this two-story building. Unfortunately for us, however, we weren’t aware of how quickly our sanity could go down the drain. The first run came to an unceremonious close, with both of us getting got rather quickly.

While Avoiding Getting Got, I Had To Make Plenty of Quick Decisions That Could Make or Break Me

Once we found ourselves back on the Basketball Court, we readied up and went back in. Armed with a small crumb of knowledge we obtained from our previous run, we got to work looking for keys. I used a scanner pointing me in the general direction of one of three keycards. The main goal of the game is to try and survive. It doesn’t matter who you screw over on the way to the top — as long as you escape.

That’s right, it’s half horror and half social deduction. As we quickly learned when our lobby filled up, you can spot other players on the map by using your scanner. If they’ve picked up keys, you’ll find a specific color signature depending on which ones they’ve already found. Do you try to help out your friends and then sabotage them at the last moment by letting the Dolls get them, or do you work and try to find the keys on your own? That’s what made this more interesting than I could have originally imagined.

During our play session, one member of the crew was lucky enough to find all of the keycards. A vibrant spike appeared on my scanner, and I had to go see what was going on. Well, after coming into the hallway and finding their dead body on the ground, I finally understood what was happening. I walked over to them, picked up the keycard numbers, and tried to find the exit.

Was I lucky enough to make it out? Of course not; I got grabbed by one of these ghastly girlies and lost my life. But knowing what I could do in the future to win was my little secret and one that I planned on using to my full advantage.

Trying To Survive While Getting Keycards in ‘Don’t Get Got’ Is Not Easy by Any Means

After playing for roughly 3 hours straight, me and my crew didn’t take home a single win. Nobody ever escaped, but there were times when we got incredibly close. Between balancing Sanity, avoiding demon children, and learning the rules of the game, it was difficult. One could say it’s the Dark Souls of horror games if we want to use phrasing like that. But for real, Don’t Get Got is not an easy game.

Hiding in a corner can do you well for a while, but sooner than later? You’re going to get caught. Moving around through the school is one of the only ways to survive, and there are several ways that I could keep myself alive. The first was using the Music Boxes. These single-use items would play a lovely tune, helping to restore my Sanity to a respectable level. After using them, there was a chance that they would stick around, but more often than not? They would shatter and become useless.

Secondly, Decoys were spread throughout the map. Looking like an old Radio, I could toss one of these in the opposite direction (or at an unsuspecting survivor in the school), and the Dolls would chase after the static rather than myself. There’s a surprising amount of strategy that goes into a run, and no two rounds were ever the same. In some matches, we would be dead as quickly as under a minute. Other matches could last roughly 10 minutes.

It’s a great mix of multiplayer shenanigans and genuine terror. Sure, it’s jumpscares, but there’s nothing quite like hearing that one skittish friend scream like a baby when a ghoulie grabs them.

You Get a Lot of Value for $4.99, and I Know This One Is Going To Be a Keeper.

Seeing as we were playing a pre-release build, there were a few issues we encountered during our session. One of the main ones was that we could still hear the voices of the departed on Proximity Chat, but I’m unaware if this is a feature or a bug just yet. There’s also not a lot of information given to you at the start, so it was a lot of figuring things out as we went.

It was also unclear as to what would make the Safe Room door finally open, but after contacting the developers, I discovered that it was a timed event after obtaining all of the keys. They’re also aware that the game needs a bit more signposting, or initialization to help players understand where to go next and how to play the game properly.

But for $4.99, it’s an incredibly polished game. It’s also a ton of fun, and one of those games I know I’ll be coming back to for quite some time. As long as more content arrives throughout Early Access, I can’t think of a better value that you can get for the money in the multiplayer space right now. It’s gorgeous, moody, and most importantly, terrifying. If you want to hear your friends scream and cry while murderous dolls chase them? You can’t find anything better than this.

Verdict: Highly Recommended

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Don’t Get Got is available now on Steam. Codes were provided for the sake of initial impressions and playtesting. Played on PC.