When I was younger, nothing terrified me more than Jurassic Park. My older brother knew that and took full advantage, terrifying me at every turn with scenes from our VHS copy of that movie. Now, combining my primal fear of dinosaurs with the streamer-bait “Voice Activation” gameplay? Sounds like my worst nightmares come to life. And the new indie title Unknown Tapes is ready to take me on the wildest ride.

‘Unknown Tapes’ Has a Familiar Gimmick, but Adding Dinosaurs Makes It More Horrifying for Me

The ‘Voice Activation’ gimmick has been done countless times already. Alien: Isolation used this to ensure that every encounter with a Xenomorph was existentially terrifying. Combining something like this with a genuine fear I’ve had since my youth? That sounds like the easiest way to get over it… or maybe I should just finally watch Jurassic Park and be smart about it. But why would I do that when I could torture myself by playing Unknown Tapes instead?

Developed by a two-man team, Unknown Tapes is an indie found-footage experiment with a relatively short runtime. However, in those two to three hours that you’re in this world? Things get wild. Dinosaurs are constantly hunting you, bigger creatures can break through walls and hunt you down even when you’re trying your best to hide in a building. And the fact that they can hear every noise you make is terrifying. My wife loves to talk while I play games. So, I know she’s going to try and intentionally sabotage me when I eventually dive into this one.

Much like Outlast, it seems like you’ll have no proper way to defend yourself. At least you got a revolver in Alien: Isolation. But since we’re documenting these terrifying creatures, I guess self-defense is off the menu. No matter, I think it’s about time I conquer my fear of dinosaurs and jump into this world myself. If you don’t see me posting any articles, just know that I didn’t have a heart attack from getting jump-scared by one of my worst fears or anything like that.