Dead Letter Dept. is a horror game where you type letters that were lost in the mail. The beginning of the game starts by you writing out a letter to a loved one. It’s pretty funny actually with the combination of choices you have. It can be loving, hateful, or neutral and you can also switch it up in the end to tell them to get f**ked no matter your last choice.
So after moving to a new city you take a job at the Dead Letter Dept. while getting yourself back together. Whoever the main character is, he seems to want a regular life after getting away from something traumatizing. At least that’s what my assumption was.
The walk through the department is probably the best part of the game, besides getting to write the intro letter. It’s a pretty creepy and seemingly run down office. At the end of the long hallway is your office. In the middle of the darkness is your work station, a single PC where you type up the letters. The atmosphere and chills of writing in this empty dark building were pretty great. It feels so abandoned and spooky being alone in that room.
Dead Letter Dept. Aesthetic and Concepts
Though the atmosphere, concept, and aesthetic of Dead Letter Dept. are amazing, the typing was kind of bland. It just goes on for too long and gets old fast, turning into a typing simulator. It does get creepier towards the last letters though, and the ending where you walk back through the department was nice and creepy too. Though I’m not too sure what’s going on when walking to the pit in the ground.
There’s a certain strange feeling you get from typing letters that were lost or never meant to be delivered. Almost like you’re uncovering a secret. I think the game could build on that idea a bit more to waive off the mundane-ness of typing. The game is still a demo and development is still in progress, so I think it still has tons of potential! I hope to see more come from this. Currently, it is playable from the Haunted PS1 Demo Disk: Spectral Mall and Steam. Follow Skullthug to check on it’s development!
