Zort Scary together, laughing anyway

Each level drops you somewhere with a simple goal: find the way out and reach the next map. Doors unlock other doors, so the path stays clear instead of turning into a maze of confusing keys and levers. Along the way you collect items, run into mini-games, and deal with traps and other surprises the map has in store. The solutions are not the same every run, so a map you thought you knew can still surprise you. And even when you do find the exit, the creatures are still chasing you.

Every map has its own creatures, a main one and minor ones, and each comes with a different gameplay mechanic and its own strengths and weaknesses. The game gives you small hints to point you in the right direction, but it deliberately leaves most of what the creatures can do for you to discover yourself. That makes figuring them out part of the fun: you learn what works by surviving, and by not surviving.

Zort has in-game proximity voice chat, so you talk to your friends as you play, and the game changes the voice filters to match the atmosphere. A whispered plan through a filter while something stalks nearby lands differently than a normal call on Discord. The developers clearly want you to use it, and it is easy to see why: half the experience is hearing your friends panic in real time.

This is a game built around joining a lobby with friends and jumping into rounds together: up to 4 players, online co-op, plus local play for 4. Coordination is the whole game. Someone spots the creature, someone else grabs the item, and everyone argues about which door to try next. There is also a Discord community where players meet up and play together, and where many of the ideas for the game come from, so finding people to play with is not a problem.