Eclipsium: Six Swedish Friends Made the Strangest Horror Game of 2025
You trade parts of your body for powers in your hand, walk through cathedrals made of flesh and chase a pale light called Her. The story of Housefire's surreal horror game and the publisher behind Mouthwashing.
Most horror games want you to run. Eclipsium wants you to look. Its world is a fever dream of underground tombs, cathedrals that seem to be made of meat and stretches of outer space, all rendered in a crunchy, pixelated style that recalls the first PlayStation. And the price of moving forward is, quite literally, pieces of yourself.
Eclipsium is the work of Housefire, a team of six developers based in Gothenburg, Sweden, and it was published by Critical Reflex. It launched on Steam for Windows on 19 September 2025 at $12.99, and on Steam it holds a "Very Positive" rating, with 92% of almost 1,900 English-language reviews recommending it.
A hand that reshapes the world
You play the Wanderer, searching for a lost figure through a world being swallowed by darkness. Your guide is a source of pale light the game calls simply "Her", the only way forward.
Your main tool is your own hand. It can transmute the obstacles in your path, reshaping the world so you can pass. To make it more powerful, you sacrifice parts of your body, gaining new abilities in exchange. It is body horror as a progression system: every upgrade is also a loss.
Structurally, Eclipsium is closer to a walking simulator (a story-driven game focused on exploring rather than fighting) than to an action game. The path is linear, moving through several distinct areas, with simple puzzles solved by your hand's powers. What carries it is mood: the art, the sound and the creeping sense that something is very wrong.
The publisher with the strangest catalogue in indie horror
Critical Reflex, based in Nicosia, Cyprus, has become one of the most interesting labels in small-scale horror. Its catalogue includes Mouthwashing, Buckshot Roulette, Lunacid and No, I'm not a Human, games that share a taste for the unsettling and the unconventional. It also runs CR Channel, a label dedicated exclusively to indie horror.
The publisher's own slogan sums up its attitude: "Genre is a prison and we ate the warden." Eclipsium fits right in. It is not a jump-scare machine, and it does not chase the co-op horror boom of games like R.E.P.O. (read our story). It is a lonely, strange and beautiful trip.
What critics said
Eclipsium's PS1-inspired look was its most praised feature. The Escapist called the graphics "stunning", while noting that their intensity could cause eye strain. PC Gamer summed up its atmosphere as "pure vibes", and reviewers widely praised its sense of dread. The Escapist also praised its story, and The New York Times its ending.
Not everything landed. Some reviewers found the walking speed too slow, the puzzles inconsistent and occasionally tedious, and the narrative and ending unsatisfying. On Metacritic, it holds a "generally favourable" rating from a small number of critic reviews.
How it got here
Eclipsium did not appear out of nowhere. A demo was released in 2024, and it caught the attention of horror fans and the press by the end of that year. An updated demo arrived on 28 August 2025, alongside the announcement of the release date, three weeks before launch.
That path, a free demo early, an improved one close to release, is now standard for indie horror, and it works. Horror is a genre where atmosphere sells, and a short taste of Eclipsium's world is more persuasive than any trailer.
Why it matters
WGC's take: Eclipsium is a reminder that indie horror is much wider than the co-op screamers dominating streams. There is still room for slow, personal, surreal work, and for publishers like Critical Reflex that seek it out. For a group of school friends from Gothenburg, it is also a remarkable achievement: a game with a distinct visual identity, a loyal audience and a place on at least one critic's game-of-the-year list.
If you like your horror strange, Eclipsium is available on Steam for Windows. For another quiet, eerie indie from a tiny team, read about The Exit 8 (here), and for a darker narrative take on games, try The Drifter (here).