This indie darling bills itself as a "love letter to PSX survival horror," and it's just oozing with charm, nostalgia, and a little pus

Play as either Jack or Natalie, operatives of the elite Reaper Intervention Platoon (R.I.P.) on a mission to put an end to the villainous Dr Victor Ripper's twisted machinations.

The Ripper was a former CIA operative whose experiments into mind control were deemed too unethical - although you'd think they'd make him employee of the month. Naturally his experiments take on the form of zombies, tangle with the occult, and feature a glowing green serum that brings to mind Dr Herbert West Re-Animator.

Gameplay is exactly what you'd expect from an homage to Resident Evil. Dodge through mobs of zombies with tank controls, solve puzzles which require navigating a town overrun with the dead, and manage a limited inventory of guns, ammo, health, and keys. Standout feature is the fixed point camera angles - something you probably expect of the genre, with the modern touch that they do sometimes transition into a follow- or dolly-camera.

At the beginning of the game, you choose which character you play as. Natalie has more health, and Jack has more inventory space. The characters largely cover the same story and follow most of the same levels, although each has some unique bosses and locations.

The voice acting is a standout part of the art direction. Throughout the game you'll find voice recordings from victims, as well as the personal logs of Dr Ripper, and you can tell they had fun with it. The Ripper specifically makes me think of a saturday morning cartoon villain, although about six times more twisted than you'd see on cable. When it comes to dialogue, even the delivery makes me think of Resident Evil - it's stilted and cheesey, although the delivery is less flat.

Another little nod towards RE: there are multiple endings (seven of them) to be unlocked depending on if you save each member of your team. You'll also have to play through a segment of the game without your gear as a character who's normally an NPC.

One part of the game that might be contentious: at one point you will have to explore an elementary school full of little zombies. Through most of the game you're encouraged to conserve ammo and could never possibly kill all zombies. In this segment they are too numerous and the corridors are too narrow to avoid combat. Truly it is dangerous to be american schoolchildren.

Flesh Made Fear is available for purchase on Steam and Playstation. They even have an Itch page, although that does just link back to Steam.