I think that a first-person indie horror title must be somewhat easy to make. Why? Because a new one seems to be released every other day, and I’ve reviewed my fair share on this very site already. It has come to a point where, if a new first-person indie horror game comes up for review, I avoid them (I sent two codes back this week alone). However, every now and then, a title comes along with a premise that makes me want to see more. From Cybernetic Walrus and JanduSoft comes Order 13.

“You wake up in a dark warehouse, tasked with packing orders while something lurks in the shadows. Work fast, stay safe, and protect your cat. He’s all you’ve got.”

Have you ever wondered what it would be like not only to work in an Amazon‑style warehouse, but to live in one too? Well, congratulations, Order 13 is here to make that oddly specific nightmare a reality. Before we get into the weirdness, let’s talk about the basic gameplay loop. As the blurb promises, you wake up in a dark warehouse. Your job? Venture into the abyss, find an item, pack the item, ship the item. On paper, it’s simple. In practice, it’s a bizarre blend of retail drudgery, creeping dread, and cat‑care micromanagement.

Let me cover that gameplay zoom a tad more, because the details are where Order 13 gets interesting. You live in a tiny room tucked inside the warehouse, you and your cat, who is fully customisable and, crucially, fully pettable. This room is your safe haven, your office, and your emotional support bubble. There’s a laptop you must log into daily to print out orders. Each printout tells you exactly where in the warehouse your next item is hiding. The warehouse itself is a maze of shelves labelled A–Z, each row split into groups, each group split into shelves. But here’s the twist: every shelf is locked behind a pattern keypad. Imagine a nine‑button grid, but instead of numbers, you’re memorising abstract shapes like you’re trying to break into a Fisher‑Price vault. A screenshot would honestly explain this better than words ever could…

See that B2‑I4‑04 code? That’s your destination: basement level 2, row I, group 4, shelf 4. The little black‑and‑orange grid underneath is the pattern you must tap to unlock the shelf. Once you’ve grabbed the item, you haul it back to your room and begin the most hands‑on packing process ever put in a video game. Box it. Fill it with packing peanuts. Close it. Fetch tape from the dispenser. Seal it. Print the label. Stick it on. Ship it. Everything is manual, tactile, and just fiddly enough to feel like actual work.

Each shipped parcel earns you money, and each day demands a higher quota. Yes, it’s basically Amazon Simulator: Horror Edition. But the horror isn’t the working conditions — not entirely. There’s something lurking in the warehouse. Something that doesn’t appreciate you rummaging around its territory. Every trip into the dark puts you at risk of being hunted down by this… entity. So you need to be careful. You need to be quiet. You need to be smart. Except you can’t be too slow, because of your cat.

Instead of a health bar, you have a cat happiness meter. Stay in the room and your cat is delighted. Leave the room, which you must, and the meter drains. If your cat becomes unhappy, you fail. If the warehouse creature gets you, you fail. And as the days progress, the items you need are placed further and further away, meaning longer trips, more danger, and a very unimpressed cat. This is where the upgrade system kicks in. Money buys improvements, and improvements buy time. You can upgrade your cat’s happiness meter, letting you stay away longer. You can buy toys, a better bed, a food dispenser, a litter box, basically turning your warehouse bedsit into a feline spa. You can also upgrade yourself: better shoes for sprinting, a scanner so you don’t have to memorise codes, a backpack for carrying multiple items. It’s a satisfying loop: fulfil orders, earn money, buy upgrades, survive longer, fulfil more orders. As you progress, the warehouse expands, new areas open up, and the sense of scale grows. The “something” in the dark is always out there, always patrolling, always waiting.

Now, let’s talk horror. Yes, there are jump scares. And yes, like most jump scares in games, they lose their bite after the first couple of times. That’s not a flaw unique to Order 13, it’s just the nature of repetition. But the game does have a stronger psychological angle that works far better. There are moments that genuinely get under your skin, little atmospheric touches that make you feel watched, trapped, or just slightly wrong. See something out of the corner of my eye that I wasn’t sure if it happened or not, audible cues that (at one point) had me thinking I was hearing something in my house. Those moments land beautifully, and the psychological horror is done very well.

The creature itself, though, is a mixed bag. When it’s lumbering around, it’s more of a time‑wasting obstacle than a threat. You often end up waiting for it to shuffle past like you’re stuck behind a slow walker on the high street. But the second it spots you, it goes from “granddad on a Sunday stroll” to “Sonic the Hedgehog on a sugar rush.” The problem is that its behaviour never really evolves. As the warehouse opens up, the creature stays the same, and the tension plateaus. A bit more variety in its behaviour would’ve gone a long way.

Order 13 costs around £9 and is available on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. Depending on how you play, you’ll reach the end credits in two to five hours, longer if you really soak in the atmosphere. The core loop is engaging, but it does start to feel repetitive around day five or six. The psychological horror is excellent, but the monster loses its edge. Thankfully, the game lets you disable certain elements, and honestly, turning off the monster made the experience more enjoyable for me. Without it, the psychological tension takes centre stage, and the atmosphere becomes far more effective. The upgrade system and the cat‑care mechanic are genuinely charming additions, and they’ll likely be what keeps you pushing toward the finish line. I enjoyed my time with Order 13, and for £9 it’s a solid buy, but I can see some players losing steam before the credits roll.