Though Feed It is very short, it nails its portrayal of an unsettling, seemingly helpless situation. The visuals and sound design are top-notch, and the story makes you feel incredibly uneasy right off the hop. If a small but effective horror game is what you’re looking for, Feed It will satiate that hankering.
Even the screenshots of Feed It were enough to intrigue me. PSX-styled horror has become quite popular, but even amongst many similar peers, this game struck me as something especially uncomfortable. Though I was admittedly surprised at how short the game is, I was also pleased with just how unsettled it made me feel – even as someone who’s never experienced what the game seems to intensely portray.
Feed It’s gameplay consists mainly of walking through a mazelike environment and picking up foods of various qualities. You can choose to feed the terrifying pig thing that seems to represent an abusive husband, which slightly abates his anger and keeps you from being eaten yourself. Feeding him, though, means that you yourself starve, and you only really receive awful insults from him for your effort. You could choose to eat the food yourself, or even throw it out/not feed him at all. This leads to a freaky chase in which the setting morphs and falls apart as you try to escape, creating the sensation of being in a horrific nightmare.
Both feeding and running from the creature provide different outcomes, and I feel that both are worth experiencing once, plus the presence of secret endings means you can get more out of the plot. That being said, even with all of these routes, the game is super short. Your first run might take 45 minutes as you explore the nooks and crannies of each Act, but subsequent ones will be quicker, leading to a rather brief experience. That said, Feed It seems to convey all it wants to within that window, and it still feels like a complete experience.
I’m lucky enough to have never been in an abusive relationship, but Feed It handily conveys the sort of misery that such a situation would seem to create. No matter what you do, the monstrous boar degrades you and hurts you. Each line of his dialogue made me wince at how cruel and vile he was, and the less-than-subtle symbolism within the last Act conveys just how much the main character gives up to either please or spite him. It’s heavy stuff, but it doesn’t feel in any way undercooked or exploitative of such themes, so be warned going in if that’s something that could upset you.
Feed It makes the most of its PSX art style.
The first thing you’d likely notice about Feed It is its blocky PSX style. There’s a good reason that this style has taken off so much in the indie horror space – something about the lessened visibility and scraggly visual quality adds a real feeling of unease to everything. This is just as true for Feed It, which portrays the antagonistic pig creatures as blocky and jagged abominations. The environments bounce between weirdly normal and horrifically visceral, with many shots being framed to perfectly evoke a tough-to-describe sense of dread.
The sound design of Feed It is just as vital to its tone as the blocky visuals. Every grunt and stomp that comes from the swine is startling, and the enduring TV static keeps you from ever feeling too comfortable. The pulsing beat during chase sequences heightens the nightmarish tone, creating some incredibly tense moments.
Good
The Final Word
Feed It may not last long, but it hits hard while it lasts. The visuals and sound do a lot to make it uniquely unpleasant (in a complimentary way), while the intense themes are properly portrayed throughout the fast but harsh narrative. This is a solid little horror experience for those in the mood for something upsetting and with a couple of hours to spare.
