She's Leaving is a short but atmospheric survival thriller with strong vibes and simple systems
She's Leaving is one of those games you stumble into expecting a small curiosity and walk away thinking, wow, that was actually pretty cool. It is a compact survival thriller with a simple setup, a great sense of atmosphere, and a surprising amount of confidence for something built by a tiny team. It does not reinvent anything, but it knows exactly what it wants to be and it delivers that experience in a tight, focused burst.
You play as Charles, a forensics expert who walks into an abandoned hotel in search of a serial killer. That premise alone feels like something from a mid budget horror movie, and the game leans into that vibe from the first minute. The hotel is the star of the show, a dark maze of long hallways, rotting carpets, and rooms full of wooden mannequins that seem to always be watching you. The place feels old in a believable way, not just dirty, but lived in, abandoned, and slightly wrong. For a two person team, the visual quality is honestly impressive. Lighting, clutter, the way shadows pool in the corners, it all sells the mood perfectly.
The story is minimal but effective. You are not bombarded with cutscenes or lore dumps, you just move deeper into the building and things naturally get stranger. The killer stalks you throughout the hotel and you hear him long before he shows up. When he is close, he rambles in this seemingly unsettling ancient language that comes out of the DualSense speaker. It sounds weird, in a good way, and the audio trick works because it goes straight into your hands instead of your TV or headphones. It makes you tense up for a second, even though, and here is the issue, he is not actually that dangerous.
The moment to moment gameplay is very simple. Find a key, use it, get another key, unlock the next place, repeat. It is the classic loop from older horror games, stripped down to the bare essentials. There is an attempt to spice things up with forensic scanning of blood splatters, since Charles is a forensic expert, but the mechanic is only used at the beginning of the game. After that, it basically disappears, which is a shame because it could have helped the game stand out more.
Your only real defensive tool is a taser. It needs battery charges, but the hotel is full of them and they respawn often, so you are almost never in a position where you have to manage resources in a tense way. Since the taser stuns the killer for a couple of seconds and Charles sprints like he is trying out for the Olympics, the killer can rarely catch you if you want to. In theory he should feel like a constant threat, but in practice he feels more like a slow moving annoyance you can zap and outrun whenever you want.
That is where the game falls a bit short. The stalking system is a great idea, the presentation is strong, the audio cues are creepy, but the danger never escalates. You never get that feeling of being hunted by something smarter or more aggressive than you. The game gives you atmosphere, but not real pressure, and once you understand that, some of the fear fades away. It does not ruin the experience, but it keeps it from being as intense as it could have been.
The length is another thing to keep in mind. The developers say it can take four to six hours, but I finished it in two hours and twenty minutes, and that included wandering around for close to half an hour trying to find the last blood splatter. There is even an achievement for beating the whole game in under an hour, which tells you everything you need to know. This is a short game, more of a one session experience than something you revisit.
Even so, the presentation holds the whole thing together. The hotel looks great, the lighting is strong, the atmosphere is thick without relying on cheap tricks, and the mannequins add a nice extra layer of unease. The voice acting is surprisingly good too. There are no facial animations to worry about, which honestly helps. It avoids the usual indie budget issue where characters look like very weird in conversations... looking at you A.I.L.A. Everything is delivered as voice over or through environmental storytelling, which fits the tone and limitations perfectly.
When you put it all together, She's Leaving lands in a sweet spot. It is simple, short, and not very challenging, but it is also atmospheric and polished. The killer never really scared me and the systems could use more depth, but I still enjoyed the ride. It is the kind of game you throw on in the evening, finish in one sitting, and walk away thinking that was neat. Not groundbreaking, but interesting, stylish, and well worth a look if you enjoy smaller horror projects.
For a two person team, what they pulled off here is impressive. The atmosphere hits, the world looks great, and even if the gameplay is straightforward, it is still engaging enough to carry the experience. If you want a short, moody horror trip with a strong vibe, She's Leaving is worth checking out. Thanks for reading!
The game was reviewed on a PS5 via a promo copy provided by PR. She's Leaving is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.
