I don’t know about you, but playing Among Us at the height of its popularity was the last time I felt like everyone in the world was truly connected. What’s important to remember is that the game didn’t blow up until a couple years after it had launched. Can you imagine how smug the people who played it before it was cool would have felt? Well, if Oh Deer, a new game with hints of Among Us and Dead By Daylight, continues on its current Steam trajectory, it could be the next hit multiplayer title.
On the surface, Oh Deer looks pretty silly, but give it a chance to surprise you. Four human-controlled deer have to hide in a nice forest while a lone hunter tries to shoot them with a bow and arrow. So far, it’s a fairly standard asymmetric multiplayer game. The thing is, there are also “real” AI deer for the humans to hide amongst, meaning there’s some social deception thrown in. Now, when the hunter shoots an AI deer instead of another player, that’s where the game shifts gear into horror territory.
As soon as an innocent AI deer is slain, darkness sets in, and the deer go on high alert, with glowing eyes. The hunter has to run back to their cabin lest they be torn apart by the usually docile creatures. Fortunately, they have a bunch of tricks up their sleeve, like trail cams they can use to help them detect the real players.
The deer players simply have to hide or outrun the hunter until nightfall, when the hunter has to return to their cabin. The only catch is the deer need to eat, so you can’t just stay in one place the entire match. Once your hunger bar depletes, your stomach will start growling, giving away your position to the hunter, so you’ve got to eat large red mushrooms dotted around the map. However, eating also makes a noise, albeit a much shorter one than the growl.
Oh Deer is made by Cozy Cabin Studios, a two-person indie team, and the inspiration for it came when one developer noticed loads of deer kept showing up outside his house. Being a dev, he decided to make a game about it.
So far, the game is doing well on Steam. It has almost 1,000 reviews and is sat at very positive, and its concurrent player count has been holding steady since its release, according to SteamDB data.
If that sounds fun to you, you can grab Oh Deer for $4.99 / £4.25, down from $9.99 / £8.50, until Thursday July 11. You can get it on Steam, right here.
If you’d prefer a more traditional horror game, one with fewer laughs, then we’ve got you covered. There are also plenty of FPS games you can play if you’re in the mood for some shooting.
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