Oneway.exe is releasing its meaty, full-featured demo today

As part of the Dread XP stream, Disordered Media has announced that their demo for the upcoming OS Sim horror game, Oneway.exe is releasing today. It’s available for PC.

I got early access to the demo, and I’m going to be honest: it’s not for me. That’s not a gentle way of saying it sucks; it’s just not my kind of game. It doesn’t gel with me. It’s not the sort of thing I find appealing. That’s it. I’m not referring to its quality.

On the surface, it kind of looks like my thing. It’s an OS Sim, sort of like Hypnospace Outlaw or The Operator. It revolves around this unfinished piece of software known only as untitled.exe. When you start this program up, you find yourself in a hallway with various doors marked by characters. 7 in all, apparently. You click on one of them, and it takes you to a room themed around the character, and you gather hints of their past and why they’re in this haunted program.

I checked out two before I decided I wasn’t going to proceed. The first was Anita, who is presented as this cutesy cartoon cheerleading. Through the process of solving a few simple puzzles (some of which required jumping into the source files), she screamed in my face. I think that kind of jumpscare is more for the streaming crowd.

I then went to another character and fed cake to a pig. I didn’t finish that one, because it was at that point that I realized that this was an ARG sort of game for fans of Creepypasta stories. Which, again, it may sound like I’m being dismissive, but I don’t have anything against it. Telling you why I don’t enjoy it would sound disparaging; there’s no way around it. I think the root of it is that I can’t assimilate into that community. I don’t like the speculation. But I understand why people do, and that’s fine.

In terms of the demo itself, it’s the sort of narrative that tells you the bare minimum upfront and leaves you to dig for the rest. I mentioned an ARG, and there is a related ARG that you can also check out. I found myself kind of getting stuck occasionally and had to wander around until something happened. I’m just… It’s not my thing, chum.

It does have some great things going for it. This is from the press release in regards to the first chapter that’s launching in 2025: “featuring fully voiced dialogue, frame-by-frame animated cutscenes, and original music by Marcy Nabors (DELTARUNE).” So, that’s cool, if this is the sort of experience you’re into.

If you dig stuff like Oneway.exe, then you can try out the demo for free today. The plan is for the first chapter to launch sometime in 2025.