Life Eater review - an intriguingly uncomfortable game about abduction that chickens out a bit

Mechanically, Life Eater uses a diary-based puzzle system in some really interesting ways, but it struggles to say anything meaningful about the shock-factor setting it's gone for.

Far from it: the moment-to-moment gameplay actually revolves around staring at people's day-to-day calendars, a kind of diary of events, and gradually filling them out.

You do this by clicking on an empty space and selecting one of a few stalkery things to do to reveal them, such as carrying out a DDoS attack or hacking their phone, or peering inside their window.

You have an overall time limit for a mission, so every action whittles that down, and you have a suspicion gauge that, if filled, calls the authorities on you, which as a serial killer, you obviously don't want.

If you think they do then please whip out their intestines, and so on and so on until you're confident you've answered all questions correctly and can complete the ritual successfully, thrusting a stake into their heart.

Perhaps it's understandable because to be another way, the game would have to wade head-on into some pretty heady topics and have capital-O opinions about them - about things like mental illness, and abduction and murder, and there's no easy-reading there.