Where to get it

2025 · Adventure · Indie

Dead Take

Find your missing friend. Uncover the secrets within. Brave a luxurious and haunting mansion in Dead Take, a first-person psychological horror crafted by Surgent Studios.

Released: 31 July 2025
Platforms: Windows
Genres: Adventure Indie Psychological horror
Developers: —
Publishers: —
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: First person
Themes: Horror
Country: United Kingdom
Age ratings: ESRB T PEGI 16 GRAC 15+USK 16 CLASS_IND 12 ACB M
Languages: Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Spain)
Time to beat: 4hmain story6hcompletionist

About

Dead Take is a first-person adventure game developed by Surgent Studios and published by Pocketpair Publishing. The game was released for Microsoft Windows on 31 July 2025 to generally favourable reviews.

›Story

Chase Lowry is a struggling actor watching his career slip away while others around him rise to stardom. When his close friend, the newly famous Vinny Monroe, mysteriously vanishes in the wake of a lavish party at a secluded estate in the Hollywood Hills, Chase arrives to search for him. What begins as a simple hunt for a missing friend soon curdles into a waking nightmare, as Chase roams the eerie, emptied mansion, piecing together scattered clues and unsettling fragments left behind by the night's guests. The deeper he digs, the more he uncovers about the partygoers and the disturbing price they have paid to cling to fame and the limelight. Told through haunting cinematic sequences and a fractured, unnerving narrative, this is a psychological descent into the dark underbelly of the entertainment world, where ambition, desperation, and celebrity conceal secrets far more sinister than anyone dared imagine.

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The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Dead Take is a first-person horror adventure game. The game has an emphasis on exploration and psychological tension over direct combat. Progression is often tied to collecting items and clues to solve puzzles found around a mansion in order to trigger cinematic sequences through full-motion video (FMV).

Story

The story follows Chase Lowry (Neil Newbon), an actor who is struggling to find work. Chase goes to the aftermath of a party hosted at a secluded estate in the Hollywood Hills, where his close friend and rising star Vinny Monroe (Ben Starr) has mysteriously vanished. Chase investigates the mansion to search for clues, and quickly finds himself ensnared in a nightmare.

Throughout the game, Chase uncovers disturbing secrets about the partygoers, as well as the price they pay to remain in the limelight through a series of full-motion video sequences and the use of fragmented storytelling.

Development

Developer Surgent Studios is based in the United Kingdom; they are known for the 2024 game Tales of Kenzera: Zau. The studio was founded by actor Abubakar Salim, who served as the game’s creative director. In contrast to their previous title, Dead Take uses a horror framework to critique the entertainment industry and the many struggles actors deal with.

A film adaptation entered development by March 2026 under Charred Pictures, co-written and co-produced by Salim and Alanah Pearce.

Reception

Dead Take received "generally favourable" reviews, according to review aggregator website Metacritic. OpenCritic determined that 68% of critics recommended the game.

Critics praised the immersive setting, effective use of FMV, and the storytelling. However, some reviewers cited inconsistent pacing and simplistic puzzle mechanics as the game's flaws.