Game EXP: HORSES (PC)

HORSES
Systems: Windows
Release Date: December 2, 2025
Publisher: Self?
Developer: Andrea Lucco Borlera & Santa Ragione
Time Spent: 3 Hours 22 Minutes

Probably like a lot of people, I first heard about HORSES in late 2025 when there was the hubbub about the game being pulled from Steam and Epic due to material content.  Intrigued, I went over to GOG, where the game is still available, plunked down a digital $5 bill, and got the game after watching the trailer.

HORSES covers a lot of ground in the ideas and themes it explores: human trafficking, sexual assault, generational abuse and trauma, the Milgram effect, social hierarchies, and functionalism.  But how the hell do you write about a video game in all of its parts while glossing over such heavy topics like generational trauma, human trafficking, and sexual assault?  The honest answer is that you can't.  Or you could, but then you'll find yourself writing things like, "I don't mean to gloss over thousands of years of slavery in human history, but..." or "I don't want to ignore the trauma of survivors of sexual assault..." and even just writing those fictitious sentences feels wrong.  So, as I get into this bare-bones Game EXP article for HORSES, just know that these things were at the forefront of my mind as they came up in the game.

In HORSES, you take on the character of Anselmo, a young Italian man who is dropped off at a farm to work for two weeks during the summer, presumably because his father wants him to understand the meaning of hard work.  A significant portion of the horror and tension in the game surrounds the people forced to live as "horses", but the other half of the game, Anselmo doing his daily chores and the mere existence of living on this farm, makes up the other third of the horror.  Over the course of the game, more and more disturbing aspects of the farm come to light.  First and foremost, as the title suggests, and if you haven't seen any of the trailers, all of the horses on the unnamed farmer's farm are captive and tortured, naked humans forced to wear horse masks.  All of the horses are kept in a small pen and treated as one would an actual horse, including feed, water, and working conditions, although, thankfully, never shod by a farrier.  

The existence of so many people kept in pens is horrific enough without the implications that the farmer never leaves the farm, so there must be significantly more people involved in this operation.  And then the question if Anselmo is also an accomplice who could be implicated in all of these crimes because you, the player, go along with nearly everything that is asked of you by the farmer.  Pointing out which "horses" misbehave, assisting with doling out punishments, and covering up torture perpetrated by the farmer.  For me, this was one of the primary sources of horror, and it was exceedingly effective.  All of the implied horror that you don't see, similar to all of the murders in Se7en that you don't see, along with what you do see, is now all a part of your daily routine.

Every morning and evening, you sit down to a meal.  Often in the mornings, the farmer has left your breakfast out, while in the evenings, you sit down with the farmer to eat your dinner with him.  The TV is usually left on behind the farmer, and you can watch the looping program, often equine-related, and then eat your meal while the farmer either converses with you or just stares.  I don't know if it was intentionally implied, or the idea popped in my head because I've played The Walking Dead: A TellTale Games Series - Season 1, but any time there were steaks or sausages on Anselmo's plate, I immediately suspected the farmer had used "horse" meat.  And since there wasn't any way to turn down your food, and you had to eat the food to progress with the game, I stubbornly choked down the food, one bite at a time.

There is a story that goes along with the game, and it's not just a horror-based farming simulator.  Over the course of the weeks you spend on the farm, Anselmo interacts more with several of the "horses," and the interactions become more and more disturbing.  You find out more about the history of the farm, a few of the "horses," and even the backstory of the farmer towards the very end.  In the last third of the game, the main story really kicks into overdrive, focusing less and less on Anselmo's daily chores and activities, and more on the plight of the "horses" and what Anselmo does to affect any kind of change, be it overtly or subvertly.  Several surreal sequences could be dreams or Anselmo's descent into psychosis by merging his waking life with nightmares.  The game ends on what could best be described as an upnote, but in the same way that a Lovecraftian story could have a "good ending" because humanity has been momentarily saved at the expense of the narrator, who descends into madness.  There's a goodness in the ending, but at what cost to Anselmo and the player?

HORSES was indeed a strange, horrific, and disturbing game.  I don't think it deserved to be delisted from both Steam and Epic, considering some of the NSFW games on Steam's storefront; not that you can search for NSFW tags since they were removed in May of this year.  I am obviously not denying that there are disturbing and potentially offensive elements in the game, but they're not there to be offensive, or at least I didn't feel that way.  It's definitely an Italian art-house horror experience, Susperia or Phenomena, that aims to both seduce and disturb the audience, all the while telling a story that you're likely not to have come across before.  And HORSES certainly is that.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

But Lately It's Been Screaming in My Ear