// PC GAMER — GAMING
In 2023, an anonymous modder released one of the best horror games of the decade, and they still haven't broken character
MyHouse.wad barrages players with horrible things they've never experienced in a game before.
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For a lot of people, the appeal of horror is being surprised and disturbed by something they've never seen before. In recent years, I've sourced this rare feeling from movies like Obsession, where the gender dynamics of that story made it feel a bit dangerous, or Speak No Evil, which has one of the most shocking and nihilistic endings that I can recall. I even find that freshness in a modern classic like Pearl, which isn't really scary, but contrasts a technicolour old Hollywood style with a singularly unsettling Mia Goth performance to great effect.
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Fear of the unknown is more valuable to me as a viewer than seeing a really good version of something I've experienced before. In games, it's largely the same—I crave new places and themes above all else. It's why Silent Hill: Townfall, Mouthwashing, Dredge, Silent Hill f, and Still Wakes The Deep all succeeded for me. They're all set in locations or timeframes I've never seen anywhere else in games. I step into those worlds not knowing exactly what I'm going to find, and come out the other side feeling exhilarated in a profoundly nasty way. That's horror, baby.
From this decade, however, nothing in the horror genre has upended my expectations like MyHouse.wad. Everyone who plays this Doom 2 map seems to have the same experience: they know there's something weird about this mod set in a seemingly normal suburban home, but they spiral once they start playing it and realise how many secrets are impossibly embedded within its walls. They then become obsessed with trying to understand exactly how the house works. I consider it a modern horror classic because it's able to take players on this ride.
If you missed its release in 2023, the 'backstory' behind MyHouse.wad is that its creator had recently lost an important friend. Among his friend's belongings was a floppy disc containing an incomplete Doom map recreation of his parents' house. Since they both shared an interest in Doom mapping back in the '00s, the creator decided to honour his friend's memory by finishing his work. Except, of course, this story is all fiction, and the Doom map in question turns out to be a hellish labyrinth disguised as a lovely home. Its real creator? Still officially unknown.
MyHouse.wad is relentlessly tense, and punctuated by a series of 'WTF' moments that keep you wondering what evil thing you've downloaded.
On the first run through MyHouse.wad, it does indeed look like a normal suburban house, albeit one filled with Doom monsters. After killing the patrolling enemies, you exit the house, look in from the outside, and realise it's somehow filled with monsters again. You go inside to gun them down and learn the house has subtly changed: new doors appear, leading to rooms that weren't there before and architecturally impossible spaces. Key visual details have been altered. Crucially, too, the sound design begins messing with your head, resetting and then distorting Doom 2's classic Running From Evil music, or playing the Discord notification sound as a jump scare. No matter where you go, too, the general shape of the environment somehow still looks exactly like the house…
The unsettling details of the spaces you're exploring just pile up—MyHouse.wad is relentlessly tense, and punctuated by a series of 'WTF' moments that keep you wondering what evil thing you've downloaded. There's no question that the choice of a simple family home as the backdrop contributes to how disturbing it is.