Macabre review: a great trailer in search of a game

I went into Macabre expecting a tense duo survival run. The devs literally told creators it is better with friends, even nudging people to sign up in groups so they could allocate keys to them. Cute pitch. The reality for me was a Keymailer outreach that offered a key for me and a friend, followed by a backpedal where I was told to buy the second key or upselling because it was on a Steam sale. So I played alone. That set the tone.

What the store page sells vs what you actually get

On paper, Macabre is a 1 to 4 player stealth extraction horror where the monster adapts, maps shift, and betrayal is the spice of life. The Steam page backs that up and shows a Mixed reception at launch.

I wish the in-game experience matched the pitch. The most consistent “feature” I met was a monster that felt less like Alien and more like a temperamental Roomba. One of the most-helpful Steam user reviews calls out that the creature hits through walls, loses track of you at a closet, and generally short circuits on small ledges. The same review notes kill animations from the trailer are basically no-shows and questions basic traversal with no jump. That lines up with what I saw in my runs: a lot of juking a confused stalker and clambering around terrain that begs for a jump key.

The developers effectively admit some of this tone problem. They launched with the lowest difficulty as the default, added knockdowns that reduce deaths, and tied the nastier behavior to higher settings. They then promised to restore the demo’s intensity and even pushed a patch addressing that. When you have to ship a post titled “Make Macabre Scary Again” days after release, that is not a good sign.

Hollow loop, empty rewards

Early on I felt the loop boil down to chores with long walks between objectives. One external early access review nails it: looting is unfulfilling, containers are often empty, and the rewards feel like filler points rather than meaningful kit. That critique echoed my own run where most rummaging felt like busywork rather than survival.

Bugs and frayed edges

If you like bug lists, you will have a good time. Players reported ragdolling through the map and keybinds silently breaking core actions. The devs’ own notes mention performance crashes, VOIP crackle, missing sliders, and a raft of UI fixes. I hit the keybind weirdness myself, then found a patch log that read like a triage board. None of that screams confidence.

Solo is technically supported. Spiritually, not so much

The team says solo scales down and is viable. Sure, the game boots and you can finish runs alone. What you lose is the social spine that is supposed to sell the concept: proximity chat nonsense, betrayals, and the chaos that masks repetition. Playing solo exposed how thin the objectives and pacing feel right now. Even their own messaging frames Macabre as multiplayer chaos first, solo “if you like being spooked by yourself” second. That is exactly how it plays.

Population and price whiplash

The player count tells its own story. SteamDB showed a launch-week all-time peak under 200 and a small live population, which is rough for a co-op-first premise. The studio also slashed the price to 9.99 USD within days, citing “barrier to entry,” which mirrors the community’s value concerns. That price change helps, but it also underscores how shaky the initial proposition was.

About those creator promises

Weforge openly pushes creators to bring friends and even says to make sure your squad signs up so they can allocate keys to groups. That marketing sets an expectation they did not meet in my case, which is how you end up with me stress-testing the “solo” experience and discovering just how hollow it feels without the party.

The verdict

Macabre has style. The forest ambience is moody, the creature model is striking, and the core idea could work. That is the compliment sandwich. The filling is a soft monster, thin objectives, empty looting, and bugs that yank you out of the moment. The devs are patching and saying the right things, but right now the Rift feels like a pretty box with not much inside.

If you want co-op chaos, you need a thriving lobby and a monster that actually hunts. If you want solo horror, you need atmosphere that builds toward real consequences. Macabre currently splits the difference and lands on neither.

Play now or wait? Wait. Let the team make good on the intensity fix, the VOIP pass, the keybind fixes, and basic traversal pain. If they can turn the AI into a genuine hunter, juice the rewards, and keep the price honest, I will happily revisit. Today, it is a refund run disguised as a horror run.

Receipts, since everyone loves receipts

• Steam store lists the game as Mixed at launch, with Early Access. Steam Store
• One of the most-helpful negative Steam reviews cites wall hits, broken pathing on ledges, absent kill animations, no jump, hiding spot bugs, and keybind issues. It ends with a refund. I hit the same notes in solo. Steam Community
• Dev posts acknowledge too-forgiving defaults and promise to restore demo intensity. Patch notes rolled out with AI, difficulty, and bug fixes. Steam Community+1
• SteamDB shows a low all-time peak and modest live player counts for launch week. SteamDB
• Price was cut to 9.99 USD within days to “lower the barrier to entry.” Steam Store
• Weforge’s creator page tells teams to sign up so they can allocate keys to groups. My experience was getting pitched a two-key collab then being told to buy a second key on sale. Macabre Game

Macabre has pieces of something I’d love: evolving AI, betrayal mechanics, shifting maps, horror whispers. But right now, it’s a half-lit walk through undercooked systems and broken promises. The Keymailer maneuver is the kind of marketing play I despise: bait you in with a friend key, then deny you that key when you ask for it. I came in expecting co-op tension, and got awkward solos, empty loot, a lazy monster, and a price cut. Don’t touch it now unless you have zero expectations. Maybe, with fixes, it will live up to the pitch. As of now, it’s a shell.