New PS1-Inspired Horror Game on Steam Proves Local Stories Make Better Horror

I’ve played plenty of horror games set in abandoned hospitals, creepy forests, and houses that nobody in their right mind would enter. Grease Trap ’99, however, takes place somewhere considerably more familiar: a Scottish fish and chip shop. Set in 1999, this short PS1-inspired horror game has players working the night shift in a Highland takeaway, preparing orders for increasingly impatient customers while something unpleasant makes itself known beneath the floorboards. It’s a fantastic premise, and the execution is even better.

I’m particularly fond of short horror games that have a strong sense of identity, and Grease Trap ’99 has that in abundance. Between its Scottish Gaelic voice acting, unsettling customers, and surprisingly enjoyable food preparation, the game feels rooted in a very particular place. Having spent some time running its fictional chippy, I’m convinced that more horror developers should be looking to their own communities for inspiration. There’s something special about a game that feels like it could only have been made by people familiar with the world it’s depicting.

Grease Trap ’99 Turns a Scottish Chippy Into an Excellent Horror Setting

The actual gameplay in Grease Trap ’99 is incredibly simple, which is part of why I enjoyed it so much. Grease Trap ’99 makes working in a chip shop enjoyable enough that investigating the supernatural horror feels like an inconvenience. Customers approach the counter and place orders, and it’s your job to prepare everything correctly. Fish needs battering, pizzas need frying, and curry sauce needs stirring. I was in my element almost immediately. After a few successful orders, I started feeling genuinely pleased with myself. We should make more games about running a Scottish Chippy. I even learned how to make curry sauce. Admittedly, my approach to most problems was to batter whatever was in front of me and put it in the fryer, but that seemed to work well enough.

Then Friday night arrived, and my confidence disappeared. The introduction of a timer makes customers considerably more stressful to deal with, especially because they’ll eventually vomit and leave if they’re kept waiting too long. I received my first F, which was upsetting after all my hard work. It’s funny how quickly the game made me care about doing a good job, particularly when there’s clearly something much worse happening in the building. Even before the supernatural horror properly begins, the customers are unsettling enough. Their strange, jerky movements certainly help, although I wouldn’t say they’re entirely inaccurate representations of people visiting a takeaway after a night out. The man who orders a single fish, meanwhile, might be the most disturbing character in the entire game.

One of the things I love most about Grease Trap ’99 is that it’s fully voice-acted in Scottish Gaelic. Players can choose English or Gaelic subtitles, but the spoken language is an important part of the game’s identity. I’m Welsh rather than Scottish, but seeing a minority language represented in a game like this makes me incredibly happy. It’s especially nice that the language is simply part of the experience. The game doesn’t make a big production out of its inclusion, and it doesn’t need to. Hearing Gaelic spoken in a fictional takeaway feels entirely natural, and it’s refreshing to play something so comfortable with its own cultural setting.

Source: James Muirhead

There’s a lot to appreciate about the atmosphere, too. Grease Trap ’99 uses low-poly visuals inspired by the PS1 and PS2, with harsh lighting that makes the takeaway feel increasingly uncomfortable as the shifts progress. The sound design is particularly impressive, largely because there’s so little of it. Long stretches of near silence make every strange noise feel significant, and the customers’ awkward movements become increasingly unnerving. There’s also the slightly alarming fact that the player appears to handle freshly fried food with their bare hands. I don’t know what health and safety regulations were like in Scottish chip shops in 1999, but I sincerely hope they were better than this.

Grease Trap ’99 Makes Following Instructions Feel Like a Terrible Idea

For a while, Grease Trap ’99 is content to let players get on with their work, although there’s a recurring wet gurgling noise that becomes increasingly difficult to ignore. One customer arrives breathing so heavily that I immediately regretted serving him, and the strange noises only get louder as the nights go on. Eventually, the game tells you to investigate. I didn’t want to investigate. I especially didn’t want to go into the basement, which is precisely where the game wanted me to go. Unfortunately, after spending so long obediently following instructions and preparing people’s dinners, I went downstairs anyway.

I think there’s something particularly clever about how Grease Trap ’99 handles this transition. Most of the game involves doing exactly what you’re told, and its simple point-and-click mechanics make following orders almost automatic. When the instructions suddenly involve exploring somewhere obviously dangerous, there’s a strange reluctance that comes from knowing you have to do it to progress. Without spoiling too much, the basement contains something that puts the game’s curry sauce preparation into an entirely different context. The story also has a wonderfully bleak sense of humor about the relationship between workers and their employers. By the time everything came together, I felt that the game had earned its absurdity.

Grease Trap ’99 Is a Reminder of What Small Horror Games Can Accomplish

Grease Trap ’99 is designed to be completed in under an hour, and I think that makes its achievements even more impressive. I have friends who make games, and I genuinely struggle to comprehend the amount of creativity and work involved in bringing one to life. There are so many different elements that have to come together, and it’s remarkable how much personality can fit into such a short experience. The food preparation is entertaining, the atmosphere is excellent, and the whole thing has a wonderfully specific sense of humor. I love games that manage to do so much with a relatively small idea.

More than anything, Grease Trap ’99 has reminded me how much I enjoy horror games that draw on familiar places and local experiences. Its setting is funny because it’s so ordinary, and the horror works because that ordinary world feels worth spending time in. I was genuinely enjoying making fish suppers before the game started asking me to investigate the increasingly horrible noises beneath the shop. The Scottish Gaelic voice acting gives it even more character, and I hope other developers feel encouraged to bring their own languages and communities into their work. There are so many interesting stories to be told in places that games rarely explore, and I’d happily spend more time in a Lovecraftian takeaway if the experience were anything like this one. Preferably one with nobody ordering one single fish.