I usually choose a game to play and take a small amount of time out of my day to play it. Sometimes the game seems to be spooky on the outside but when you play it, it ends up just being just not that spooky. This week is Please Don’t Litter, a game about how humans have generated so much trash that it travels from a different dimension.

Please Don’t Litter is a first-person spooky game from KenForest. It was released earlier this month, for Ludum Dare 51, on the PC through Itch.io and is “pay what you want.”

A city used to be here until humans amassed so much trash that they abandoned the city and hired garbage collectors to clean up the infinitely collecting garbage piles. The garbage spawns every ten seconds and just appears out of thin air. After some time you are visited by a stranger that informs you that there is a way to escape your fate but it requires sneaking past “the guards.” A harrowing tale about taking a train to escape your new job.

There really isn’t anything complicated. WASD are directional keys, the mouse picks up the trash and throws it, and somewhere there is a sprint and crouch button. Learning how to sort your recyclables is important because there is a section of sorting is needed.

PDL has a really nice PS1 style. The game is dark and gritty and there is a huge timer that looms over you as you pick up trash for the rest of your life. The atmosphere is really good. There is an eerie tone that plays and eventually, the rickety train breaks the silence as it barrels through the evacuated city.

Please Don’t Litter, after 20 minutes of gameplay, is not really that much of a horror game. The atmosphere really hits the department but there really isn’t anything else making it a spooky game. It overall was fun because it was made in 72 hours. The picking up of trash is kinda wonky, there is a woman that harbors a goose somewhere in the game and then you take the train and escape your fate. PDL is a game that encapsulates the Spooky Short Story but I wish it was just a little spookier.