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Imscared (stylized as IMSCARED) is an independent horror game created by Italian developer Ivan Zanotti. To complete the game, players find themselves having to outwit “White Face” and “HER” — beings with the ability to manipulate the player’s computer, like creating files or even crashing the game.

On October 12, 2022, the game received a remake for its tenth anniversary, including new content and features such as higher resolution and frame-rate.

On October 17, 2024, the game was ported to Android. This port was based on the tenth anniversary remake, with changes to the out-of-game mechanics to take advantage of the medium and to comply with Google Play‘s guidelines.^{[citation needed]}

Imscared is a first-person game. The player must recognize various tricks such as false crashes^[4] and manipulate files that the game leaves on the player’s desktop under the guise of its antagonist to progress.^[5]

Details of the plot are left vague intentionally throughout the game. The game begins in a room with a hidden entrance in the corner; it leads to a basement containing a hallway of doors. Through one of the unlocked doors lies a chair and two bookshelves; the right bookshelf hides a key underneath. Upon getting this key, the player can use it on another door through which he or she will find a hallway with flesh-like walls and a heart at the end. Upon collecting the heart and going back to the room the player starts in, as directed by text on the screen with no apparent speaker, White Face (literally a floating white face) reveals itself and chases the player until he or she escapes.

Later in the game, HER attempts to hinder the player’s progress, similarly to White Face. HER has a face like White Face’s but more feminine and a featureless white body that floats above the ground. It is revealed at the end of HER’s section that she is a variation of White Face.

At the end of the game, the player reappears in a dark version of the first room, with White Face shifting between forms and threatening the player. A file called “heart.txt” is then created in the imscared folder on the player’s desktop – deleting it is required to defeat White Face and complete the game. After this, the entirety of the game world is then accessible.

Post-endgame, the player can encounter the Restorer, a jolly-looking young woman in a pantsuit, who introduces him or her to future plans for the game.

The game has received positive reviews from critics, praising its old-fashioned graphics and sound design, as well as its elements which appear as if outside the game, while criticizing the confusing plot.

The game’s 2012 and 2016 releases became a viral hit on various websites – especially YouTube – in large part due to the way the game messes with the player’s computer, setting a precedent for future games of a similar nature.^[6] Rock Paper Shotgun praised its retro graphics and its scares.^[7] In 2012, PC Gamer praised the 2012 release for the psychological horror and its “devious” out-of-game elements.^[8] In 2014, Polygon praised the 2012 release for its puzzles, and that it’s terrifying throughout.^[9] In 2022, IGN rated the game’s 2016 release one of the twelve best horror games for PC.^[10]

• Official website
• Sykes, Tom (17 November 2012). “Imscared, and so will you be after playing this indie horror masterpiece”. PC Gamer. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
• Sykes, Tom (30 January 2016). “Meta horror Imscared is now a full game”. PC Gamer. Retrieved 7 May 2022.