The Epic Games Store, after a fortnight of chaotic, high-speed titles, has slowed things down with its next free game. The Spectrum Retreat, a 2018 title by developer Dan Smith, will be free on the store on July 1, 2021. On a perfect playthrough, the game clocks in at around two hours of playtime on average, so it is much shorter than previous Epic offerings like Grand Theft Auto 5 or Control.

While it might be shorter than other Epic Games Store free titles, it is still an impressive exercise in short form sci-fi horror gaming. In The Spectrum Retreat, Players awaken in a gorgeous art-deco hotel room, greeted by an eerie, mannequin-esque robot concierge. Startling messages flash up on their phone, and other robot workers talk about "the elevator not feeling very well." The tone does not get any less unsettling throughout. Dan Smith, the game's developer, won the Young Game Developer BAFTA in 2016, and was nominated for a Writer's Guild of Great Britain award. It's not hard to see why: The Spectrum Retreat has some really interesting writing throughout.

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The Spectrum Retreat is yet another title making its Epic Games Store debut on the "Discover: Free Games" section of the storefront. Epic has certainly given gamers a selection of wildly different experiences for free over the past few years. The Spectrum Retreat is a puzzler of wonky time, space, and circumstance. In many ways, it's like a cross between a Twilight Zone episode and Portal, but still stands as a unique gaming experience in its own right. Players can expect shifting corridors, skipping time, and unique spins on traditional sci-fi tropes. It is the first free game from Epic in July 2021, and sets the stage for an exciting month for free titles on the Epic Games Store.

As any fan of The Shining will tell you: hotels can be terrifying. They are places of transition, travel, and use networks of hidden pathways and employees to create a certain experience for guests. For guests at The Spectrum Retreat, hotels are also complex, sprawling complexes of color-puzzles obscuring several sinister cybernetic secrets. The building is perfect to the point of uncanniness, with pristine floors and walls maintained by a staff of faceless automatons. From the get-go, The Spectrum Retreat lets players know that something is probably up.

With a fascinating story and set of design principles, The Spectrum Retreat stands as one of the best puzzle games in recent memory, and a great example of the kind of vision that independent games are able to achieve. It is also nice to see the work of a young game developer receiving deserved acclaim, and also seeing it move to even more platforms. According to his website, Dan Smith is currently working on a mysterious project, so grabbing The Spectrum Retreat while it is free is a good chance to see what this bright young creative voice in gaming might have in store.

Like the best horror games, The Spectrum Retreat imparts a fantastic balance of suspense and terror. In fact, the calmest moments of the title come at the beginning, before the depths of the game's horror truly unfurl. The player walks down to their breakfast, noticing an unnerving, long splatter across the floor near their table. When they sit down, the player character is greeted with a gorgeously realized plate of Eggs Benedict. This plate looks delicious, rivalling some of the best video game food, and is a nice oasis among the weirdness of the game's introduction.

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Of course, The Spectrum Retreat does not let the player have even this for very long. The nearby clock spins forward, time passes without the player doing anything, and the Eggs Benedict are gone, all while disturbing text messages flash across the protagonist's circular phone. After this moment of calm, the game quickly descends into the type of reality-bending puzzling popularized by games like Portal and Antichamber. The influence of the latter is very obvious, the use of strong primary colors as important puzzle pieces make the game pop with an electric dynamism.

Unlike some other horror games, which can end up relying on dark, muted color palettes as part of their horror aesthetics (for example Outlast and Phasmophobia), The Spectrum Retreat is full of color. In fact, this chaotic, throbbing set of primary colors can often rack up the intensity of the game as a puzzle-horror title, while also allowing for more muted, calmer moments. In the game's relatively short runtime, it plays with these colors in really interesting ways, making it a great example of a modern horror game that does not rely too much on tropes of the genre.

If customers log in to the Epic Games Store before The Spectrum Retreat becomes free, they can download two titles that evoke some absolute classic gaming. While The Spectrum Retreat innovates and surprises with its twisting of various gameplay tropes, Sonic Mania and Horizon Chase Turbo are perfect emulations of high speed, high chaos games of decades past. Sonic Mania is SEGA's entry back into 2D Sonic games after the mixed reception of the series' foray into 3D.

Horizon Chase Turbo is a new IP, but one that wonderfully captures the sense of older racing games like Top Gear on the SNES and Rush. The smooth voxel-style graphics and huge range of different racetracks expand on these influences massively. However, one very important core component carries over from these classics: the soundtrack. Legendary arcade racer composer Barry Leitch created the music for the game - making the nostalgia on display in this game next level. Sonic Mania and Horizon Chase Turbo leave the Epic Games Store on the 1st of July.

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