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About Vivariums
Vivariums is a puzzle horror game that pits Sudoku against psychological dread. Developer Amr Hassan released it on PC in December 2025, blending grid-based logic with a claustrophobic first-person perspective. You play as a researcher in a crumbling underground facility, solving Sudoku puzzles to unlock doors, disable traps, and avoid hostile creatures. The horror isn’t jump scares, it’s the slow realization your mistakes aren’t just numbers, but survival choices. It’s Sudoku as a weapon against existential terror.
Gameplay
You solve Sudoku puzzles in 3D grids that shift as you move through the facility. Each room requires completing a puzzle to progress, but wrong answers trigger hazards like collapsing floors or aggressive biomechanical creatures. Controls are mouse-and-keyboard precise, with a focus on quick thinking and backtracking. Puzzles escalate in complexity, often requiring you to revisit earlier rooms with new constraints. The horror is procedural: your stress level rises with failed attempts, altering enemy behavior and closing escape routes. It’s a slow-burn tension loop where logic and luck must balance.
What Players Think
PlayPile players rate Vivariums 4.2/5, with 72% completing the main story in 8-12 hours. Early reviews highlight its “unrelenting pressure” (user @PuzzlePhobia) and “depressing but fair design.” The game’s 30-hour average completion time reflects its punishing difficulty, only 43% finish 100% of puzzles. Community moods skew anxious (68% “tense”) and curious (29% “intrigued”), with 12% frustrated by the lack of checkpoints. Critics on Steam praise its originality, though some call the horror “more disorienting than scary.”
PlayPile's Take
Vivariums is a niche pick for puzzle fans who thrive under stress. At $29.99, it’s a short but intense experience, though its 158 achievements (including 37 hidden Sudoku variants) add replay value. The horror won’t appeal to casual players, but its cerebral design is sharp. Skip if you want atmosphere over mechanics, but if you’ve ever solved Sudoku during a panic attack, this is your jam.
Game Modes
Single player
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