OZARK, a 2.5D action horror game from three-person indie team ALTER-BOY, is a little jank, but its combat, mood and co-op had CMoney wanting more.
The OZARK team provided a copy of the game for this piece.
Verdict Worth a Look
OZARK is the kind of game that tells on itself in the first ten minutes. You can see the seams. Some animations don’t quite land, some moments could use a little more polish, and the checkpoints will test your patience. And none of that stopped me from wanting to keep going. That’s the whole story of my time with it: a little jank, a lot of fun, and I want more.
Watch the RAW IMPRESSIONS
OZARK RAW IMPRESSIONS: A Little Jank, But I Want MoreIt's a fun game, a little jank. I want to keep playing.
CMoney, OnPoint 4 Gamers
What OZARK is
OZARK is a 2.5D action horror game from ALTER-BOY, a three-person indie team that spent more than six years on it. It shadow-dropped on Steam on October 1 during Insider Gaming’s 28 Games Later horror showcase. You crash-land in the mountains of Northern Canada, head into a facility where your partner’s signal went dead, and a rescue mission slowly turns into a fight for your life against some very ugly human experiments.
The hook for me was the camera. At first glance it looks like a side-scroller, and it mostly plays like one, but you can also move in and out of the scene, back and forth between layers. It’s hard to explain until you’re holding the controller. Once you are, it clicks.
No fat on this game
One of the big things the team has said about OZARK is that it isn’t trying to eat your life. Steam lists it at about 3 to 6 hours, and it plays like it knows that. It moves you from one point to the next and lets you enjoy the ride. In a year packed with giant games, I respect a game that just wants to give you a good night or two and get out of the way.
It also brings back something I miss: real co-op. You can play solo, which is how I played it, or with a second player on the couch, and online through Steam Remote Play Together, where only the host needs to own the game. Not every game is shooting for the moon on graphics anymore, and that leaves room for teams like this to make something that looks good and still puts two players side by side.
It looks and sounds better than it has any right to
This is an indie team on a limited budget, and you can tell they aren’t going crazy. But they’re doing a lot with what they have. The cutscenes keep moving the camera to new angles to give you that cinematic feel, and the voice acting is genuinely solid. The game looks crisp, the use of color is great, and the running animation and slide feel really good. They nailed the mood.
I love the little touches too. To get into your inventory, your character actually drops their bag. You’ve got a monocular you raise to zoom the camera out, and you need it, because without it I would never have seen the guy who came out of nowhere and almost destroyed me.
The best defense is offense
I started out playing slow and careful, honestly out of a little fear. That was a mistake. Once I switched to full Rambo mode with the shotgun, the game opened up. You see somebody, you shoot them. You can also creep up behind enemies and take them out quietly, and that feels great too, but OZARK rewards aggression more than I expected.
It took me a while to figure out the weapons. The pistol didn’t feel that effective to me at first, and the shotgun only feels right up close. Then it clicked: the shotgun is for the creatures that rush you, and the pistol is for the people shooting back. Once I understood that, fights got a lot cleaner, and a lot bloodier. By the midpoint of my session the floor was covered in bodies.
One tip from me to you: grenades aren’t a one-button deal. You have to aim where you want to throw. I learned that by blowing myself up.
The checkpoint problem
This is my biggest knock. I cleared a whole room, survived, and the checkpoint was nowhere close. If I died there, it was taking me all the way back to the truck. That’s the spot where a checkpoint should be. Since the game is short, I get the feeling it’s a way to stretch some sections out. It is what it is, and the game is fun enough that replaying a stretch never felt like a chore. But a fair checkpoint after a big fight would go a long way.
Big Shadow Complex energy
Here’s the vibe check. Moving through this facility, climbing, finding the next way forward, it gave me real Shadow Complex energy. And for the old heads, think Hunter: The Reckoning if it were this kind of game, with a crew of friends in there with you. That’s where I think OZARK will really shine. Playing solo was fun, but I could already hear the yelling and laughing two people would be doing at how crazy these enemies get.
A puzzle that trusts you
I also like that OZARK doesn’t hold your hand. There aren’t markers everywhere telling you exactly what to do. It feels like the team believes you can put two and two together. It’s less about hiding secrets and more like the game saying, everything you need is somewhere on this map, go find it. Sometimes they tuck it in a tricky spot, and that’s half the fun. Figuring out the power systems and getting the explosives I needed made me feel smart, and with a friend, that back and forth would be even better. Oh, and I found out the hard way that you can hurt each other, so watch your aim, co-op crews.
This boss wanted me dead
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My session closed out with a boss fight that got my heart going. It’s a big walking machine, it comes hard, and I spent a good stretch yelling at my screen. It reminded me of the old Ninja Turtles games on Nintendo, where you never knew how close the boss was to going down until it started blinking red. I got it done, and it was a great way to cap off the session.
Verdict: Worth a Look
OZARK isn’t perfect. It’s a little jank, the checkpoints need work, and you can feel the limited budget in spots. But it feels good to play, it looks great for what it is, the shooting is satisfying, and it respects your time. The best sign I can give you is the simplest one: when I stopped, I wanted to keep playing.
It’s out now on PC through Steam. It isn’t on console yet, but I’ve got to imagine it’ll make the jump at some point. It’s that good, and I’d love to see it on Xbox. Shout out to the OZARK team for sending it over. If you’ve got a friend and a free weekend, go check it out.
What's working
- 2.5D side-scrolling with real movement in and out of the scene
- Cinematic cutscenes and solid voice acting for a small indie team
- Great running and slide animations, and a mood they really nailed
- Aggressive, satisfying combat once the weapon roles click
- Puzzles that trust you instead of covering the screen in markers
- A short, tight runtime with couch and Remote Play co-op
What needs work
- Some jank in animations and moments
- Checkpoints can be far apart after big fights
- The pistol and shotgun take time to feel right
Platform played: PC (Steam)
Screenshots captured by OnPoint 4 Gamers from gameplay. Featured image: OnPoint 4 Gamers, built on an official OZARK screenshot (ALTER-BOY).
Sources
- Steam store page (developer, publisher, Oct 1 2026 release, solo and couch co-op, Remote Play Together, 3 to 6 hours)
- DualShockers (three-person team, six-plus years in development, shadow drop during 28 Games Later)
- Insider Gaming devlog (dynamic split-screen, Z-axis movement, only the host needs to own it)
- CMoney's OZARK RAW IMPRESSIONS video, Oct 15 2026
- Frank's We Doin' It LIVE session, Oct 8 2026 (opinions, gameplay details)
