I cannot recommend Don't Knock Twice as anything other than a cheap thrill to lose an hour and a half to, and even for that it is woefully overpriced, discount and all. Not only is this game too short for the price tag, it is over three years old at the time of writing and offers very little by way of scares, polish and rhetorical merit.

You play as Jessica, a mother exploring her classically convoluted two-storey house (not including the basement and balcony) in search of her estranged daughter Chloe, haunted all the while by a malicious entity. It's your classic horror set-up, and there's nothing wrong with that!

The problem, again, stems from expectations that accompany the price tag - quality polish, visual fidelity, serviceable story and fun mechanics. Don't Knock Twice excels on visuals and nothing else.


I had to spend around five minutes adjusting brightness and gamma since my eyes started hurting from straining to see anything (this is not an issue in other games).


Movement is okay, no problem. You have walking and running. Interacting with objects was a chore half the time due to clunky controls and a half-assed inventory system. Sometimes you find a clue only to realize it in retrospect, and because the game allows you to make a mess out of physics-based objects in the 3D space, 90% of which are of no consequence to the game in any way, shape or form, you can find yourself fumbling around for that one note that has the answer to the riddle that you accidentally threw under the table.


Sound cues provide nice ambiance (when they don't cut in and out and you realize whoever worked on it didn't use fade-in or fade-out, didn't remove static noises from short soundbites, etc...) but are often void of purpose beyond "oh random spooky noise!" At one point I was wondering why I kept hearing a camera filter opening and closing.


The story is just fine. It's a redemptive arc that leaves no open questions and allows for metaphorical interpretations - the ending especially. Depending on player choice you can unlock two endings. However, there is no tie-in between the method of acquiring the ending and a narrative justification. You'd have to realize what you did wrong on your first try and base your second try on that. A better game would have made you think about that decision prior, incentivizing creativity and a deeper thought process.


Horror elements are nothing to write home about, yet neither are they godawful. The atmosphere is okay, jumpscares are few and far between, bolstering the ones that manage to get you. I think the game commits one of the cardinal horror sins - revealing the monster in its full glory midway into the story. Half of horror is fear of the unknown, and a huge part of that is speculating on the monster's appearance. I will give the game this - the monster might act as an internal representation of the mother, and that's artsy ♥♥♥♥.


Don't Knock Twice is a game I wouldn't play had I known just how overrated it was. Again, I'm not saying it's awful. It's just fine if what you seek out of it is a nice time killer. But let's be honest, there are cheaper ways to have fun.