Game Review: Security Booth: Director’s Cut (Xbox Series X)

From developer Kyle Horwood, Security Booth: Director’s Cut is a psychological horror game that takes a fairly mundane idea and turns it into something thrilling, terrifying, and with loads of replay value.

Utilising retro PS1-style visuals and sounds, the game puts the player in the shoes of a new security guard hired to control entry into the Nova Nexus building, a mysterious corporation. It’s simple enough. A car drives up to your booth, and you must decide if they can go in or not. Speak to them, check their number plate against the register, and if everything looks good, open up the gate.

You need to be careful though as not everyone who wants to get inside works for Nova Nexus and some even have sinister plans, should you make a mistake.

Though that pales in comparison to the sinister goings-on inside, where dangerous experiments are changing the world as we know it. Across seven different endings, and unlockable bonus ‘tapes’, a larger story will be revealed, and it’s deeper and more interesting than the initial premise suggests it will be.

There’s not a lot to gameplay, and to some degree, Security Booth: Director’s Cut is more of a walking simulator than a game, but it does deliver on what it promises. As things unfold, and creepy events begin to occur, the mundane aspects transform into something more. Suddenly, there’s a feeling like you’re being watched all the time and if you tried to leave, you wouldn’t be able to.

That is what Security Booth: Director’s Cut nails. Tension, and it stays throughout thanks to its short length. Any longer, and its flaws would be more notable, with one ending (the true ending – so to speak) highlighting some of those issues with a really uninteresting ‘dungeon’ section that involves you pulling four levers.

It’s forgivable though, as to even get this ending, you will have had to play it through a couple of times already and will then have likely gotten to grips with gameplay, making things a little faster.

It’s a simple experience done well. Creepy, tense, and interesting. Well worth a play.