Review: The Cabin Factory Is a More Story-Driven Take on The Exit 8 Formula

Since the success of The Exit 8, the walking simulator where you need to pick out anomalies in an underground subway station and proceed or turn back in order to eventually succeed, there have been a number of similar games capitalizing on the idea. Want to escape? You can’t! Spot the differences, or you’ll die! The Cabin Factory, a horror game from International Cat Studios and Future Friends Games, follows the same general idea and anomaly-spotting gameplay as The Exit 8, but adds more of a story to the experience to make it more captivating.

You’re a Cabin Inspector at a place called The Cabin Factory. The company makes identical cabins for various amusement purposes, and you were hired after some incidents suggesting some of the buildings are haunted. Each location arrives via conveyor belt completely assembled and filled with props. Your goal is to go through each cabin and see if anything is out of place, moving, or just plain weird. (The kid in the second floor bedroom with a blanket over their head is always there, so don’t freak out about that.) If something is wrong, the place is haunted. You need to get out ASAP, then click the danger button on your console. If it’s fine, hit clear. This happens eight times. 

In theory, the examination is fairly simple. The Cabin Factory is a walking simulator horror game, which means you aren’t really interacting with anything like in The Exit 8. You check out the cabin’s entryway, the main space with the woman’s portrait, dresser, and bed, the kitchen area, and the upstairs bedroom. Depending on circumstances, you might get a chance to explore other areas. When you’re satisfied, you can exit. Or maybe not. It depends on the anomaly.

Which is something I really liked in The Cabin Factory, because this is a horror walking simulator that isn’t just about spotting differences. There’s an actual story around it involving the situations you’re experiencing. I felt it really added to the atmosphere and exploration elements, as it helped make everything more immersive. You get an idea of what’s going on, and I felt it helped make me more intimidated and afraid of certain situations. Though also, as an aside, there is an option to toggle jump scares on and off, which is appreciated. The fact that sometimes you just have to give up control and go with it, since International Cat Studios is telling a tale, is pretty great.

However, there are two things that kept me from immediately going, “Okay, The Cabin Factory is great, it’s my new favorite horror walking simulator, and I don’t need any more The Exit 8 style games.” The first is that I did encounter some anomalies that didn’t really seem fair. I’m not going to actually spoil them, since it is out today and you might be heading to work checking for hauntings yourself. But in one case, I could tell there was an anomaly present immediately. I turned around ASAP, dashing mind you, and went to open the door to leave. As I was starting to step through and escape, something got me and I needed to start over. It struck me as unfair, since I did everything right, and I didn’t deserve to have that run end. This ended up coming up a second time with another anomaly during my “shift,” so I know it wasn’t a bug.

The other issue is that unlike Kotake Create games like The Exit 8, International Cat Studios can make it pretty difficult to catch some The Cabin Factory anomalies. I ended up adjusting the brightness in the settings, which ruined the atmosphere a bit, since that helped with picking out some. But perhaps because these are multiple room spaces with nooks and crannies, it is much more challenging to find an “issue” sometimes. Especially if the “movement” you’re supposed to be seeing isn’t obvious. If it came up around the second or third house, it was no big deal. But once I got closer to being done, it really frustrated me. 

I appreciate how The Cabin Factory builds upon this new walking simulator area of the horror game genre established by The Exit 8, as it does really make picking out anomalies feel critical and helpful in understanding what’s happening. The implementation of some story elements adds insights that might even make it more scary for some people. However, I do think maybe it needs a patch or two with some balancing or adjustments to make sure there aren’t situations that might feel unwinnable. But if you do like these types of horror experience, it’s a fun one.

Cabin Factory is available on PCs via Steam.