The Night of the Scissors is a short indie Retraux Horror video game by Selewi (Tomás Esconjaureguy). The game has VHS/PS1 era inspired graphics, fixed third-person camera angles, and Tank Controls. It was released on Steam and Itch.io on May 13th, 2022. A playthrough should take about 30 minutes or so.
Adam and Kevin are looters who are breaking into an abandoned post office in search of scrap they can sell for weed money. Unbeknownst to them, the post office is the hideout of a local serial killer, the Snipper, who wields a pair of scissors as his weapon. When Adam finds himself locked inside, he has to find a way to escape while evading the Snipper.
The Night of the Scissors contains examples of:
- Bittersweet Ending: Adam manages to evade the Snipper and escape from the post office, but at the exit a body hanging from a noose is waiting for him, presumably that of Kevin. Also, the cops are outside waiting for him. At best he'll be arrested for trespassing, at worse they'll try to pin Kevin's death on him or even try to frame him as the Snipper to clear up their case log.
- Brown Bag Mask: The Snipper wears a brown paper bag on his head for a mask.
- The Croc Is Ticking: The Snipper reflexively snips his scissors when walking around, letting you know when he's nearby.
- Non-Action Guy: Adam's a skinny stoner and in no shape to win a physical confrontation, even though the killer is just a regular guy armed with an ordinary pair of scissors, so his only option is to run away and hide whenever the Snipper appears.
- Offscreen Teleportation: The Snipper doesn't roam the area all the time, instead every once in a while he'll pop out of a vent somewhere in the building, roam in the direction of your current location, and (if you manage to evade him by hiding in a closet, locker, etc.) eventually leaving via another vent.
- Retraux: The game controls like an old-school Survival Horror game, has VHS and CRT noise effects, and uses throwback graphics.
- Sequence Breaking: The combination to the safe in the customer support office is always the same, so once you know what it is you can open the safe at the very beginning of the game. This gets you to the key that unlocks the door to the key item you need to open the escape exit. However, this only saves you a few minutes of backtracking, as you still need to play through the game normally to reach said door.
- Serial Killer: The Snipper has killed 4 people and is still on the loose. By sheer bad luck, the building Adam and Kevin break into turns out to be his lair.
- Shear Menace: The Snipper attacks by stabbing with a pair of scissors. In the basement he's also set up a maze of scissors hanging by string from the ceiling which will make noise and summon him if you bump into one.
- The Stoner: Adam and Kevin certainly look the part, and are apparently looting the post office to make money to buy weed.
- Wax Museum Morgue: Played with in that the Snipper constructs cardboard statues of his victims which he places around his lair to serve as his "friends". However, it seems likely the Snipper chops up the actual bodies, given the amount of gory body parts he has laying around.
