There are few things more unsettling than hearing something moving around inside your walls when you know perfectly well you are supposed to be alone. A little scratching here, a faint scurrying there, perhaps the occasional noise from somewhere above your head. You tell yourself it is probably nothing. Then you hear it again, only this time it sounds much closer. I Hear Them takes that wonderfully simple horror premise and turns it into something considerably stranger, blending creepy house exploration, rat catching, supernatural mystery and one of the most entertaining feline sidekicks I have encountered in an indie horror game.
Set in early 2008, I Hear Them begins with what sounds like a fairly mundane domestic nightmare. Your new home has rats, and lots of them. Fortunately, you have Lola, your cat, by your side, and she is considerably more useful than your average household pet. In fact, Lola becomes your primary weapon against the infestation, transforming what could have been a straightforward pest-control simulator into an increasingly bizarre first-person horror adventure.
Developed by Strange Presence and published alongside Sometimes You, this is a short game that understands the value of not overstaying its welcome. It gets you into the house, establishes its central mechanic, starts making you question what is actually happening, and then steadily pulls the rug out from underneath you. It may not have the production values of a major horror release, but it has something arguably more important: personality.
Welcome Home, Sort Of
The house itself initially feels familiar enough. You move through its rooms, investigate your surroundings and listen carefully for the telltale noises coming from behind the walls and above the ceiling. That sound design does a tremendous amount of work because I Hear Them understands that sometimes what you cannot see is considerably more frightening than what you can.
The scratching and scurrying become a constant part of the experience. You might enter a room expecting nothing more than another ordinary domestic space, only for the audio to immediately put you on edge. There is a wonderfully uncomfortable feeling to knowing that something is moving nearby without being able to see exactly where. It is an old horror trick, certainly, but it works particularly well here.
The house itself is not especially remarkable from a visual standpoint. Some of the environments can feel fairly generic, and there are moments when you are clearly looking at the kind of domestic setting we have seen in countless other indie horror games. That does take away some of the potential impact, particularly when the game starts introducing stranger ideas. Yet the atmosphere created through lighting, sound and pacing does a good job of compensating for the relatively ordinary surroundings. More importantly, the house gradually stops feeling like a home and starts feeling like somewhere you really should not be.
Lola Steals the Show
The real star of I Hear Them is Lola. The idea of using your cat to catch rats could have been played purely for laughs, but the developers have turned it into the game’s defining mechanic without completely undermining the horror. Lola can be used almost like a living shotgun, launched towards the rats scurrying around your home. It is ridiculous, adorable and surprisingly satisfying.
There is something inherently funny about the contrast between the game’s increasingly disturbing supernatural storyline and the sight of a cat being deployed as your primary rat-removal solution. It gives I Hear Them a personality that many small horror games simply do not have. Rather than taking itself relentlessly seriously, it is happy to embrace the absurdity of its premise.
Lola’s animations are another highlight. There is genuine charm in watching her move around the house, and the audio recordings are particularly effective. The developers reportedly used recordings of their own cat, and that authenticity comes through. Those little feline noises give Lola a warmth that helps make her feel like a companion rather than simply a gameplay mechanic.
That relationship also gives the game some much-needed emotional grounding. Without Lola, you would simply be another anonymous character wandering around a creepy house. With her, the experience feels considerably more personal.
Catching Rats and Finding Trouble
At first, the gameplay loop is wonderfully straightforward. Explore the house, listen for rats, locate them, and send Lola into action. It is simple enough to grasp almost immediately, but the game cleverly refuses to let that remain the entire experience.
As you progress, the reason behind the infestation becomes increasingly important. The rats are not simply unfortunate creatures that have somehow found their way into your new home. There is something decidedly strange about their behaviour, particularly their gatherings, and the more you discover, the more the game moves away from pest control and towards supernatural horror.
That escalation is one of the game’s biggest strengths. Rather than throwing everything at you from the beginning, I Hear Them allows the situation to develop. The familiar gradually becomes unfamiliar. The rats stop being an inconvenience and start to become part of a much larger mystery. It is not necessarily the most elaborate horror narrative you will encounter, but the unpredictable turns help maintain interest throughout its relatively short runtime.
There are also collectibles to discover, including toys scattered around the house. These give you an additional reason to poke around rather than simply rushing towards the next objective. Exploration feels rewarding without becoming exhausting, which suits the game’s deliberately accessible design.
When the House Starts Talking Back
Sound is arguably the secret weapon of I Hear Them. The title itself tells you exactly what the game wants you to focus on. You hear them before you understand them, and that distinction is important. The noises in the walls become part of the storytelling, creating tension before the game necessarily shows you anything.
Good horror does not always need monsters jumping out of cupboards. Sometimes a strange noise at exactly the right moment is enough. I Hear Them makes particularly effective use of this approach, allowing the audio to create a sense that your surroundings are alive in ways they should not be.
The contrast between ordinary household noises and increasingly unnatural sounds is especially effective. A scratching noise behind a wall is perfectly believable if you assume there are rats. The same noise becomes considerably more sinister once you realise the rats may not be the real problem. It is this gradual shift in perception that makes the atmosphere work.
A Strange Story with a Few Rough Edges
The supernatural storyline offers some entertaining twists, though this is also where I Hear Them occasionally stumbles. There are moments when you may find yourself wanting more explanation. The protagonist is not particularly well developed, and the game does not always provide enough background information to make every revelation land as heavily as it perhaps should. Some of the story developments are deliberately strange, but there is a fine line between mysterious and confusing.
The final stages, in particular, may divide players. Some of the narrative’s decisions are certainly bold, and I appreciate a horror game that is willing to take a few risks rather than simply following the safest possible route. At the same time, not every twist feels completely earned, and I suspect some players will finish the game wishing they had been given a little more context.
Personally, I think the story’s unusual nature works in its favour more often than not. I Hear Them is at its best when it embraces the bizarre. Trying to explain every strange event would probably have taken away some of its charm. However, a little more character development and world-building would have helped give the later revelations greater emotional weight.
Short, Sweet and Surprisingly Memorable
One of the game’s biggest advantages is its length. There is no unnecessary padding. I Hear Them introduces its central idea, gives you enough time to become comfortable with the gameplay, steadily ramps up the weirdness, and then brings the story to a conclusion before the concept has worn thin.
That makes it particularly easy to recommend to horror fans who enjoy shorter experiences. You can sit down, play through it in a relatively small number of sessions, and come away with an adventure that feels distinct from the countless generic haunted-house games currently available.
It is also accessible enough for players who do not normally gravitate towards horror to find their feet. The rat-catching mechanic is easy to understand, the objectives are generally straightforward, and the game does not bury its ideas beneath layers of complicated systems. What you get instead is a compact horror adventure built around one very good idea.
Final Verdict
I Hear Them is one of those games that sounds completely ridiculous when you explain it to someone else. “You move into a house infested with rats and use your cat like a shotgun to kill them, while uncovering a supernatural mystery.” And yet, somehow, it works.
The game combines an inventive central mechanic with atmospheric sound design, charming cat animations and a story that grows increasingly strange as it progresses. Lola is an absolute delight, and the authentic cat sounds add a surprising amount of character to the experience. The rats themselves become far more interesting than simple enemies, while the noises coming from inside the walls provide a constant reminder that something is not quite right.
There are certainly limitations. The house environments can feel generic, the protagonist receives very little characterisation, and some of the narrative developments could have benefited from additional explanation. The short runtime will also leave some players wanting more, particularly once the supernatural elements really begin to take hold.
Even so, there is something wonderfully refreshing about I Hear Them. It does not need to be enormous, technically spectacular or packed with dozens of mechanics. It takes one central idea and has fun with it. More importantly, it manages to create an atmosphere that sticks with you, particularly when you start wondering whether that scratching sound coming from your own wall is actually coming from the game at all. And really, any horror game that makes me appreciate a cat quite this much deserves some credit.
