Cramped is the most wonderfully claustrophobic FPS game I've ever played

If there's one genre of games that I tend not to play, it's FPS. It's just never been something that appeals to me, at least not since my teenage obsession with Halo 2. But sometimes a game is so monumentally intriguing that the FPS tag doesn’t immediately put me off, and Cramped is an FPS that fits the bill so beautifully and weirdly that it has embedded itself in my mind from the first moment I saw it. 

Cramped, which is currently under development by Kihuroi, is a first-person shooter with a difference that's so bizarre I can only describe it as fighting for your life while being stuck inside the mouth of Caine from The Amazing Digital Circus. Even that doesn't do it justice, because it's so much darker and more twisted than the show could ever hope to be, while also having a distinct level of charm that I cannot stop thinking about. 

From the beginning

I first saw Cramped as a single inside-the-mouth screenshot on X a few months ago, and I immediately knew it was a game I needed to play. As development progressed, I learned more, and completely went against my usual “going in blind” strategy for trying out games. I'm glad I broke the rule, though, because going into this blind might have resulted in one of the top 10 weirdest experiences of my gaming life. 

The premise of Cramped is that you, with only the small gap between the upper and lower jaws to see through, traverse a seemingly endless, bleak grey brutalist structure, taking out “pigs” en route. There is no HUD; the only indication that your health is dropping is the slow narrowing of the gap through which you see the world, and you regain health by eating the corpses of the pigs you kill. 

I once commented on one of the developer's X posts that Cramped seems like it would be “claustrophobic in a good way… but also in the worst way,” and I honestly think I nailed the vibe. Even with the jaws fully open, I found myself leaning closer to the screen as though it would grant me some kind of vision beyond the teeth, and once your health starts dropping, it feels like navigating a world that makes little sense through a coin slot. While being shot at and trying to aim a gun. 

That'll do, pig

If you hadn't already guessed, the “pigs” in Cramped are actually cops in pig masks. I have no idea why they're here inside the brutalist maze with us; maybe we did something horrible to end up here. I could picture this as some version of purgatory or hell, but they shoot first and ask absolutely no questions, which forces you to do the same. As someone who is historically terrible at reloading ahead of time, Cramped has taught me some valuable lessons. 

There are different types of pigs to be encountered as you traverse the bleak, grey monolith. Pink masks stay where they are, like static targets that fire back, while red ones chase you with a shotgun. It’s terrifying the first time you meet a red mask after growing accustomed to the pink ones. I got really good at taking well-aimed shots at the pink-masked pigs, yet ended up screaming as I ran in circles like a headless chicken, spraying bullets at random while my vision slowly narrowed during my first encounter with a red mask. 

Pink masks become commonplace, almost there just to provide food as long as you keep an eye out for them around corners. Red masks are terrifying, even though the only visible difference is the color. The sudden shift to 'oh my god why is this one chasing me?!' comes out of nowhere, throwing you outside the comfort zone the game has lovingly created and taking away any sense of control. 

Pretty in pink

No, I'm not describing the pink masked pigs as pretty, but there is something else delightfully pink and completely unexpected in Cramped: power-ups. 

Cramped is, in my opinion, incredibly good at making you think you know what you're doing, then suddenly changing the game entirely. I've described the red masked pigs above, but power-ups do the same thing in a dramatically different way. I've only discovered two in the demo so far; one from killing a pig in a rather delightful Hawaiian shirt, and the other from a pink gate toward the end. They don't make you invulnerable or stronger; they do something far more surprising: 

They remove your teeth and let you (kind of) fly. 

The normal pace of Cramped is slow, as it has to be with such obscured vision. You walk along, unable to run (shift actually seems to slow you down), slowly working your way from one pig encounter to the next. But the power-up removes the shackles and lets you experience speed for a short burst, and it feels absolutely incredible while it lasts. 

I don't know if the character has hair, but I could almost feel the wind blowing through it. Those moments feel like taking a deep breath after being stuck in an airtight space for a very long time, and it feels utterly glorious. 

Cramped doesn’t have a release date yet and is still relatively young in terms of development, but the demo is available as part of Steam Next Fest, and I cannot recommend this one enough, even if you’re not usually into FPS games.