After witnessing Buckshot Roulette (that's my coy, roundabout way of saying that I'm guilty of watching a streamer play it rather than buying it myself) I found myself very taken with the game's style, and went digging for more works by the same author. Unsorted Horror is a perfect companion, comprising five short anthology games with the same knack for grimy atmosphere, absurdly bleak sci-fi settings, love of finely-detailed machinery, and wicked sense of humour.
A few of these games follow a similar formula, but it's a good formula: you learn to perform a complex task with many moving parts and details. Great, now, do it with the threat of something horrible breathing down your neck. Don't screw up!
It's not that different from traditional survival horror, really. The core principle is the same: people tend to make mistakes when stressed, and mistakes create drama. And yet there's something about the extra-tactile interactivity that makes them feel special. I think walking around and just taking little actions in your environment is an important factor in feeling like a part of it, especially when your environment is only one or two rooms. It helps to reinforce even in first-person that you're a fragile fleshy human, twiddling dials and plugging in cables.
They're games of great attention to detail, and it's difficult to talk about those details without clinically laying each concept bare. I won't do you that disservice, but I do recommend trying them yourself.
