Review: Finnish Cottage 8 may sound like a vacation stay, but you definitely don’t want to stay the night

Finnish Cottage 8 is another in the line of “spot the difference” type games that have been popular in the horror genre for the last few years. The premise is that you’re given a baseline environment and from there, you have to investigate every inch of that atmosphere. If you find something out of place, you go one way, and if you don’t find anything wrong, you go another.

Normally, you turn back immediately if there is an anomaly, but in Finnish Cottage 8, you have to go through the cottage and exit through the sauna door. Going through the front door means that there’s nothing wrong. 

Finnish Cottage 8: Can you finish?

The story surrounding Finnish Cottage 8 isn’t really important other than setting the environment. You’re someone who has stumbled upon a cottage in a forest that is cordoned off. Going into the cottage, someone speaks to you over the radio basically telling you that you done goofed.

This cottage is under the jurisdiction of the Finnish government and the man meant to be experimenting here is missing. The cottage seemed sentient as these things tend to be, so there’s no way to extract you other than completing eight successful rotations.

Vibe-wise, I feel like Finnish Cottage 8 sits somewhere between Exit 8 and The Cabin Factory, both of which we’ve reviewed. Exit 8 is low on the index for creep factor while The Cabin Factory breaks the glass ceiling because things will straight up chase you. Not cool, man. Not cool.

Finish Cottage 8 is mostly stationary differences and spooky movement. There are several creepy anomalies and some of them even move, but so far, I haven’t noticed anything chasing me. Then again, I don’t give them much chance.

The one time I thought I was being big brave, I died. Classic horror movie misstep.

The thing that killed me seemed like it might chase me, but when I was offered a code, the developer (who had read my chasing issues with The Cabin Factory) assured me nothing chases you. So, I have to trust that’s true.

I died from something sitting in the rocking chair. The longer you stared at it, the faster it rocked giving the illusion that it was going to fly out of the chair and at me. Being the brilliant idiot that I am, I walked right up to it. 

Don’t touch the anomalies. Keep all arms and legs inside of the ride.

There are 36 anomalies to experience and I’d say that about 25 of them are easy to spot, but the others will break your brain. I can’t tell you how many times I thought a particular level was clean and there was something out of place.

While you will see full apparitions of things, some of the anomalies that I noticed were subtle, especially the ones that are outside of the window. Curiously, I think it’s only one window. I don’t think I ever noticed anything out of the windows except for the one by the door. Check them anyway because that’s probably just my eyes being dumb.

Go into it expecting anything can change and while you don’t really have to worry about your heart with Finnish Cottage 8, there were some scary anomalies. Several creeped me out like something crawling on the ceiling or a mannequin in the back. But, the two that literally jumpscared me was a sheet ghost (I wish I was kidding) floating out from the back, through the wall, and around the cottage moaning. The other was a hatchet being swung through the front door behind you.

There’s one anomaly that I wanted to check out, but knew would lead to death. That anomaly will turn your front door into a hallway. I wonder if it just treats it like you said nothing was wrong when there clearly is, or if you die and restart.

Overall, I got about 75 minutes of gameplay. Most people can likely do it a lot faster than that. I actually started the game feeling pretty cocky. On my first go-around, I got to the 7th level. Honestly, I was sure that I’d end up reporting that it was just too easy. 

I was humbled fast. I just got a good streak of VERY obvious issues and my luck ran out right at the end.

All in all, Finnish Cottage 8 is a fun game to play with. I didn’t see any major issues beyond maybe some annoyance with the radio. It’s constantly on and since it’s in Finnish, I’m not sure if it’s a news report or something else. Either way, it’s never off. I was able to kind of zone it out, so it’s not a major con. Normally, I’d say you could just mute the game, but some of the anomalies are sound-based, so don’t do that.

If you want to give Finnish Cottage 8 a try, you can find it over on Steam for $5.99. If horror games aren’t your thing, but you still want something spooky-inspired, then check out our review of PRIM. It’s a point-and-click adventure featuring the daughter of the Grim Reaper.