There is nothing more disgusting than a person who commits child abuse. Even the hardest criminals, convicted of anything from murder to cannibalism, consider children off limits. So you might wonder why a horror game would choose child abuse as one of its prime themes. The game is Sad Satan.
Sad Satan was first discovered, or rather, brought to the public eye by Obscure Horror Corner, a YouTube account known for its “Let’s Plays” of obscure horror games. Not only does OHC play the games, they also accept recommendations. According to OHC, the game was sent to him by “ZK”, an anonymous user on The Deep Web.
The game reportedly got its name from the song “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin. The name, Sad Satan, is a reference to a segment of the song played backwards.
Today, you can still find the Obscure Horror Corner playthrough of Sad Satan, however according to them, their gameplay was heavily modified, as the original game contained child pornography and actual snuff. In fact, a link to the game was included with the video’s original description, however the link did not work. “I didn’t feel comfortable giving out a link for something like that.”
Perhaps one of the more interesting aspects of the game is that Sad Satan doesn’t actually qualify as a video game. What I mean by this, is that it is more or less a walking simulator with shock elements. The “gameplay” is simply walking through a labyrinth of hallways, encountering and entering through doorways.
During the course of the game, players will encounter odd pop-up photos depicting various things from images of serial killers, to child abuse, murder, rape, and more. While the actual “theme” of the game remains ambiguous, most believe the overall “experience” is to personify that of child abuse.
One image shown during gameplay is that of Rolf Harris in a Santa outfit with children. Harris was a celebrity sex offender.
Another image is of Tsutomu Miyazaki, famous for kidnapping, sexually assaulting, and murdering 4 little girls between 1988 and 1989.
Throughout the game players will encounter disturbing audio clips, warped sound-bytes, screaming voices, and even a background conversation of Jimmy Savile, a celebrity that got away with molesting close to 500 children, some as young as 2-years-old.
NPC’s, or non player characters, encountered during the game are all statue-esque children. In some versions of the game, as gameplay progresses, the children begin to pursue the player, eventually killing them.
After Sad Satan came into the public eye, someone claiming to be the game developer released a version of the game on 4chan, claiming it was a “full uncensored version”. Unfortunately, this version contained malware and malicious computer viruses, causing gamers to have their computers become unresponsive, or fail to boot afterward.
Now there are numerous versions of the game, and you can playthrough videos from YouTuber’s such as PewDiePie, JustAlexHalfordd, and Drop Rate
Some have gone on to speculate that Sad Satan was created by ZK, and that Obscure Horror Corner and ZK are one and the same. It is also assumed that one of the later versions of the game was created by Gary Graves, a man from Lubbock, Texas. Graves’ YouTube channel was traced back to his Reddit account, which was created just four days before the link was posted on 4chan. Interestingly, Graves was also later arrested on counts of possession of child pornography.
We have compiled some clips from some of the more disturbing parts of the game. You can see them here.
Was Sad Satan created to be a horror game, or merely something so disturbing that people couldn’t help but talk about it? Did it really come from the deep web, or was that made up to give the game a more “mysterious” feel?
Note to readers: If you purchase anything through one of our affiliate links, we may earn a commission.