Broken Horror Anthology

What does brokenness look like when four separate horror games each have to define it themselves? Broken Horror Anthology answers with a Christmas workshop gone wrong, a deadly classroom, a father afraid of the dark, and a radio signal over roads that all look the same. The result is a collection where the tone changes completely from one game to the next, and that is exactly the point.

What Broken Horror Anthology Collects

Broken Horror Anthology bundles four horror games from four independent teams, all circling the theme of brokenness and malfunction. Each one has its own world, narrative, and mechanics, so you are not learning one system four times. The common threads are singleplayer play, heavy atmosphere, and a willingness to mix psychological dread with satire.

• holy… XMAS!: a Christmas elf inspects toys for defects until Krampus curses them.
• Artificial Selection Exam: a deadly exam in a dystopian world, taught by an AI.
• MATCHLIGHT: a single father with a crippling fear of the dark crosses corridors by match light.
• 99.9 FM: first-person wandering through looping spaces with only a radio signal to guide you.

A demo exists, which is the practical way to sample the mood before committing to the full set. Players who like anthologies tend to treat the collection like a playlist and jump to whichever tone fits the night.

Satire and parody tags sit right beside psychological horror on the store page. That tells you the mood is not uniformly grim.

Jobs Gone Wrong: holy… XMAS! and Artificial Selection Exam

In holy… XMAS! you play a Christmas elf who does Santa’s dirty work by inspecting toys for defects, which sounds like a calm checklist until Krampus appears. Once Krampus curses the toys, their appearance changes and some turn into sinister, extremely dangerous creatures, so spotting a defect stops being paperwork and becomes survival. The premise is a miserable seasonal job with a horror twist, and that is where the parody tag comes from.

Artificial Selection Exam shifts to a dystopian classroom where the exam is deadly and the teacher is an AI. You get a limited set of items, and the goal is to cheat, deceive the AI teacher, and survive. Stealth-minded players who enjoy beating a system rather than fighting it will find this the most natural fit in the collection.

Both games turn an everyday task into a threat. That suits the brokenness theme neatly.

MATCHLIGHT and 99.9 FM: Darkness and Looping Roads

MATCHLIGHT follows a single father who must save his son while battling a crippling fear of the dark. He explores ominous corridors by the light of matches, confronts his trauma, and tries not to lose his sanity to the shadows lurking in the depths. Slow-burn psychological horror fans will recognize the pressure of a light source you can never take for granted.

99.9 FM drops you into looping spaces where the job is finding the way out. The roads all look the same, and simply observing your surroundings is not enough, so the radio becomes your real navigation tool.

1. Pick up the radio.
2. Listen closely to the signal.
3. Decide which way to go.
4. Do not rely on looking around alone, because every road looks alike.

Walking-simulator fans should note that the Steam tags include exploration and story rich, so expect atmosphere over combat. The honest caveat is unevenness: a collection built by four teams will not land evenly, and your favorite will depend on whether you prefer comedy, claustrophobia, or loops.

Broken Horror Anthology Questions Answered

How many games are in Broken Horror Anthology?

There are four: holy… XMAS!, Artificial Selection Exam, MATCHLIGHT, and 99.9 FM. Each is a separate story with its own mechanics, so each one scares you in a different way.

Is there a demo for Broken Horror Anthology?

Yes, a demo exists on both Steam and itch.io. Its description mentions inspecting toys, cheating on an exam, and exploring the darkness, so expect a taste of the elf’s workshop, the deadly exam, and the match-lit corridors.

What does Krampus change in holy… XMAS!?

Krampus curses the toys you are inspecting and changes their appearance. Some of them become sinister, extremely dangerous creatures, which means defect inspection turns from routine work into a real threat.

Broken Horror Anthology works best when you treat it as four short, strange courses: the elf’s toy bench with Krampus lurking nearby, the exam room and its AI teacher, the match-lit corridors of MATCHLIGHT, and the radio static of 99.9 FM. Pick the one that matches your mood, and expect the others to feel nothing like it.