Occlude

Occlude (2025) is a horror card game that resembles Solitaire but treats each match as a ritual that alters the game's rules. Play begins as ordinary Solitaire but quickly turns tense and uncanny, making you question each move as the familiar rules become unreliable. It stands out for how it disguises itself as a simple game of Solitaire, slowly revealing that each match hides fragments of a larger horror story you have to piece together.

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Starting with an ace and a king, you build toward a shifting target card; all cards are face-up, so it's more about careful planning than luck. Play feels familiar until you notice the four coins that react to your every move. In the first ritual, The Magician, as you pick up a card, the coin shifts to quietly teach you what you need to play last. But soon the logic collapses: coins move unpredictably, patterns contradict themselves, and clarity slips away. What begins as a simple puzzle becomes a ritual of superstition, where uncovering each hidden rule is the real mystery.

As you progress, Rituals grow harder to master and rules twist against you; each victory drags you deeper into the Archives’ maddening secrets. There are no tutorials, so advancement comes from experimenting, recognising patterns, and learning from failed runs. Audio cues shift as you near solutions, until you finally master a Ritual and peel back another layer of the narrative.

The result is a compact, eerie puzzle game that blends precise card play with a reality-bending story. Each Ritual demands attention, pattern recognition and repeated retries, making each success a well-earned reward.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Occlude 5 weeks ago. It was re-examined by Thom Robertson and updated 4 days ago.