Shingarde’s Review: Ratshaker – a Guide to a Strange Indie Comedy Horror Game

Talk about an unusual way to Start.

Ratshaker is a Psychological Horror Comedy game that leans heavily into its “Comedy” elements. Sunscorched Studios deserves credit for this approach.

After all, it ventures into fairly absurdist territory, and one could argue the premise alone either makes or breaks the game right away.

They’ll either dive in because its that strange or move on, bewildered and valuing their time.

Luckily, Ratshaker is short. – and if you’ve got less than an hour to give it a shot, it’s worth the effort of violently manhandling a rodent for the span of the game.

[Content Warning As Mildly Disturbing Imagery is Contained Within Game.]

The Game opens with a short little stint about the “Ratshaker” Product. – and has us seemingly wake up in a gigantic open field of tall golden wheat:

We grip a rat in one hand and a worn VHS box in the other, gazing at it quietly.

So it begins.

I’ll guide you step by step through the Steam Achievements and, in my opinion, the best way to get them.

Along the way, I’ll share my thoughts on the design choices behind the game.

Ratshaker – the game about Shaking Rats.

So yeah, there’s the kicker. Ratshaker is a game about Rats – Let me Explain.

The game’s primary mechanics are simple but unique. Before moving with WASD, you’ll use the mouse to whip your rodent companion around violently.

Canonically, the Rat doesn’t have a name. As our guide and possible guilty conscience, let’s call him Jiminy—or Jim.

Jim serves more than a mechanical role. He shares snippets of the story (yes, there’s a story) and provides snarky, unhelpful hints as you mistreat him.

except when choking him, which we’ll cover shortly.

The first achievements are easy to grab by shaking Jim to fill the bar. You’ll need to fill it three times to progress.

Simple, Right? Hopefully you don’t wear your wrist out as badly as I did.

It doesn’t matter how much you Shake Me, You’ll never Undo what’s been Done.

Jim the Rat

By the Time that You’d Shaken him enough to get the Achievements, you’d have noticed in the background that Buildings have been Appearing.

Shake Ol’ Jim enough, and a Barn, Windmill, and House appear.

Discovering Your Second Ability

Unlocking your second ability with in Ratshaker; you learn to Choke Jim.

Hopefully no Real Rats were harmed in the Making of this Video Game. – but if you’ve ever had the Visceral Desire to Squeeze a small rodent until it turns purple. – the game lets you do that.

It’s one of your main ways of interacting with the game; Shake the Rat to build Meter, Squeeze the Rat to interact with the world.

As the game urges you to savor the interactions you have manhandling this poor Rattus Norvegicus, you gain the ability to walk.

No sooner do you gain your legs then you are told to head toward the nearby house to find the answers you Seek.

Outside The House

It’s where we get Ratshaker’s next Trophy.

Now, technically, you have the option here to KILL Jim, by choking him to death, at which point you will get a Game Over – either by sinking into the Soil in the Field or being consumed By a Rat Swarm (Once Inside the House.) – but my advice is to save that for later.

if you Kill him before you enter – you have to start this Segment over and build the Meter Up three times again before being able to Move – WHICH will slow us down in our Achievement Hunt.

In that same vein; turning around and heading too far toward the Edge of the Map also restarts you; so be careful of that.

Instead – head toward the House and build up some Jim Meter; whether he laughs or screams about it, or quips off some snippy quote – you’ll need that Meter to Open the Door to the house.

Small note here;

The Flies you see as you actually get close to the House in question aren’t flies at all – but Tiny Rats with little bug Wings.

It’s a Small attention to Detail – but a nice one I Very Much appreciate.

Here we find the Third and Fourth Achievements of Ratshaker

Ratshaker Now leads us to the Door to the House in which you will find your great answers that Jim so Promises – you have a Chance to get one of the More Missable achievements that I had to Replay the game to get: waiting in front of the Door.

Called Stage Fright – this one’s all about getting cold Feet. as the Trophy Suggests.

Yeah, it’s that Simple – you could get it by Accident; but that’s also why I missed it. Just hover around in front of the Door and Boom; Done. If it wasn’t for you finding it out here – you could Just as easily find it by checking the Steam Achievements – but that’s more boring right?

And that brings us to the last achievement I managed to get outside of going in the House.

Ratshaker Has A Secret Achievement – That caves your Head in.

Ratshaker Trophy Number Four – YOUCH!!!! – Requires a little more digging; and can’t be seen in the Steam Trophies nor would its achievement tell you how to get it.

No; you have to search for this one.

Found by heading to the Barn – you’ll find it’s an explorable building. Step inside and Read the Sign seen Here.

Follow what it says to do; and there you have it. Congratulations. You’ve been flattened into a Pancake.

Reddit claims the Anvil might also unlock the Exterminator Achievement, ending poor Jim’s time in the process.

And so, just like that, we’ve already finished around half of what you can earn.

Unfortunately; you’ll need to start over – as you have died. So, once again we violently shake Jim around – build Meter, Choke him a little – and move toward the door.

Handy Tip; Choking him skips dialogue – so if you miss anything, it’ll be useful to know that.

Now let’s Head Inside.

The second part of Ratshaker and the meat of the game.

We Go through the Intimidating and disorienting static of the Main Entrance’s Open Maw; and there we have it, the next one.

Possibly a thinly veiled Cabin in The Woods Reference.

Either way, From here on, the remaining achievements span the main course of the game.

Three more to grab—one’s right ahead, the others tied to The Story Ratshaker hides.

So as look for them, (Highlighted Below via Headers) – let’s talk a little more about the Game, Shall we?

The First thing you’re greeted by entering into The House is the state of Transition it is in.

As Jim had said earlier – it was a house unfamiliar to us. Was that because it wasn’t our house; or because it had lost its comforts?

Paintings are lined up, and occasionally change – lamps unplugged, important parts of the home wrapped up and stacked away.

It feels like a rush order of packing up and moving out – something that tracks with what we learn as we go.

Ratshaker is a game which can be praised for attention to Detail – a game that puts a lot of effort into having you stop and look. It wants you to Hesitate.

But we can’t at the moment, we have to plunge further in.

They say T.V. will rot your Brain. Ratshaker VHS might.

Nearly Right as you get into the House proper – text appears which orders us to “Find It”.

Rather cryptic, but not the first thing we’ll focus on.

Heading into the next door and turning the Corner, we’re greeted by an admittedly cozy looking Living Room.

The Fireplace is Lit, But Nobody is home. Boxes are packed up, pillows off the couches.

And an old Ratshaker VHS is still in the TV’s VCR.

This is the Same Advertisement from the Start – and over the course of the Game, you’ll be given several chances to Watch it in Full.

Do so, and you net your next Achievement.

I chuckled at this Reference.

Furthermore, if you Choke Jim to turn on the T.V. and watch it in This Segment – you get the first piece of what we’re told to find.

A Photo, torn into five.

Choke Jim to Pick it up, and So we move on – You need to find the Photos in Each Segment to assemble them and Open the Door at the end of the Hallway.

Deeper and Deeper into the Dark.

As we move on into Ratshaker, it will take some time to get through the next segments and acquire the final two Trophies – both Requiring hitting certain points in the Game.

As we Delve Deeper to Find them – a few things become apparent.

One thing I can Confidently say is that Sunscorched Studios has paid a lot of Attention to environmental storytelling.

Broken and Empty bottles litter the Floor.

Rooms are packed up or empty.

You can find piles of Dead Rats next to Ratshaker VHS boxes, in fact – whoever lived here had a HUGE pile of the Tapes in an Empty Room.

it all feels astoundingly Desolate – and only gets worse.

A P.T. By any Other Name.

Going through the Photo Door – you figure out a Major Theme this game is leaning on.

The Front Hallway Repeats; you find yourself in the living room again.

You Must Find It.

And see, there it is. Ratshaker is a P.T. Clone.

Except, is it really? Or is it taking a Jab at the Concept?

See, over the last Ten Years since P.T. was released, many games have attempted the Concept.

Some simply cashing in on the Idea with little extra Effort, others taking the concept of Repeating Hallways of Nightmares and making genuinely interesting spins on it.

And Ratshaker…. plays it straight.

You hunt for photos that remind you of your Crimes as you delve deeper into a Psychologically rooted Silent Hill Nightmare – and it Works.

The Comedy serves to make the game palatable while the whole time you – or at least I – have a growing sense of unease.

it’s oddly effective.

Of Death and Jim.

And the game isn’t shy at killing you, either. Various ways to die exist – either by killing the Player or by Jim catching an unfortunate piece of glass to the Neck if you explode the T.V.

An effective way to get the Earlier Rat Death Trophy if you haven’t already.

All of these shifts in tone from Comedy to Tension make the game peculiarly effective at keeping you in a cold sweat, unsure if at any moment something actually scary will happen.

And a good few times, it does.

Lights will flicker, Babies will wail in the distance, a Rat-Themed Saturn will eat his Rat-Themed son in a Painting.

All-in-All; there are some moments where the game seems to… take itself seriously.

A Pleasant surprise to say the least, even if the Horror taste is a little muddied by Jim’s unwavering stare. Horror Comedy, Indeed.

But we persevere on to the next loop.

Darker yet Darker Still.

It doesn’t take long for the Imagery in the game to get a bit uncomfortable to look at. Proceeding down the corridors, you go through a Room filled with static which commands that you “Find Her.”

Don’t touch the Static here – Or you’ll die and start Loop 2 Over again.

Proceeding past here to the Third loop – the atmosphere turns grim.

Fleshy, Warped bodies, blurred corpses, meaty growths throughout the house – and lots of rats.

The Game takes a turn for the Silent Hill and only continues to as you go.

It wears its inspiration on its sleeve, trying to tell the story of a mentally tortured protagonist through the lens of… rats.

Rats, and terrible meaty nightmare rooms.

And as you dive deeper into the uncomfortable nightmare, you reach a deep, dark staircase.

Descending further into the dark – you Crack Jim like a Glowstick at a Rave.

And there’s your next Achievement.

Providing light on your dark path downward, Jim guides you toward your very Last Trophy.

Finishing the Story.

You wander the Desolation of this House as it turns into a maze of Tile, Cages and darkness.

All the while, you’re reminded that the crime you’re searching for answers to is one you committed.

Until finally you reach it. The Basement.

And the game begins to Unravel exactly what our Protagonists’ Crime is.

The game begins to imply further and further that the Protagonist has done terrible things – that this was Once his home.

It implies that we had a loved one of whom; did not know what we did, even as we did it.

I wonder if she even knew, what happened under her own floorboards. Your iniquities have led you here. Face the Truth.

Jim the Rat.

And thus the Darkness Beckons.

The Basement.

You Descend into the Final Level with Jim as your only source of comfort, and confront your crimes.

Oh, and he continues to make horrible puns.

But the Basement is a somber affair. The Dim bulbs are harsh but often go out, the Fridge glows with a threatening light from somewhere beyond, the walls are grimy and harsh.

There’s a Constant thrum from a Television spanning videos of news reports, the corridors are long and winding, the rooms are unclean.

And Finally. The Garage. Where it lies, waiting for you.

Your Crime.

Wife Shaker.

Laying on the cold hard Basement floor is the wrapped up body of a Woman.

And as you approach it, Jim has this to Say.

Look at What You’ve Done. What started with Vows of Love now ends wrapped in Plastic. You… You are the Wife Shaker.

Jim the Rat

And it rises up to greet you. Your sins made manifest, turning to face you.

It hesitates for merely a Moment. And then, It strikes.

And you get your last Achievement. The Game starts over.

A Cyclical Nightmare.

Ratshaker completed.

Congratulations! You’ve now lived through a Journey through the Darkest Subconscious.

The game makes it clear: we cruelly shook our wife, leading to her death, mirroring our treatment of Jim.

Final Thoughts on Ratshaker.

Ratshaker, all in all, proved an effective experience in Horror as well as having Elements of Comedy at the forefront and proving to be decent at them, even if the bizarre premise and Rat Puns aren’t the kind of Humor for everyone.

In my Opinion, the length of the game and the quality are perfect for its $2.99 price tag, but the game could have used a bit more Variety and in some places, Does drag a bit.

The Opening is probably the worst contender for any complaints I’d have, given its necessity in violently handling Jim three times to fill bars in order to even really start playing.

With that in mind, The Story also isn’t necessarily anything groundbreaking.

The game conveys its message effectively, blending environmental storytelling with the rat’s self-narrating conscience. However, the “protagonist was bad all along and killed the wife” twist is old, dating back to classics like Silent Hill 2.

But does the Story NEED to be Unique if it’s an Homage (Or Jab) to those types of games?

Nothing that was flawed about this game as far as I felt, was really bad enough to outweigh its stellar qualities – being a simple, entertaining Indie Jaunt you can probably finish in under an Hour.

It doesn’t overstay its welcome, and has me Excited for Negative Atmosphere. Which is the Next game from Sunscorched Studios.

Considering everything, the game impressed me by excelling at what it set out to do. It stays true to its purpose and avoids overreaching.

In Closing

With Everything I’ve Said, I’d rate Ratshaker Four Jim The Rats out of Five.

You now have every trophy in the game, and I hope the experience was as rewarding for you.

Thank you for your time, and I hope you keep shaking fictional rats.

When you’re ready, read more here at Raider King! See you next time.

Further Reading and Information

External References

• Developer of the Game and Hopeful Indie Studio
• Screen Shots and Gameplay from RATSHAKER – available on Steam –
• Some Information Sourced on Reddit at R/Steam