Screenshots
Watch trailer on Steam ↗• Dread Chess ✣
• NullTale · Published by • NullTale Scape
Mostly Positive — 79% positive (103 reviews) · 13 achievements
Last updated 28 Sept 2026
Dread Chess est un jeu original et étrange mêlant histoire narrative, puzzles et éléments de sandbox. Découvrez les mystères en parlant aux dieux en latin. Plongez dans une atmosphère de folie et atteignez l’une des nombreuses fins d’une partie injuste contre la Mort, qui ne peut être jouée qu’UNE SEULE FOIS...
Adventure, Indie, Free To Play, Strategy, Casual · 2025 · More free games
Embark on a unique journey through Dread Chess, an adventure-strategy game where your choices in dialogue with gods shape the narrative. Navigate puzzles and confront the final boss, Death, in this free-to-play title from NullTale.
About this game
✣ Dread Chess is an original and strange narrative story-puzzle game that you can play as a chess sandbox by setting asymmetric rules for the players, or explore it in search of different endings and achievments.
Key Features
Branching Narrative: Multiple endings based on your successes, failures, and the choices you make.
Asymmetric Rules Sandbox: Design unfair advantages or crippling handicaps—then see them in action.
Option to use Latin as main Language: "Mortales ludunt, dii rident"
Dark Atmosphere: Gothic pixel art, unsettling soundscapes, and a story that lingers.
Self-Playing Chess: Observe autonomous matches that reveal hidden truths and secret paths.
Spectator Mode: Sit back and watch the AI duel itself, or share the spectacle online.
Narrative Mode
Confront the God of Madness as it poses three life-or-death riddles—discover the answers by watching enchanted, self-playing chess matches unfold. Each choice echoes through a richly decorated, gothic pixel-art world, leading you toward one of several hauntingly endings.
Sandbox Mode
Unleash your creativity in a versatile sandbox environment. Customize asymmetric rule sets and go head-to-head against the AI—or a friend—in a variety of modes:
Card Mode: Choose from three thematic options (bad, average, good) for each move.
Tarot Cards: Global conditions that change the rules of the game.
Dice Mode: Roll the die to determine which chess piece you must move—luck may be on your side, or it may betray you.
Classic Mode: Pure, classic chess with direct control.
Discover Dread Chess and decide for yourself: can you outwit the God of Madness?
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- OS *: Windows 7
- Processor: 1.8GHz Dual-Core CPU
- Memory: 512 MB RAM
- Graphics: Integrated graphics
- DirectX: Version 9.0
- Storage: 128 MB available space
- Sound Card: Built In
Supported Languages
Latest news
Patch NotesOfficial
✣ Death Dice & Pretender Branch Update
> Death Dices -> are a chaotic system of random effects that can either destroy your position on the board (even locking the game if 6 is rolled three times) or completely turn the match in your favor.They can be used in matches against AI or other players — as a kind of red button that raises the stakes and injects chaos before passing the turn to your opponent.♟ Pretender Branch To meet the Pretender in Story Mode, choose:Black Pretender White Living OneWith Death Dice, it becomes possible to finish the game by literally playing dice with death itself. They are also available in Sandbox and Narrative modes.⛥ Secret Codes After completing the story, you can gain access to a secret code that allows you to summon Death Dice. An additional hidden code can be discovered by destroying your own board - if you carefully observe what is happening.Read full article on Community Announcements (NullTale)AnnouncementsOfficial
• Added Ending: True Death
✣ Expanded and Reworked Bad Ending.Now, to escape the endless Sandbox Mode (also known as the Realm of Eternal Suffering), you can ask the gods for release.If you agree, the gods will grant you true death — and the chance for redemption, without relying on external walkthroughs.The gods wish to hear the truth, and to be heard and gain new life, you must speak it to them.The gods speak only in Latin and listen only to those who understand how their world was created.In the case of true death, the game can no longer be launched at all. 🕯️Read full article on Community Announcements (NullTale)Patch NotesOfficial
• Added True Ending & Achievements refactor
A new ending has been added — the True Ending, revealed by speaking the truth. To unlock it, you must either: – Play the game in Latin and choose the correct options in the “Speak the Truth” branch (the gods only speak Latin, and to answer in their tongue, you must know it), – Or collect two separate Truths during the playthrough, which will unlock the correct answers. It is now also possible to finish the game without playing a single chess match. To do so, you must discover how to awaken the Creature in the opening scene and learn what must be done to receive the True answers from the very start (hint: the Creature wishes to hear the truth, and divine wisdom lies hidden in the gods’ sayings). Additionally, minor bugs related to the game’s overall structure have been fixed.Read full article on Community Announcements (NullTale)
