Screenshots
Watch trailer on Steam ↗The Archivist
Archivist Games · Published by Olympos Games
Content notice: Since it's a horror game there might be acts of torture, corpses covered or uncovered, blood and other elements that might be disturbing for some people and is inappropriate for people who are not adults.
Last updated 28 Sept 2026
A VHS-themed psychological horror where each tape drags you into a new nightmare. Explore haunted hospitals, schools, forests, and liminal spaces. Solve puzzles, uncover the Archivist’s secrets, and survive a house that grows darker with every tape you watch.
Adventure, Indie · More free games
Embark on a psychological journey through eerie locations in The Archivist, an indie adventure where each VHS tape unravels new horrors. Solve puzzles and face the growing darkness in this haunting experience from Archivist Games.
About this game
The Archivist is a first-person psychological horror experience inspired by analog horror and VHS aesthetics. You arrive at a decaying wooden house, led there by chance—or by something far more deliberate. Inside, a flickering TV and a scattered collection of VHS tapes are waiting.
Each tape you discover pulls you into a self-contained nightmare: abandoned hospitals filled with shadows, forgotten schools echoing with silence, endless forests that twist on themselves, and liminal spaces that blur reality. Some tapes challenge you with puzzles and strange symbols, others with hostile presences that hunt you. Die within a tape, and you awaken where you first found it, the house whispering with static all around you.
But the house itself is not safe. With every tape you watch, the presence of the Archivist grows stronger. You never see him, only feel his gaze and hear his whispers through the static.
Your only way forward is to watch every tape, collect what lies within, and piece together the story behind this place. Yet the deeper you go, the more uncertain your escape becomes.
Explore a haunted house with no weapons, only a flashlight and your wits.
Experience seven VHS tape “worlds,” each with unique environments, puzzles, and dangers.
Immerse yourself in a blend of realism and VHS glitch aesthetics.
Discover fragments of the Archivist’s story through scattered notes and whispers.
You cannot leave until the final tape is played. And when it ends, so does everything you thought you knew.
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel i5 9th Gen
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070
Recommended
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 11
- Processor: Intel i7 12th Gen
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070
Supported Languages
*languages with full audio support
Latest news
Patch NotesOfficial
Major Update Now Available - Expanded First VHS Tape
Hello everyone, A new update for The Archivist is now available. This update expands the first VHS tape with new areas, additional events, and deeper exploration and various adjustments, fixes based on your feedback to improve the overall experience. Alongside the content expansion, this update also includes multiple bug fixes and stability improvements to ensure a smoother and more consistent experience. Update includes: Expanded first VHS tape with new accessible areas New environmental events and disturbances Various bug fixes Stability and gameplay improvements Minor adjustments based on player feedback Thank you to everyone who played the demo and shared feedback. Your reports and observations have been extremely valuable in improving the game. Playback has resumed. Arda Mutlu DeveloperRead full article on Community Announcements (Archivist Games)Patch NotesOfficial
NEW UPDATE!
Hello The Archivist Players, I’m excited to announce that our next update is on the way. This update will include a significant content expansion for the first VHS tape, along with several refinements and minor adjustments to the second tape. I’ve also carefully reviewed your feedback on the demo and noticed some recurring concerns regarding certain game design choices. These are being addressed as part of this update. In addition, we are currently working on fixing reported bugs to ensure a smoother and more immersive experience. Thank you to everyone who has shared feedback both positive and critical. Your comments are incredibly valuable and help shape the future of The Archivist. Stay tuned the new update will be released very soon. Arda Mutlu DeveloperRead full article on Community Announcements (Archivist Games)
