NEW ON STEAM
Sector 13: Haunted Woods
At a glance
Sector 13: Haunted Woods game facts
Steam store information checked 2026-10-10。- Studio
- Game Inside Studio Published by Game Inside Studio
- Release
- Sep 25, 2026 Released
- Official genres
- Adventure · Casual · Indie · RPG · Simulation
- Play mode
- Single-player · Online co-op
- Native online multiplayer
- Listed by Steam
- Local multiplayer
- Not listed by Steam
- Shared/split screen
- Not listed by Steam
- Desktop platforms
- Windows
- Steam Deck
- Playable The default controller layout may need manual adjustment.
- Controller
- Not listed
- Steam features
- Achievements · Cloud · Family Sharing
- Languages
- 18 listed languages English, French, Italian, Spanish - Spain
| Language | Interface | Full audio | Subtitles |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Supported | Not listed | Supported |
| French | Supported | Not listed | Supported |
| Italian | Supported | Not listed | Supported |
| Spanish - Spain | Supported | Not listed | Supported |
| Simplified Chinese | Supported | Not listed | Supported |
| Japanese | Supported | Not listed | Supported |
| Russian | Supported | Not listed | Supported |
| Spanish - Latin America | Supported | Not listed | Supported |
| Korean | Supported | Not listed | Supported |
| Portuguese - Brazil | Supported | Not listed | Supported |
| Portuguese - Portugal | Supported | Not listed | Supported |
| Thai | Supported | Not listed | Supported |
| German | Supported | Not listed | Supported |
| Indonesian | Supported | Not listed | Supported |
| Vietnamese | Supported | Not listed | Supported |
| Arabic | Supported | Not listed | Supported |
| Turkish | Supported | Not listed | Supported |
| Filipino | Supported | Not listed | Supported |
What that means for your setupSector 13: Haunted Woods is developed and self-published by Game Inside Studio, a small indie team that also listed the title across Adventure, Casual, Indie, RPG, and Simulation. It released on September 25, 2026, at a launch price of $7.99 USD with no discount, and is currently tagged as a new Steam release. The game runs on Windows and is rated Playable on Steam Deck, though the Steam page warns that the default controller layout may need manual adjustment, and controller support is not officially listed, so a mouse and keyboard feels like the safer assumption for now. Play modes are listed as single-player and online co-op for up to four people; the page confirms online co-op but does not list online PvP, split-screen, or shared-screen play, and generic multiplayer being shown does not by itself prove additional online modes. The feature set includes Achievements, Steam Cloud saves, and Family Sharing, and the localization roster is genuinely wide, covering eighteen languages from English, French, Italian, and Spanish variants through Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, German, Portuguese variants, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Thai, Turkish, Arabic, and Filipino, but every entry shows interface and subtitles support only, with fullAudio left unchecked, so this is a read-the-subtitles experience rather than a fully voice-acted one.
If you and a few brave friends love the kind of co-op horror where a single squeaky floorboard becomes a group event, Sector 13: Haunted Woods from indie studio Game Inside Studio is built around that exact flavor of shared panic. You play a field operative dropped into a sealed, cursed forest called Sector 13, and your actual microphone input can attract the things hunting you, so coordinating over real-time proximity voice chat turns every puzzle and dark path into a tiny theater of whispered arguments and startled shouting. That idea, more than any single monster, is what the official description keeps emphasizing, and it is also the part several early players said worked best when they brought a squad along.
What the game actually feels like
You and up to three friends drop into a sealed, cursed forest as field operatives sent to recover forbidden Artifacts and photograph Anomalies, with the mission only counting as complete once every Artifact is collected and delivered, which gives the open map a clear objective loop to push through the dark.
The signature mechanic is that your real microphone audio is part of the simulation, so shouting, laughing, or panicking can attract deadly threats while teammates within proximity can hear you through real-time proximity voice chat, turning coordination into a survival tool rather than a nice extra.
Exploration is supported by a small but distinct toolkit: an Artifact Finder that tracks nearby coordinates, an Anomaly Detector that highlights strange sights, a dedicated photo mode bound to the C key for capturing Anomalies, and an on-screen counter showing how many Anomalies remain in the area, so the loop is about watching, listening, and documenting as much as it is about running.
Each area layers in observation- and teamwork-driven puzzles on top of the exploration, and the world is described as a vast forest with eerie locations scattered in every direction, so traversal between objectives carries its own quiet dread before the scripted scares even arrive.
What early players are seeing
What is landing
- One player who put in around nine hours wrote that they had originally marked the game Not Recommended and then flipped to Recommended after watching the team continuously update the experience, calling it worth a try while noting some sections take quite a long time to complete.
- A jump-scare fan with about 89 minutes of playtime said the game is a great fit if you love being startled and recommended playing with friends, while gently suggesting an interactive tutorial would help onboard newcomers.
- A reviewer with roughly 220 minutes played described it as a great little filler game and a solid choice between bigger releases, praising a one- or two-evening playthrough length and noting that co-op managed to pull off some genuinely creepy, mildly scary moments.
- A player who returned to the launch build around 478 minutes said the forest map is large enough that you really do need company, called the edges rough, but highlighted that the developers listen and adjust quickly post-launch.
What still needs watching
- Several players report that jump scares are heavy-handed and land hard, with one recommending an on-screen warning or a calmer default intensity so newcomers are not startled badly in their first minutes, which is worth knowing if you or your friends are sensitive to sudden scares.
- A negative review explicitly flagged the headline real-voice feature as unreliable, saying in-game voice did not work well for their group and they ended up playing without it, while another short negative review said they could not even pass the initial microphone check on their setup, so your mic configuration may matter more here than in a typical co-op game.
- Performance is a recurring concern even among positive voices, with multiple reviewers noting that the Unreal Engine 5 build asks more from a PC than expected, and one negative report citing roughly 30–40 fps on an RTX 4060, so older or lower-spec hardware may not run as smoothly as the $7.99 price might suggest.
Is Sector 13: Haunted Woods worth buying now?
Current decision
Wait for more reviewsThe strongest supported appeal right now is exactly the one the developers built around: a tense, proximity-voice, 1–4 player co-op horror with a real-mic twist that several players said genuinely delivers creepy, shareable moments with friends, especially as a short filler between bigger games, and the developers appear to be actively patching and tuning post-launch. At the same time, the negative evidence is concrete enough that it would be unfair to smooth it over, including reports of jump scares that hit too hard for some players, a real-voice feature that does not always work cleanly on every setup, and Unreal Engine 5 performance demands that have pushed even modern mid-range cards. With only a small pool of reviews currently visible, it is wiser to let more players weigh in on stability and the microphone systems before committing, even at the modest launch price.
Who this is for
A good fit if you…
- Small groups of friends who want a short, atmospheric co-op horror session they can finish in one or two evenings rather than a sprawling campaign.
- Players who specifically enjoy proximity-voice chat, shared screaming, and light puzzle-solving over twitch combat, and who have a working microphone they can configure in Windows.
- Horror-curious players with reasonably modern PCs who are comfortable with Unreal Engine 5 system requirements and want a budget-priced entry into the genre.
- Friends who like jump-scare heavy experiences and do not mind heavy-handed timing, especially when the laughs and shouts are part of the fun.
- Patient early adopters who enjoy watching a small indie studio actively patch and tune a game after launch and want to support that process.
Wait if you…
- You only have a low- to mid-range PC and cannot tolerate frame dips, since multiple reports flag heavier-than-expected hardware demands for the visuals on offer.
- You or your regular co-op partner are very sensitive to sudden, loud jump scares, because several players describe them as startling enough to warrant a warning.
- Your microphone setup is unreliable or you play in a noisy environment, because the real-voice mechanic is central to the design and at least one group reported it not working for them at all.
- You prefer to wait until a game has a larger, steadier review base before buying, since the current sample is small and opinions are noticeably split between enthusiastic squad play and frustrated technical experiences.
If Sector 13: Haunted Woods is not quite your game
SIMILAR OPTION
HELLDIVERS™ 2
Choose it ifPick HELLDIVERS 2 for sustained, high-stakes squad combat, and pick Sector 13 if your idea of squad tension is whispering through a cursed forest while something listens.
How it comparesOnline squad co-op with friendly fire tension HELLDIVERS 2 is a third-person shooter about fighting across a hostile galaxy with deliberate friendly fire, large live-service updates, and a much higher price point, while Sector 13 swaps guns for microphones, drops the action scale dramatically, and leans on jump scares and quiet forest dread instead of large battles.
SIMILAR OPTION · 50% OFF
Terraria
Choose it ifChoose Terraria if you want hundreds of hours of varied co-op progression, and choose Sector 13 if you want a compact, scary session that is over in a few evenings.
How it comparesCo-op sandbox with friends on PC Terraria is a long-running 2D sandbox adventure with deep crafting, building, and exploration across dozens of biomes, while Sector 13 is a short, horror-focused experience where the loop is photographing Anomalies and recovering Artifacts under threat rather than building a persistent world.
SIMILAR OPTION
Team Fortress 2
Choose it ifTeam Fortress 2 is the better free fallback if you want long-lasting online co-op variety, while Sector 13 is the pick when you specifically want a short, scary, friends-together night in.
How it comparesFree-to-try classic PC co-op option Team Fortress 2 is a free, class-based online shooter with years of content, hats, and a very different tone, whereas Sector 13 is a paid, horror-leaning, short-form experience built around real-voice proximity chat and jump scares rather than objective-based multiplayer matches.
Share this article
