REVIEW | Welcome to Kowloon (Tidbit-style)

We love all sorts of games. Sometimes it is hard to cover a game in our traditional review style, which is why we have tidbit-style reviews. These shorter reviews cover games that deserve attention too, but simply don’t fit our liked, mixed and disliked template.

• Welcome to Kowloon | Score 72/100
• Developers | a1esska, Notex, N4bA, and Admia
• Publisher | Axyos Games

Stepping into Welcome to Kowloon feels like wandering through a memory you are not entirely sure you lived. You play as a student moving into his first apartment, choosing the cheapest place he could find deep inside a cramped and aging building. What begins as a simple move‑in quickly shifts into something far stranger, as the tight corridors and uneasy quiet start to suggest that this place holds more than peeling wallpaper.

As I sat down to play, the first thing that struck me were the visuals. They look surprisingly impressive for an indie game, with lighting and detail that immediately draw you in. After a short intro that sets up the story, you arrive at an old, worn‑down building at night, which instantly adds to the atmosphere. It feels a little strange to be moving in at that hour, and that small touch makes the experience feel even more uneasy and believable.

To open doors, you need to get extremely close, almost nose to door, before pressing A to enter. It took me a few minutes and plenty of back and forth to figure that out. As you explore, you’ll find notes that help you progress and small puzzles, like clues to a lock combination. Often, interacting with one object, such as a locked door, will trigger another area to become accessible. Despite a few moments of confusion, I rarely found myself stuck for long.

The controls are never explained, and there’s no option to invert the camera in game, though you can easily do this through the Xbox Accessories settings. Sensitivity is high at first; you can adjust left and right movement, but not up and down, which feels a bit awkward. After a while, I got used to it, even if walking sometimes felt more like floating. Disabling camera shake helped make the experience smoother overall. 

The horror in Welcome to Kowloon relies more on tension and surprise than gore. There are plenty of jump scares, and a few definitely caught me off guard. You’ll often spot shadowy figures lurking in the distance, and those moments do a great job of making you feel uneasy without showing too much. The game builds its fear through silence, flickering lights, and the sense that something is always just out of sight, keeping you alert from start to finish. 

I played with a headset because I wanted to really appreciate the spatial audio, and it was absolutely worth it. The game uses quiet, unnerving sounds in the distance to keep you on edge, and hearing those subtle noises through a headset adds a lot to the tension. When a jump scare happens, the sudden scream sounds genuinely frightening, especially when you are not expecting it. The sound and visuals work together beautifully, and I think they are the parts of Welcome to Kowloon that shine the most.

I completed Welcome to Kowloon in around eighty minutes and managed to unlock every achievement along the way. Once you’ve done that, there isn’t really any replay value unless you missed something the first time. It’s a short experience, but one that feels complete in what it sets out to do. The pacing works well for a single sitting, and while brief, it delivers enough atmosphere and tension to leave a lasting impression. 

Welcome to Kowloon is a short but memorable horror experience that thrives on atmosphere and tension. From its impressive visuals to its unsettling sound design, it delivers a sense of unease that stays with you long after you finish. The story itself is quite barebones, and with a little more polish, particularly around the controls, it could have reached another level. While there’s not much reason to replay once you’ve seen everything, it still manages to leave a strong impression through its mood and presentation.