Back in February, we brought you the news that Mother Hub, a new retro-style FPS horror title, was coming to Steam on the 23rd of April 2025. Since then, developer Seth O’Dale Studios has kindly sent us the game for review. At its heart, Mother Hub is a short, two-hour horror experience that aims to provide jump scares, horrific scenes and a scary atmosphere wrapped up in an underlying conspiracy story. Mankind has been plagued by a deadly virus, and it’s up to our hero, Thea, to uncover what has been happening. The game is set way into the future when humans are struggling for survival, and Mother Nature has turned against them.
As with all FPS, guns are the order of the day, and Thea will slowly grow her arsenal over the game to a total of five. While none are particularly novel, they all have strengths and weaknesses that make them perfect for different situations. During our playthrough, we did find it useful to switch weapons around instead of just defaulting to the newest one. And as this is a horror title, ammo is, of course, in short supply. Don’t go all gungho on the enemies, we found ourselves dead quite a few times as we were reduced to the lead pipe starting weapon as the ammo ran dry.
Mother Hub is definitely not a game for the arcade gamers who just want to blow things up and unleash 200 rounds on a room filled with low-level enemies, it’s a game that requires a bit of patience and a bit of thought as to how to attack the next room. The entire game is broken down into small sections, each about five minutes or so long. Many contain simple puzzles that usually require just exploring until you find the correct button to press. The game saves at the start of each section, so dying isn’t an issue, as you can simply retry from a moment ago. Mother Hub isn’t a particularly hard game, and although some of the set-piece boss battles may take a couple of goes, even casual players will be able to get through it. With that being the case, those seeking a challenge may find this a little too easy to finish.
As you explore the different levels, Thea begins to uncover what might’ve gone wrong, and by the end of the experience, you can choose what happens next. This opens up a few different ways to finish the game. Although the core gameplay seemed unaffected by any choices we made at certain points, it does add some replay value to those who want to go through the journey again. Whether or not most gamers will want to play through again is up for question, but horror fans will want to see all the endings on offer.
Graphically, Mother Hub looks like Half Life and Doom 3 had a baby. There is a real retro aesthetic that pays homage to the FPS horror games of yesteryear, but uses all the mod cons in the Unity engine to create a brilliantly dark, dank and creepy atmosphere. We were most impressed with the lighting and plant life, we certainly felt absorbed into a scary world of monsters and dark corners. On that note, check every corner in the game; the amount of much-needed ammo and health tucked away will be needed come the showdown.
Another aspect that felt good was the combat, although there were a few times when it felt as though bullets weren’t hitting. For the most part, Mother Hub feels solid, and it’s fun taking down the zombies and monsters that appear. Some of the boss fights felt frantic, and our heart was racing towards the end, but we won’t spoil what happens in this review. We also found it useful to turn up the sensitivity to the camera movement, as in the first few rooms, we were so slow to react to anything. We played with a standard Xbox controller, and everything seemed fine, as did the mouse and keyboard controls we tried in a few places.
Overall, Mother Hub is a great way to spend a couple of hours. It doesn’t do anything new for the genre, and it won’t satisfy anyone looking for a real challenge or story-driven type title. This does what it says on the tin, a straight-up horror FPS that has a mix of puzzles, shooting and running away. Mother Hub is a good retro title and will please horror fans as well as being a good distraction for more casual players looking for something different.
