Typing Of The Dead meets Resident Evil with co-op in Blood Typers, which has a demo you can play right now

Typing Of The Dead, released in arcades 25 years ago, remains a masterpiece: funny, absurd, exciting and new. I love any game that wants to follow in his footsteps, and there are a few. The latest is Blood Typers, a horror game where you tap your keyboard to fight montsters in a creepy mansion, but this isn’t a rail shooter, so you also type to explore and navigate.

It now has a February 2025 release date and there’s a demo you can play right now.

If Typing Of The Dead was a riff on House Of The Dead – almost a modification of it, actually – then Blood Typers is most clearly a riff on the original Resident Evil. You move through a creepy space, collecting bullets and other resources, managing your inventory and finding keys to unlock new areas.

Three-letter words appear on the ground and cause your character to move to that spot when you type them. If there is an interactive element (an item to pick up, a ladder to climb, a jump to make) you can perform the action by typing a command with a slash in front of it, like in old text adventures. ‘/climb up’ to climb a ladder, for example. You’ll also have to use your left and right shift keys to rotate your character, to cast a flashlight into all the dark corners of each room.

Could I prefer this to be a rail shooter, where movement isn’t your concern? Maybe, but it’s undeniably tense knowing that enemies can come from all sides. There are also benefits to the more expansive framework: in addition to different characters with their own abilities, Blood Typers’ supporters can play together for up to four players, meaning you can all clear rooms together or explore different parts of the procedural environments.

You can try the demo yourself on Steam.