Au Sable

Au Sable is a horror-themed, side-scrolling platform shooter and the sequel to All Our Friends Are Dead. It is likely named after the ghost town Au Sable near Oscoda, Michigan (USA). Contrary to games with a similar platform-shooter design, it focuses foremost on a harrowing soundscape and a terrifying atmosphere. Many of the areas are entirely free of enemies, there is a haunting soundtrack and disturbing sound effects, and many scenes contain distorted and warped images with text written in the background. Black and red are the dominant colours throughout the game.

Although the storyline is vague, the player appears to control a red-haired girl Athena, in search for another girl called Harmonia who has sunken into the depths of a forgotten town, lost forever. The protagonist is constantly followed by two red eyes floating behind her, representing the memory that haunts her. These can be used to activate certain switches usually needed to progress and have no other use. Initial controls consist of moving around and jumping. The jump height is affected through the duration of the key press. After avoiding enemies and hazard in the first part of the game, Athena is able to obtain a gun after a few levels. From that point an additional key is used to fire and the mouse is used to aim in any direction. The initial weapon is a shotgun and later on a spike gun can be picked up, with a faster firing rate and a wider reach. Both of them have an unlimited amount of bullets.

Levels generally consist of taking out enemies, locating triggers and platform jumping. In certain sequences the player has no control over the actions and there are also a number of vertically-scrolling sequences. In difficulty it is very unforgiving, as a single mistake immediately requires the player to restart the level. However a quick save/load function is offered for a single instance.