I don’t dream very often. And someone in the crowd is probably telling me that I dream all the time, I just don’t remember my dreams, and to that person, I say that you know damned well what I meant. Ignoring them, the dreams I do have are pretty weird, which I just assume is true for everybody.

One that stands out for me is when I dreamt that I was back in high school, didn’t study for a test (of course), but more importantly, my school was a grocery store and my class was in the bread aisle. My most frequently recurring imagery is noodles. Usually, but not exclusively, Asian-style dishes. What does that mean? Probably, “a choice needs to be made.” That seems to be what everything means in dream interpretation, according to the internet.

Anyway, dreams are interesting to me, because they follow their own undefinable logic that makes perfect sense while you’re in them, make you feel associated emotions, but are revealed to be utterly bizarre when you wake up and think back. And I find that, when something is defined as dream-like, it’s often just shorthand for weird, and fails to include that ephemeral plausibility of a dream.

Anthology of the Killer is remarkable in the fact that it is somehow able to present a truly dream-like world, while maintaining the necessary connectedness. Even more impressively, it has a lot of fun with it.

I DREAM OF THE KILLER

Anthology of the Killer is, well, it’s an anthology of a series of games created by TheCatamites. The series started back in 2020, and it totals nine games. They all follow the exploits of BB, a self-styled reporter who writes and publishes a crime zine. She has lots to work with, because she lives in XX City, an urban hellscape that is absolutely thick with serial killers and is the epicentre of serial killer culture.

Few of the stories are actually about her looking for trouble, however. They’re mostly her trying to exist like any person. One of the stranger chapters has her doing her municipally mandated duty of performing in a theatrical production. Another begins with her trying to complain to her neighbour about their loud music. They’re all largely unrelated, though they maintain continuity and coalesce into a conclusive chapter.

And, to be clear, every chapter of Anthology of the Killer is a walking sim. You’re mainly taken on guided tours of BB’s world with little need to exert your meaty thumbs. The only challenge you’ll encounter is occasionally fleeing from peril, but even then, if you fail, you might just be placed back in the beginning of a section. Often, you’re supposed to fail. You’re here for the experience, not the challenge.

GROUNDING THE GROUNDLESS

What engrosses me most about Anthology of the Killer is TheCatamites way of combining a strange world with a sense of believability. He’s not one for heavy exposition, so you won’t get a full explanation of everything. It’s left rather nebulous, but that doesn’t matter because the writing is convincing in the way it acts as though this is all perfectly normal, so of course you already understand what’s going on. While the world is extremely strange to us, BB talks about it as though it makes perfect sense to her. When something happens that is unusual to her character, she’s able to provide herself with a rational explanation, even though rationality isn’t anywhere near the vicinity.

And the writing is ridiculously sharp. It’s surprising how incisive it can be, even with how unrealistic the setting is. It’s hard to tell if the dialogue derives from the backdrops or if the backdrops are informed by the dialogue. It just reads like it’s effortlessly off-the-cuff. Upsettingly natural. I think that some of the protagonistic characters could stand to have a more distinct personality. I’d have trouble describing BB, for example, outside of how I did so here (occupation, locale). “Writer” is not a personality, which I openly demonstrate. But what is there, I feel is more than sufficient. I’m a little envious, truly.

I should note that, while Anthology of the Killer is technically horror, it’s, at best, unnerving, and never very scary. Considering it has more of a humorous focus to it, that’s hardly surprising. However, the fact that it’s never very grounded can be rather disconcerting, but when something is so absurd, it’s hard to fully grasp the stakes, which is something necessary for horror to work effectively. On the other hand, terror is extremely subjective.

WICKED

The only real criticism I have toward Anthology of the Killer is that it’s clear TheCatamites was learning his craft as he went. By that I mean the earlier chapters are rougher than the later ones from a largely technical standpoint. This wasn’t his first game – he’s been at it for well over a decade – but you can see a sharp increase in polish. Camera issues persist throughout all the games, but they’re more obtrusive in the first few. And while the entire series is just walking sim, they grow from simply moving BB over a hotspot to much more dynamic forms of storytelling.

But, for that matter, the whole anthology feels kind of rickety. The individual chapters are tied together with a sort of explorable art gallery. It’s neat, but it could use a way to quickly select chapters, since navigation is not entirely intuitive, though it’s not unreasonably obtuse, either.

The best example of its ramshackle construction is the fact that there’s no configuration menu. If you press start (or Options, or +, or whatever you want to call it), it just asks if you want to quit. When you complete a chapter, you’re just prompted to hit start and quit in the same way you would mid-game, which seems extremely inelegant. I don’t think there’s a way to stop mid-chapter and pick up from where you left off.

The console port provides the illusion of it being held together a bit more tightly, but there is still no settings menu. Considering the games are depicted in a 4:3 ratio with marquee borders, it would’ve been nice to at least be able to change to a plain black marquee, but alas.

A LITTLE PROLIX

I first reviewed Anthology of the Killer for Destructoid back in 2024 during one of the lowest points in my life (I’ve been having a lot of those lately), and it’s stuck with me since. It was among my favourite games of the outstanding (only in terms of video game releases) year. 

The console release gave me a terrific excuse to replay this fantastic compilation. Having it on Switch feels like being able to take one of my favourite books along with me. Anthology of the Killer is just something special, and while this compilation has the feeling of finality to it, I kind of hope that this isn’t the last we see of BB or the world she exists in. But, if you haven’t yet played Anthology of the Killer, then count yourself lucky because there’s still so much to experience. And then you should play it. You should play it right now.

8/10

This review was conducted using a digital, pre-release PS5 version of the game, though the author is familiar with the Switch and PC versions. The PS5 and Switch versions were provided by the developer’s PR, the PC version by the developer, but the author has previously paid for a Steam version.