The Initiate
Skip · Action · 2017
The verdict
SKIP IT.
It scores 39, under the fair line, at $9.99.
- Length
- 3.7h 3.8h to 100%
- Value
- $2.70/hr
- Reviews
- 77% of 204 positive
Watch this gameOne alert at a price you pick.
Buy now or wait
Discounted in 6 of its last 8 seasonal sales. Last cut ended 12 days ago.
- Next sale
- Winter Sale, Dec 17 to Jan 4
Sources: IsThereAnyDeal, Valve.
What drives the score
How to read this
Grades run S to D, read from the buyer's side. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
About the game
The Initiate is a mystery puzzle game. You awake in a house full of traps and puzzles - This is your trial; complete it, or die!
Minimum specs
Minimum on the Steam store: 8 GB of memory, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 or AMD equivalent, 7 GB of storage. Runs on Windows, macOS.
The value story
51 discounts in the 9 years on record, a median of 65 percent off across all of them, roughly 5 weeks apart. Today it is at full price, and its last discount ended 12 days ago.
On value it sits in the top 29 percent of its genre. It is pricier than 73 percent of its genre, and better reviewed than 67 percent. Among the games that feel like it, Bendy and the Ink Machine ($5.99, scores 74) beats it on value, while it beats ECHO ($24.99, scores 34).
The drop-off
76% start to 9% rarestNo achievement in this game marks the ending, so there is no finish rate. The curve runs from the most-unlocked achievement to the rarest, and its shape is where players stop. Steam global achievements
What players say
If you are a fan of puzzley games like Quern, Myst, The Eyes or Ara, or The Witness, you'll probably enjoy this game. This game says it's a horror, but it plays more like a puzzle game with potentially anxiety inducing audio. The game is well worth the price point, it was made by a tiny team, and it's pretty well designed. The story is kind of there - definitely would have liked more, but the puzzles were great and...
2 more reviews, 1 not recommended
This game is rough around the edges, but I had a lot of fun with it. For the most part, the escape room style puzzles are incredibly intuitive and satisfying, with solutions that are obvious if you are taking good notes and examining everything carefully. I often felt smart or observant upon solving a challenge. I did get stuck a couple of times over the course of the game, though: once because I was...
I played around 3 hours and decided not to continue. On paper, this should have worked for me. It has mystery, horror elements, locked rooms, hidden clues, puzzles, and that classic "wake up somewhere strange while a mysterious voice talks to you" setup. Basically, all the ingredients for a good little escape-room-style puzzle game. But in practice, it just became frustrating. The biggest issue is the puzzle design...
Steam reviews, mixed to its ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
No data upstream: critic score (Metacritic).
Cite this score
The Initiate scores 39/100 on the BANG Score (a skip) as of Oct 20, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/659480/the-initiateReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 30, price as of Oct 19. A number here look wrong? Tell me and I will check the inputs.