After hours, after closing, after everything.
Play VACATED: The Mall — free, in your browser
VACATED: The Mall is a PS1-aesthetic first-person exploration and stealth game set inside Marrowick Galleria, a two-storey 1990s shopping mall that was evacuated on the evening of Saturday, December 19, 1998 — the last Saturday before Christmas — and never reopened. The demolition crews come on Monday. Tonight you have a camera, a torch, and one last look. The official story was a gas leak. The food on the trays, the register drawer still open, the sign on Santa's gate that says BACK AT 7:45 and the clock on the food court wall that stopped at 7:42 say something else, and so do the maintenance tickets, the engineer's letter and the security log upstairs. You piece it together by documenting it: eleven pieces of evidence across the food court, the West Wing's drained rainforest café and the CINEMARQUE 8 multiplex, each of which develops into a real photograph with a line of what you understood. Two private guards walk fixed patrols and a ceiling camera sweeps the atrium; they hear you, see your torch and notice your flash, and you hide by breaking their line of sight — or by sneaking low behind a counter. Throw the main breaker in the maintenance room and the whole building wakes up: the escalators run, the PA resumes a page from 1998, the security office monitors come on, and one of the guards goes to find out who did it. Getting caught walks you back to the front doors with your photographs intact. Runs save as you go; the first one takes around half an hour, and the leaderboard is for the ones after that.
You start just inside the chained front doors, facing up the south corridor. Read the notice taped to the glass, and take a paper map from the directory beside you — M opens it from then on. It is a public brochure, so it shows the shops, the food court and the gallery, and not what is behind the staff doors. A single handwritten line at the top of the screen tells you your next lead whenever it changes; Tab (or NOTES on a phone) shows it again, along with the shot list and everything you have read.
The run is eleven photographs. Six are in the food court wing: the open register in Sal Goode, a table of abandoned dinners, Santa's empty chair, the clock high on the east wall, the broken fountain, and — once you have found it — the last security tape. Two are in the West Wing's Rainfetch Café (a birthday party table and the cracked reef tank) and three in the CINEMARQUE 8 (the marquee, the snack bar and the projector in the booth). Aim at one in range and the crosshair turns into an amber viewfinder bracket; press F, left click or SNAP. Each develops into a print with a line of what it tells you. There are also four things that are not on the list.
The food court has two storeys. The escalators on the west side climb to a gallery that rings the atrium on three sides, with glass rails you can see — and be seen — through; a glass elevator stands on the north side. The security office and the centre management office are up there, over the entrance corridor, looking down on the court. The security office is sealed: its lock died with the power. The note on its door tells you where the breakers are.
Between the food stalls on the west wall is the restroom alley. Through it are the restrooms, and at the end of that hallway an EMPLOYEES ONLY door into the back of house: a service corridor, the maintenance room with the main breaker, and a stair up to the security office's back door. Throw the breaker and the building wakes up in a wave from that room outward — the lights, the escalators (they carry you now), the elevator, the security monitors, the PA. You will also be more visible, and one of the guards will come to see who did it.
In the security office, SPACE on the monitors shows four live CCTV feeds — the best way to see where the guards are — and the VCR plays the last tape recorded that night. The logbook on the desk and the memo and engineer's letter in the office next door explain most of the rest.
Stealth works on sight, sound and light. Guards and the ceiling camera fill a suspicion meter while they can see you — shown as chevrons around the crosshair pointing at whoever has noticed you, and a bar for how close they are to certain. A “?” means one is coming to look; a “!” means it is hunting you, running to where it last saw you. Break line of sight and keep moving and it loses you, searches, then gives up. Walking is audible through walls; sneaking (Shift / SNK) is silent and crouched, and crouched is low enough to hide behind a counter, a table or a row of cinema seats. Your torch gives you away from further than your body does, and your camera flash further still — unless a wall is in the way. HIDDEN appears when someone is looking your way and cover is saving you.
If a hunting guard reaches you, or the ceiling camera holds you in frame, security walks you out to the front doors. You keep every photograph; the walk back and thirty seconds on the clock are the cost. The run saves as you go — close the tab and CONTINUE picks it up. When the list is done, walk out the way you came in.
VACATED: The Mall is a free browser-based PS1-aesthetic exploration and stealth game. You spend the night before demolition inside Marrowick Galleria, a 1990s shopping mall that was evacuated on the evening of December 19, 1998 and never reopened, photographing what was left behind and piecing together why — past two private security guards and a ceiling camera.
Yes, VACATED: The Mall is completely free to play in your browser. No download, no signup, no paywall.
Photograph all eleven pieces of evidence — six in the food court wing (including the last security tape, which needs the power back on), two in the West Wing’s Rainfetch Café and three in the CINEMARQUE 8 multiplex — then walk back out through the front doors. Your notebook (Tab, or NOTES on a phone) always shows the next lead and which shots you still need.
The game never tells you outright. The photographs, the maintenance tickets, an engineer’s letter, a management memo, the security log for December 19 and the last CCTV tape each hold one piece of it, and the ending develops your roll. It is worth reading everything: the clock does not run while a note is open.
Its maglock died with the power, and the note taped to the door says where the breakers are: MAINT B, down the service corridor behind the restrooms. Go through the restroom alley between the food stalls on the west wall, through the EMPLOYEES ONLY door at the end of the hallway, and throw the main breaker. Then the office opens, from the gallery or by the service stair.
Being seen is not the end of a run. When a guard’s suspicion meter fills, a “!” appears and it hunts you, running to where it last saw you. Break line of sight and keep moving and it loses you, searches, and gives up. If a hunting guard reaches you, or the ceiling camera holds you in frame, security walks you to the front doors — you keep every photograph, and it costs you the walk back and thirty seconds.
Break their line of sight. Walls, gates, stalls, columns and the elevator shaft hide you; so does the gallery floor from anyone standing under it. Sneaking (Shift, or hold SNK) crouches you, which makes low cover work too — a counter, a table, a row of cinema seats. Standing still in the open does nothing. Chevrons around the crosshair show who has noticed you and a bar shows how close they are to certain; HIDDEN appears when cover is saving you.
Yes. The run saves as you go — photographs, notes, the power, the clock — and CONTINUE on the title screen picks it up after you close the tab. A finished run clears its save so the next one starts fresh.
No. The threat is two human security guards on fixed patrols and a ceiling camera, all with readable rules. There is also something in a red coat that you will occasionally see far away. It does not chase you. Nobody else in the building seems to see it.
Yes. The food court is two storeys: escalators on the west side climb to a gallery ringing the atrium, and a glass elevator runs on the north side once the power is back. The security and management offices are up there, and from the gallery rail you can watch the guards cross the court below.
Yes. Past the east arm of the West Wing is the CINEMARQUE 8: a store hall, a vaulted plaza under a marquee still advertising its last showing, a lobby with a concession stand, eight enterable auditoriums and an open projection booth. The houses are nearly dark — bring the torch — and each is a dead end with one door.
Yes. A joystick moves you, dragging anywhere looks around, and on-screen buttons take photos (SNAP), interact (USE — it lights up when something is usable), toggle the torch (LIT) and sneak (SNK). Lean pads sit above the stick, and MAP, NOTES, ROLL and the menu run along the top.
Yes, in the pause menu: look sensitivity, invert Y, head bob, reduce flicker (which steadies the failing fluorescent tubes) and volume.
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