Rust River
RUST RIVER
April 2026. Freelance investigative journalist Ye Shen receives an anonymous email. No signature—just one attachment: a PDF test report.
The report shows: groundwater heavy metal levels in a small Southwest China town exceed national standards by 127 times. At the bottom of the report, a handwritten scan: "The water in Rust River is tainted. So are the people. Coming?"
Four days later, Ye Shen boards a long-distance bus to Rust River.
She carries the anonymous email, a voice recorder, and a geological survey map of Rust River from the 1960s, photocopied from the provincial library.
What she doesn't know: she is not the first investigator to come to Rust River. The ones who came before—never left.
For Ye Shen there is also a private reason: her father, Ye Changlin, worked the night shift at Xinyuan Smelting twenty years ago and never came home. She wants to know where he went.
Play the game
About Rust River
Rust River is a free, browser-based industrial horror investigation game from alphaBETA DEV. You play Ye Shen, a freelance journalist who travels to a company town in south-west China after an anonymous email claims its groundwater is poisoned. The town’s websites are still online — factory notices, old forum threads, personal blogs, geological reports — and every page is a place to search. What the smelter buried is still down there.
Genre: puzzle / horror / industrial / ARG. No download and no install; it runs in the browser on desktop and mobile.
Search, explore, decrypt — estimated playtime: 8-12 hours
How to play
- Keyword search: Search the town’s decaying websites. One keyword opens the next door.
- Evidence board: Pin what you find and piece the relationships together.
- Investigation notes: Keep your own notes as the case develops.
- Chapter progression: Chapters unlock only when you have gathered enough evidence.
- Email: Read the correspondence between the people who were here before you.
- Multiple endings: Different choices lead to different endings, including hidden ones.
Scope
8 chapters, 4 endings. Everything runs in your browser; there is nothing to install.
Questions
- Do I need to download anything?
- No. Open it in a browser and start playing; it works on desktop and mobile.
- Does it cost anything?
- No. Rust River is a free original web game by alphaBETA DEV (GameStrategists), with no in-app purchases.
- How long does it take?
- Search, explore, decrypt — estimated playtime: 8-12 hours
- Will this page spoil the game?
- No. It describes the premise and how to play only; it does not reveal puzzle answers or ending content.
More original games
Site