Bangledeschler

Oct 2022 Part 1 - Steam
“I will glance into your soul. Nobody dies alone… I shall follow you into the next life one day. And I shall take your final thoughts…your feelings…with me. All is connected by water. The soul dissolves, and it, too, returns to the water.” - FF:MoBW”

Another year, another successful Spooktober. Almost running to the point where I don’t have spooky games to play… almost (without buying of course). Of course, next year and the year to follow should be particularly good for survival horror games but will likely get to those before the next Spooky season arrives. Due to the amount of games played I am splitting up my post into 2 to avoid making this super lengthy. Will wait a week or so before posting part 2.

Replayed Games: Silent Hill 2, Phasmophobia

    Alan Wake

    Alan Wake

    12 hours playtime

    Revisited
    Played this on original release and, as a young aspiring writer in love with horror, I was absolutely enthralled by it. A game that took inspirations from works like Stephen King and Dean Koontz, mixing in a strong storyteller narrator and narrative, add a little bit of survival horror aspects and you get Alan Wake.
    Though the game is horror, it is much more of a supernatural thriller than a spine-chilling scare fest. Combat is unique in that you can’t just run and gun but use your flashlight to both stun and make your foes vulnerable. It’s nothing overly special, but at least puts a little zest and helps in building this scenario. What the game particularly excels at is the story. Alan Wake narrating the game as if he was himself writing a book, the twists, turns, interactions, and the premise are all fairly Grade A material with excellent implementation. The two DLCs don’t add much story wise other than shedding a little more light on the ending, but does introduce and utilizes new and fun mechanics.

    Spooky Rating: 3 out of 10 Skeletons
    Recommend? Absolutely

    Amnesia: The Dark Descent

    Amnesia: The Dark Descent

    6 hours playtime

    First person physics puzzle horror that may have set the standard for all that follow it. However, it does feel a bit dated as I could not quite feel the same level of fright that many have praised it for. Gameplay is interesting in that you not only have to watch your health but your sanity as well. Being in the dark too long and witnessing weird events will cause your sanity to decrease and you can eventually go crazy. I never let it get that far so I cannot say what happens once that happens as it never became the case. Puzzles were also a lot simpler than I had imagine. For the most part it was “find item”, “place item”, “whack item” or “move item out of the way”.

    Spooky Rating: 4 out of 10 Skeletons
    Recommend? Yes, it does well with creating a nice dark atmosphere and generally enjoyable gameplay loop.

    Dead Space 2

    Dead Space 2

    9 hours playtime
    no achievements

    Revisit
    Truly a proper sequel and the best of the series. The first game was still horror but felt it had a much more action focus. The second game, while still fairly non-stop action better mixes the horror with a darker atmosphere, creepier enemies, and more horror setup in encounters. The game features a lot of the original’s weapons along with some new additions, this goes for suits as well. However, I did not like the diversity in suits quite so much compared to the upgrading a single suit in the first. Dying isn’t necessarily a punishment as most enemies and situations have unique kill animations. The story is much more actively involved and even gives main character a voice that gives a bit more immersion to the situation. From beginning to end, the game is silky smooth and no one part ever felt like it dragged on. Before I knew it 9 hours had passed, and the game was over.

    Spooky Rating? 7 out of 10 Skeletons
    Recommend? Yes. Hands down one of the best action horror games out there.

    FATAL FRAME / PROJECT ZERO: Maiden of Black Water

    FATAL FRAME / PROJECT ZERO: Maiden of Black Water

    15 hours playtime
    no achievements

    So glad to finally get my hands on one of the final entries of my favorite survival horror series. This entry adds a new mechanic around revolving your shot and some open-ish areas to explore. It’s a bit of a slog in the beginning with some extremely hand holding tutorials. Past this the game does pick up while building upon layer of horror and lore towards the final endgame payoff.

    Spooky Rating? 9 out of 10 Skeletons
    Recommend? Yes, making it past the first few hours and the game improves like crazy while slowly building up the horror before cashing it in.

    Fairy Bloom Freesia

    Fairy Bloom Freesia

    2 hours playtime

    Simple 2D Beat-Em-Up. Utilize combos to fight waves of blobs in various small arenas and earn experience and mana to buy more skills/abilities. As you gain more and customize your skills your ability to combo and free flow becomes a lot easier. It however does feel a bit clunky at times, especially if you get knocked down it feels very easy just to get stun locked by enemies. There are a few bosses who are alright but also feel like it’s hard to combo and lack the flow of combat found in the rest of the game. You do get a moment where you break their guard and can freely hit them without worrying about attacks, but it is limited to one combo string and never got more than a few hits. The game is a lot shorter than I imagined and actually almost wished there was a bit more. Still, there is some nice post-game content where you can do new game plus with higher difficulties as well as wave survival. Story is fairly basic and ends a bit abruptly. Definitely feels like there was more planned but never followed through.

    Spooky Rating? NA
    Recommend? Yes, simple and enjoyable experience that doesn’t overstay it’s welcome.

    Phoenix Force

    Phoenix Force

    5 hours playtime

    Simplified bullet hell that seems to be a mobile game ported in. Each level is just a combination of 1 to 4 of the same few bosses. Each boss has a few variations as you progress which dictates the difference in their phases when dealt enough damage. All of the birds you can unlock pale in comparison to the starter as their damage is fairly low in comparison and abilities hardly activate enough to make up for it. With 100 levels (and a hundred challenge levels you could do in addition for the final unlock) the game gets repetitive and dull rather quickly.

    Recommend? No. It may be an okay entry to the bullet hell genre, but honestly better off with a different game.

    Scourge: Outbreak

    Scourge: Outbreak

    7 hours playtime

    4-player co-op story that utilizes a mix of third person shooter with limited psionic abilities somewhat reminiscent of Mass Effect complete with squad ordering. The squad of four have unique backgrounds, weapon proficiencies and their own combination of psionic abilities (one defense and one offense ability). This game has the ingredients to at least make a decent game but it really fails at every turn.
    The gameplay for your character is okay-ish. Standard third person shooter deal except the mounting system is fairly flawed in that you can shoot your own cover when aiming at an enemy. The abilities are fairly underwhelming especially since they do not automatically recharge and recharge are not only rare but destroyable. There is also an experience system that seems to give you rank ups in weapons (general), psionic (general), co-op resurrection, etc. but it doesn’t seem to actually affect anything and begs the question why even bother implementing it. The greatest detriment of this game is the AI, holy heck is the AI terrible. When they are not standing in a corner ways away from the enemy, they are doing suicide runs straight into the enemy. Even when you command them to go into cover or target an enemy, it does not guarantee their compliance. This makes the game an absolute slog and certain points of the game feel impossible as if anyone of you or your squad’s resurrection timer runs out, game over. The one upside is that the AI is pretty good about coming to someone’s aid when they go down.
    Story feels pretty inconsequential. Half the time things just kind of happened and it wasn’t explained very well as to why this team betrayed who, what exactly what you were doing, or in general what is happening. This hurts even more as each character’s story feels poorly handled and misleading.

    Spooky Rating? NA
    Recommend? No, the AI issue alone is enough to pass. Maybe, MAYBE, if you can squad up with at least one other player this may be alright but still generic experience.

    Alone in the Dark 1

    Alone in the Dark 1

    6 hours playtime
    no achievements

    I was fairly skeptical of this game as at first glance it didn’t seem to age well. However, after learning the ebb and flow of the game it holds up surprisingly well as a gaming and survival horror experience. After picking your character, you arrive at a mansion where you very quickly find thing are not what they seem and just about anything can (and will) kill you. Every encounter is just as much as a puzzle as it is a fight for survival. Learn each enemies’ interactions, plan your routes after death, and dear gods utilize all of the save slots to avoid putting yourself in a pickle.
    One of the biggest things to learn about this game is that there are a lot of situations that will instantly kill you with very little signals to let you know as much. Once you accept this, you can adapt a “learning experience” mentality and lessen the blow of each death. The combat is a little weak and this is partly due to a bit of a weird control system that takes time getting used to. It is also quite slow and either side can get temporarily stun locked. Visually, the game does look quite rough. I mean the female main character’s face is far more terrifying than some of the monsters you will face throughout the manor. Lastly, item management can be a right pain as you have a unlisted weight capacity and nothing ever gets “used up.” Instead, you will have to find a corner to throw things you no longer need or may need later. This includes simple things like books or used up boxes of cookies. Most puzzle puzzles can be figured out and may need some trial and error, but not as ambiguous as some point and click adventures.
    In addition to the main game, there is a fun little Halloween adventure following a small girl stuck in a toy store called “Jack in the Dark”. It utilizes a lot of the same mechanics as the original, but far less death.

    Spooky Rating? 2 out of 10 Skeletons
    Recommend? The visuals may be more than a bit dated, but the gameplay can be fairly enjoyable for those willing enough to learn the controls. Yes.

    Amigdala

    Amigdala

    4 hours playtime

    I have tried picking this game up several times, in VR, and failed to complete it until recently. The VR seems poorly implemented as I felt the need to vomit each time despite being fairly good with that sort of medium. This especially sucks as the game tries it’s hardest to run in VR even with the setting turned off. Once you actually get the game running, it turns into a fairly generic first-person horror game. In fact, most of it is just exploring the same few halls trying to figure out what the heck you are supposed to do. It only makes matters worse when you gotta worry about weird multiple interactions with objects, ability to easily get cornered in narrow hallways, and frame perfect timing sequences that can lead to your immediate death. The story is also very meh in regard to premise and finality.

    Spooky Rating? 1 out of 10 Skeletons
    Recommend? At it’s best, the game is underwhelming and more often is worse than that. No.

    Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

    Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

    12 hours playtime
    no achievements

    How to take a decent world building Lovecraftian horror and turn it to trash? You make the port to PC a buggy and terrible mess. After witnessing the forbidden Eldritch horrors, your character goes mad and loses several years before returning to uncover the truth. For the first few segments, this game has some decent horror in it and unsettling moments despite some of the rough visuals. Unfortunately, that is all lost the moment you pick up a gun and then it is just a supernatural first-person shooter. There are still some spooky moments that persist and there is a sanity mechanic that could enhance this, but overall, it kind of ends up being a rough FPS. Honestly, in general as the game goes on it is fairly downhill. Story progresses oddly, many paths to progression are either unclear or do not function as they should and the ending kind of just exists. There is a neat healing mechanic where you can pick specific wounds on your body to heal, but it is never really explained and figured it out by accident.
    I’d like to take a moment to say that I can’t stress enough how absolutely game breaking and buggy this game can get. There are several moments where some key visuals will not appear, interactions will not proceed as planned, and frame pacing issues can force death despite running the correct path. There are some patches out there that can mitigate most of these issues. HOWEVER, even with the patches I could not fix a bug that always killed me as I was 10 steps away from the final cutscene trigger.

    Spooky Rating? 3 out of 10 Skeletons
    Recommend? No, the game has too many game breaking bugs to even be worth considering. Supposedly there is a GOG version that can be fixed but I wouldn’t go out of my way for.

    Fallout 4

    Fallout 4

    120 hours playtime

    I think I have started a new game on several platforms, with and without mods, without ever making it much further than the halfway point in the story. It’s not to say it is necessarily bad on it’s own, but in comparison to the series as a whole is a relatively big disappointment.
    The gameplay just feels like a massive step back from it’s RPG roots, especially as it comes after New Vegas. In fact, it almost loses most of the RPG elements and only leaves a basic and underwhelming perk and skill system. Most of the later tree perks do very little or need to be used in a very specific build, and no longer do most of your special stats affect most encounters with NPCs. The combat is fine enough, but with the new Legendary system you run into far too many bullet sponges. The new armor system is fairly underwhelming
    Exploration is far weaker, in part due to the new crafting and base building system. You are no longer really exploring buildings for neat weapons, lore, etc. but now feels like you are exploring for materials to craft walls and stairs for a base you may or may not be building. These materials also take up an incredible portion of your weight and do not transfer between bases without specific perks and setup. This weight issue could have easily been reduced if there was a skill to halve all junk material. Speaking of items, trying to barter and sell is also a pain as no shops carry any substantial amount of caps and rates are way too against your favor.
    The story is also, for the most part, fairly boring and lacks any build up, climax, or conclusion. Most of the companions even seem to lack any interactions and some of which do not even carry unique quest lines. Companions are also a pain to level especially as it feels there are several mechanics that they seem to rely on that are not activated within the game.
    Only one of the two major DLCs is worth the purchase, while most of the small DLCs have a crafting focus and fail to include anything meaningful even in that aspect.
    Far Harbor
    Only If the base game had quite the same storytelling, choices, and setting as this. This DLC has just about it all. New interesting location, several new factions that play major roles in the DLC story, and a lot of interesting and great gear. Some of the downsides include it reusing some enemies form base game with new skin and some of the more interesting enemies don’t ever seem to show up.
    If you own Fallout 4, it is very recommended to get this DLC above all else.
    Nuka World
    What a waste of potential, the setting and ideas are all there but poorly implemented and not fleshed out. A theme parked setting focusing on the Nuka Cola drink seen throughout the game. However, most of the quests not only involve “clear out area” or a fetch quest, but most main missions require you to constantly travel from the DLC to the main game and back. It is an absolute slog. To make matters worse, the DLC effectively forces you to take a antagonistic stance and join the raiders. There is technically A mission that allows you to not choose the raider path but it is a side mission that reduces the playtime of the DLC to 10 minutes and thus a waste of a purchase. Heck, one of the main missions of the game will permanently ruin your relationship with Preston Garvey (Minutemen) among other factions. So, if you are trying to do a Minutemen run this can absolutely ruin your base game story.
    Definite pass.

    Spooky Rating? NA
    Recommend? Are you a Fallout fan? You can probably pass. Do you like a heavily action focused with some light RPG elements, you may enjoy this. Either way, modding heavily recommended.

    Post Mortem

    Post Mortem

    5 hours playtime
    no achievements

    Point-and-Click adventure as a ex American Detective solving a mysterious murder case in France. The game starts off strong with not only a murder of a married couple but showing the twisted scene of the crime. It unfortunately does not keep this level of intrigue as getting evidence and questioning individuals can be slow. Furthermore, I was a little sad to see that any future murders were not shown nor given the idea that they were given the same level of gruesome intent as the initial. As the game progressed towards the end, some of the plot points were interesting but overall I was just trying to get the game over with.

    Spooky Rating? 1 out of 10 Skeletons
    Recommend? The game is alright, but doesn’t feel particularly fulfilling.

    Silence of the Sleep

    Silence of the Sleep

    6 hours playtime
    no achievements

    2D Stealth horror game that plays with the ideas of limbo and things not being what they seem. Some decent puzzles while the story feels like it drags on. Certain segments also just seem to go on far longer than they need to or are needlessly tedious.

    Spooky Rating? 2 out of 10 Skeletons
    Recommend? Not terrible, just not great. Probably pass.

    The Scourge Project: Episode 1 and 2

    The Scourge Project: Episode 1 and 2

    4 hours playtime
    no achievements

    This is basically Scourge: Outbreak build on a previous engine. Aside from some minor changes to how weapons feel and models, the game suffers from a lot of the same issues Outbreak does. One key difference is that the AI squad refuses to use their abilities and don’t always automatically go to pick a squad mate up. The other key difference is that everyone seems to have the same set of abilities and the abilities feel much stronger.

    Spooky Rating? NA
    Recommend? Much like Scourge: Outbreak, it’s a no.

    The Walking Dead: Season Two

    The Walking Dead: Season Two

    8 hours playtime

    Following Clementine from Season 1, you do your best to survive while trying to learn the hard truths of surviving with others. Though still a decent story, this game doesn’t quite hit the same way as the first. On top of that, it feels like you run into so many of the same situations and interactions it gets quite old especially as it feels like each person gets their turn to participate despite their reactions in previous iterations. I understand this may have been intentional to drive some of the themes within the game, but it very much could have been handled better.

    Spooky Rating? 1 out of 10 Skeletons
    Recommend? Though it fails to compare to the original, it is an alright interactive experience.

    Only If

    Only If

    2 hours playtime

    Free to play that employs some interesting mechanics. However, it does feel like a student’s project overall in quality. Some lines feel just a little too bizarre and the game can get a fairly buggy from time to time. Still, it feels like something you should tell other people to play for the weird instances littered throughout.

    Spooky Rating? 0 out of 10 Skeletons
    Recommend? Eh, why not? Short and free and some decent segments littered here and there.

    Resident Evil Village

    Resident Evil Village

    68 hours playtime

    Shadow of Rose DLC
    Short scenario involving and ending the Winters saga starring the daughter of Ethan. Despite being a DLC the game starts of fairly slow before you get into decent combat. You revisit places across the main game in overall three segments all with a slightly different focus than the last all while exploring Rose’s mysterious powers. I never feel like the combat gets explored enough and would have liked it to be a bit longer. That being said, there is an excellent scary section implemented that does well to not rely on jumpscare or action. I would have liked to see a much more extended variation of each section or even allow us to play as Rose in main campaign/mercenaries.

    Mercenaries Extra Orders
    New characters added make you feel truly powerful, as they should. Both Heisenberg and Dimitrescu are absolute powerhouses, not to mention the fact that you have to crouch as Lady to get through doors is amazing. Chris is also a new character, but I could not quite figure out how to use him effectively or what his abilities do.

    Spooky Rating? 7 out of 10 Skeletons
    Recommend? It is a solid DLC that wraps up some left over questions without requiring a full game. However, it is still on the short side.

Zelrune

Congratulations on all of your assassinations! I liked your Fallout 4 review, I haven’t played New Vegas yet but I loved Fallout 4 and everyone says it’s better so I’m a bit excited for when I do get into it. Far Harbor was amazing and the Nuka World DLC was indeed terrible, I may have joined the institute but I did like the minutemen. I liked the special quest at the end! For the carry weight issue, I picked the one perk where if you didn’t have a companion you got a bunch of bonus carry weight, and then used Dogmeat as a buddy since she didn’t count for some reason. (Plus, essential characters rock!)

Bangledeschler

Thank you kindly and glad you enjoyed that one. I’ll be looking forward to your review of NV when you get to it! I never got to experience the actual ending endings for each faction due to bugs and maybe mod interference, not to mention Nuka World DLC ruined my relationship with Minutemen. Glad you enjoyed your experience with FO4.

Yeah, I was max strength and eventually started getting those perks as well but even still it is a slog if you are trying to get each companion’s perks and need to focus out your own build. I may have mentioned this already, but Dogmeat was definitely meant to be able to follow you even with companions (they have done something similar in previous games) but for some reason never made it to the final build of 4 which is probably why Dogmeat isn’t considered a companion. Thank god for mods on that aspect.

Adelion

“shedding a little more light on the ending”

Haha, quite a play on the game there. Alan Wake was pretty interesting, although I would have a tough time to remember all of the important final details. And I think I have heard that Alan Wake 2 is finally made O.o Although it is exclusive I think? Have you played the Stand-Alone DLC with the “timeloop”?

Also, is the spooky rating about how frightening it was for you? I am surprised Fatal Frame got such a high score (although I haven’t played it).

Bangledeschler
And I think I have heard that Alan Wake 2 is finally made O.o Although it is exclusive I think? Have you played the Stand-Alone DLC with the “timeloop”?

They definitely announced a sequel, but it has yet to release. It is, thankfully, not an exclusive, but is supposed to be much more survival horror (also thankfully).
I have not played the standalone DLC YET, but I do plan to. For some reason I kind of just avoided it for a very long time.

Also, is the spooky rating about how frightening it was for you?

Yes, that is correct. However, some ratings may be slightly off due to many being a group rating (part of a streaming group event) and Fatal Frame may be a little high due to some bias towards the series. It is, in fact, my favorite survival horror series and I think they do horror quite well. Though my bias does not take away from the fact that a certain late game events are quite unsettling and spooky.

I definitely recommend Fatal Frame series and, hopefully, they will bring the early ones to Steam with the success of the last two ports. FF2 and FF3 are some of the best in the series and are not quite so overwhelming with some of the choices in later games.

Adelion

The standalone DLC is okay but very different from the main game. The story is interesting but it doesn’t tell much somehow. Would probably have to read a summary of Alan Wake before playing the second part as there are some details which are important but i don’t remember.

Hm, I eyed the one Fatal Frame on Steam but it is to expensive to consider it for now. However, I played its cheaper version DreadOut ^^’ Great atmosphere and interesting game but very rough around its edges.