Oct 2026
Well one way to pretend to make progress is to get a bundle of indie horror games and beat/complete a bunch of them but actually only end up increasing your unfinished deficit… Well at the very least there were some pretty fun surprises. Also for any of them marked as red/won’t play I didn’t realize they were those co-op friend games that I just have no actual interest in. I’ll probably remove them at a later date. Well, outside of cleaning up a few started games I am largely going to focus on FFXI as I have learned my lesson for the last time that putting that game down is a mistake. It takes me several hours to just figure out where I am and how to play again, not to mention needing guides.
Planned Games
-FFXI
-Control Resonant
Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection
-Megaman Zero 1
A rough start to a new series as it tries to cement what this should be. Though it follows Zero, I was surprised it actually branches off from some of the X games which only makes the new design of Zero all the more surprising. To get his own series I would have assumed he would be more armored and spiky and instead he is far more slender and… almost looks like he is wearing a diaper with his lower “armor”. Honestly I would have preferred the lower armor to be missing entirely and just have it look like he is wearing black leggings compared to what we got. Luckily it’s pretty ignorable during the actual gameplay.
The gameplay is a bit odd. Levels are microscopically short, there is almost no platforming, and it constantly oscillates between being the easiest Megaman game I’ve played to some of the more difficult-ish ones often due to design choices more than actual challenge. This challenge largely is due to the life system in this game and Zero’s limited health. The collection features a checkpoint save system that I do highly recommend. Due to originating from a handheld, your buttons are pretty limited. That means trying to use a sub weapon will require a shoulder button along with the attack button which feels kinda awkward especially on top of doing actions like dashing. Zoro does retain his ability to access multiple weapon types though they all have to be leveled which can take some time and a lot of grinding. Some of which require specific actions which are never detailed outside of POSSIBLY a manual. This grinding feels kind of against the new ranking system which will score your time, damage dealt/received, and possibly other hidden criteria though luckily the rank doesn’t mean much… yet. We also lose the quite so open level picking system. From time to time there will be options to choose which mission first but all you get is a line of dialogue instead of seeing the boss and it’s limited to a few at a time at most. Bosses are pretty simple as far as their move diversity. Finally, the newest change is the cyber elf system which is both a major plot device as well as an item system. Collect cyber elves around the levels and enemies, some requiring resources to even use. You CAN use them but apparently they die after use and you get penalized for using them at all which feels really weird especially since some can be things like health tanks and what not. Like, it REALLY doesn’t want you to use mechanics introduced in this game.
In short, it has yet to figure out what this new series wants to be and largely feels kinda awkward but overall is decent enough. This isn’t new for IPs moving to handhelds but a lot of that clumsiness happened on the original Gameboy when it had far more limited capabilities and less so with the GB Advance.
5/10
-Megaman Zero 2
Some refinement and new ideas but still doesn’t quite hit the mark for me. Levels are larger, boss choices are revealed for each level, both new and returning bosses have far more diversity in their challenge, new weapons, and a bit more interesting story. There’s one new weapon I want to make specific mention of as it is not only for battle but utility and that is the chain rod. This is effectively a whip used to navigate some areas. Luckily it’s not NEARLY as required as it could have been since it is a pain to try and use. A lot of actions will prevent it from actually gripping surfaces and trying to both attach the rod to a surface and jump off of it (either just making the landing in general or not getting hit) is incredibly frustrating. It does have some neat boss interactions at times but again is far more limited. Weapons once again need to be leveled though it is far easier this time. Ranking does matter as beating a boss while at a high rank (rank is cumulative by the way) earns you a special ability similar to how Megaman or X would gain abilities when defeating bosses. However, getting a high rank to get even a single ability felt difficult the first time through and once again feels like the game does not want you to engage in the unique mechanics due to just locking you out. Cyber elves make a return, little has changed though it no longer requires resources to use some of them (I think).
A bit better, bosses are more enjoyable and the story is a bit more engaging but still has a fair bit of issues.
6/10
-Megaman Zero 3
Alright, they finally figured it out. This… THIS is the game. Refined levels, better story, great bosses, more manageable rank system that seems possible to actually earn enemy abilities, no more weapon leveling, AND some cyber elves can actually be used without affecting rank. These cyber elves specifically are called satellite elves and often change how a weapon works or how you interact with the environment. It’s such a nice change and yet they introduce another mechanic that the game does NOT want you to use. Cyber doors. Alternate routes in a level that puts you in a cyberspace version which also activates all of your elves. It could be a unique way to traverse the level BUT it also lowers your rank removing any incentivization for you to ever use one even though I’m pretty sure they allow for unique encounters. Another new mechanic is data chips. Either dropped by an enemy, found in a level, or earned from an NPC they provide (when deciphered) either cyber elves or enemy/lore information. It’s not terribly important but it’s a nice little added side goal to do while traversing the levels.
Aside from the cyberspace doors, this is easily the best one and where the Zero series finally knows what it wants to be. I can only hope that they continue this with the next few games but knowing the MM series as a whole… it’s bound to go downhill and fast.
8.5/10
Russian roulette but with a shotgun. How? Well, instead of relying on a revolver’s revolving bullet cylinder, we instead are shown the number of live and blank rounds being loaded at random. Shooting live rounds will damage the recipient while blank rounds will do nothing unless you use it on yourself which grants you another turn. Items eventually get introduced to both parties to further give advantages such as seeing the current loaded round, expelling that round, skipping the opponent’s turn, etc. Just be warned the opponent also gets items so plan their use accordingly. It’s an interesting decision and numbers game trying to figure out where to aim the barrel but regardless of strategy (and even with the assistance of items) it will eventually boil down to probability. This, for me, isn’t very satisfying. I don’t need complete control but I need to be able to properly engage with the gameplay and the core mechanic being chance just isn’t for me. Items help but it’s also devastating watching the enemy just use all their items and be able to out me before I ever get a proper rebuttal. In short, there are times if you do not finish them on your first turn… they’ll finish you on theirs. Admittedly I was surprised out how anxious pointing a video game shotgun at myself would make me. Like a jumpscare you know is coming… just not sure when.
In short, decent Russian roulette gambling game just overall not my total thing.
-Gifted. Despite my low review score I would still like to thank the person who gifted me this. One way or another, regardless of it’s quality I still wanted to experience the game and I did. So, thank you.
The final(?) game in the first season of the Dark Pictures Anthology (I believe Directive 8020 was advertised as a DPA game but nothing on the Steam page suggests as much) and it could not have gone out in less of a bang. I can’t tell if the devs bit off more than they can chew with the whole anthology initiative or if they ran out of time, money, ideas, or any combination of the above but it just feels like this lacked so much. From beginning to end it had been nothing but a frustrating mess.
General Performance. Boot up all the way through endgame credits. First time booting it… it totally messed up my monitors causing them to go black and no longer display properly until I disconnected one of them and then had to do several troubleshooting steps just to get them to work in general and STILL noticed issues while playing certain games. I’m guessing it automated to some sort of framerate that couldn’t be read between both monitors or something. I played the rest of the anthology on a different monitor so it’s completely possible it’s a compatibility issue with this new one. However, I have played other games on this prior with no issues and for it to cause such severe issues that persisted even outside of the game is ridiculous. MOVING ON. The game itself ran poorly regardless of the graphics quality I set it at. Again could be the newer monitor but was facing consistent lag or choppiness when moving around and delays between some scenes.
The actual game itself. For the most part, it’s a typical Supermassive game. Narrative driven with small segments of gameplay, quick time events, and choices that affect characters and outcomes. An interactive movie. This one is such a slog from the get go. It is so slow with little to no intrigue before anything actually happens and even when they do… it’s underwhelming. I assumed it was just the initial scenario that would have such odd and wooden voice acting but even when introducing our main cast the acting did not get much better. Just generally poor deliveries on top of lackluster writing like people were just trying to get through it to get it done. Speaking of, the characters are just awful. Each and every one. It’s too obviously set up as a self destructive crew that each character is just miserable to interact with. I was tempted to just purposely all send them to their graves just so I can be done with them and get to the credits already. The one upside to them is the inventory system which gives each character an item that diversifies their skill sets and interactions. Unfortunately it isn’t THAT deep as you’ll never run into an object that the current character can’t interact with that would make you think “Hey, maybe this character could do this later/earlier”… and instead is just immediate and done with. There are also far too many points where you’d switch from one character to another for just a few seconds and then switch to yet another. Like, if you were just going to make me watch them go through a door only to switch back to someone else… maybe don’t bother going to that scene at all. Prioritize meaningful scenes over every little detail. There are some neat ideas here and there but nothing ever truly hits or meets the potential. Even with finding most secrets a lot of the mysteries go unanswered or feel unsatisfying all the way through the climax and ending.
I’m starting to think that Supermassive Games is, in fact, not all that and a bag of chips. I still plan to check out Directive 8020 along with the more anticipated The Quarry but feeling really let down by this one.
The anthology as a whole… I only REALLY liked House of Ashes while the rest had some neat moments or ideas… mostly just weren’t that great. Truly only HoA and Until Dawn have actually been solid games. I still think it’s odd that the entire Anthology, although veers on ~sci fi quite a bit, is fairly grounded and semi realistic.~ I just would have thought there would have been more diversity in its types of horror despite their Until Dawn origins.
Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse
0
4
10
14
This was a pretty anticipated game for me. Though a little concerned that the Dead Cells devs were taking a stab at the series (despite how well they handled the crossover DLC) I had a bit of hope and faith due to the visual and combat shown in trailers. Admittedly the faith wavered at the beginning as it felt unusually slow and limited. However, once Act 2 starts it really opens up with exploration, combat, and general mechanics. It only gets better from there. It does get a bit mechanically complex as you will have to use just about every button on the controller during battles and exploration occasionally causing me to mix up the action I meant to do. Rose is a fantastic new member in the Belmont bloodline and appreciates both her innocence as a newer vampire hunter as well as the hope and burdens she carries. The tarot system is also great which allows more gameplay variety as well as interesting dialogue. Brandish your weapons and spells and prepare to hunt the night!
Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival
0
3
9
27
The Good
Gotta say it’s kind of impressive just how well the devs understand the source material and did not hold back in the sexual themes, excessive gore, and twisted body horror that fit the IP so well. Right of the bat you are getting a full on sex scene that quickly devolves into consensual torture. Pleasure and pain indivisible, a motto of the cenobites for anyone who dares open the box. No censorship even a little bit. Full on genitalia of both sexes and the meatiest of viscera all around. It doesn’t stop there, filled with bondaged NPCs, foul mouthed enemies, and metal infused living abominations. The visuals, atmosphere, and even music are all very fitting and well done. Getting to explore the labyrinth is a treat and not only a rare moment but incorporates several ideas from across several films. The cenobites are also fairly well portrayed as they aren’t directly evil, they simply abide by the rules and are mostly a third party with a haunting (and sometimes tempting) presence. The story is pretty solid with some very strong underlying themes seen throughout the entirety of its game. I actually really love hostile and more so the friendly NPCs you encounter and their stories as they perfectly supplement just exactly what the game is trying to convey and are often pretty genuine (given the circumstances). There could be some better motivations in some places but overall good to great.
The Bad
…It’s only a shame that the devs just didn’t know what they wanted to do with the gameplay. This game has combat, stealth, chase segments, and puzzles… and it does none of them particularly well. Combat is by far the better aspect but often with terrible arenas, lacking a block button that could make up for only being able to dodge (which can easily end you up stuck in a corner), and it de-incentivizes you to fight due to its survival horror mechanics (limited supplies, inventory, and durability based melee weapons). Yet, despite the survival horror mechanic you are easily swarmed by many enemies in less than forgiving situations. Hell, it even forces you with combat arenas and just never feels THAT good. Also, if you are going to give the idea that the puzzle box can be used as a weapon, please give it way more creative and different abilities instead of just the two most basic ideas that have existed in gaming for over 20 years. Like, genuinely the puzzle box feels as usable as if it came straight out of a PS2 game and so easily interruptible.
So, why not just use stealth? Well, stealth sucks due to wonky stealth physics. There is no peak function, so if you poke your body around the corner to check for enemies… well if you can see them they can see you unless you are in one of the limited dark areas. If even one enemy suspects you or finds a body, they are all on high alert with some TERRIBLE pathing that has led to multiple of them just all twitching against the same door (naturally the one you need to go by or through). Once you are found, you are again swarmed and with the limited combat it can easily be game over. Even engaging with the sound and throwing items mechanic for distractions, enemies tended to just look towards me rather than the item I threw.
Puzzles. Puzzles can be alright at times but considering it’s from an IP that has a PUZZLE BOX… you’d think they’d lean into it a bit more. THe puzzles involving the box itself are really slow, usually manipulating an item which feels like you are pulling everything in molasses only for some false sense of suspense. We also do very little actual solving of the box itself, something I feel like even the movies often glossed over save for the latest reboot. Many extra puzzle solutions have a video game sensibility in mind, often leaving codes at times literally painted around on walls and perspective based views instead of more immersive hidden methods. Lockpicking is also literally just Skyrim lockpicking and it really does not fit the feel of the game. Lastly the chase sequences are just overdone, repetitive, and not very diverse given how frequent you have to deal with them. It also has a Resident Evil 4 inventory management system (both your pockets and storage box) but doesn’t include an option to swap object places like… why? It only serves to make possible adjustments impossible because you can’t replace two items and it is already a very limiting area.
Bosses are kinda mixed. Despite the gruesome designs of the world around you, most fail to meet any interesting visual expectations and, at best, okay actual combat. The last boss in particular is as boring visually as it is to fight. It’s just really disappointing. This kinda goes with a lot of enemies too, in fact there are some creatures we see but never actually get to face, largely due to the labyrinth have a weird no violence quota on your part (stripping you of your gear every time you enter)
This really should have been better since they totally understood what a Hellraiser game should be as a presentation but failed to do the actual execution. I would have loved a more polished, action focused, and entirely indulgent game. It is my fear that even if we get another more polished game, the next team won’t do the source justice and be heavily censored. Like, this could have easily been just another horror IP turned asymmetric multiplayer game and it is a mostly functional single player experience.
Also the game shills out achievements like nothing. Taking three steps I had earned 4 for basically nothing other than for them to make references.
KOTAMON: My Sis Found A Super-Rare Card In Her Cereal Box, So I Became A Garbage Man To Find The Entire Collection And Earn $1,000,000
A decent clean ‘em up and card collector game that has a lot of potential but is currently a bit too monotonous at its current state. Vacuum up garbage indiscriminately into a garbage bag as you collect card parts, dirty cards, and other collectibles. You then sell your filled trash bags for money which can be used for upgrades to increase efficiency. The slight variety this game does add is that you piece together and clean cards to build your collection and trade in lower quality cards for higher for more value. It’s not much more but better than nothing I suppose. You can sell cards but there’s very little point in the early game since you’ll want to trade up to have at least one foil each.The garbage lot, a circular fenced off area with a small house, is the only venue so you’ll be repeatedly cleaning up the same zone over and over. Again, monotonous even with the slight changes from seasonal updates. The cards are the real heroes of this game as they offer a great variety of raunchy catgirl and , usually, beer themed art often based on pre-existing video game and anime characters (yes, genderbend galore). Many artists have and continue to contribute so there are quite a few styles and they are even credited and offer links on the card details page which is actually really neat both for those discovering new artists and the artists themselves to get their art out. It honestly makes me want to begin the practice as there are still so many ideas that I wish to see come to fruition (in the meantime I leave it to the professionals, of course). All of the references are really great and appreciate both the creativity and humor that comes with it.
Ideas and Room for Improvement?
At the moment, the game doesn’t offer much in gameplay variety to warrant the abhorrent drop rates and time it takes to sink in getting these cards. My current 50 hours and I can clear out the lot three times over and expending all my resources and still not get even the lowest rarity of any card I am hunting. So, how do we improve this?
Ideas for variety and content:
-Recycable, break down boxes, collect coupons to trade for cards, and basically anything that can offer spice than just vacuuming everything up. By no means would any of this need to be mandatory but could be incentivized by more money, cards, or inventory.
-More levels. The circle gets boring and has little exploration. I would love to have places I can go like a hoarder’s house/storage, trashed convention hall, abandoned card shop, etc to offer more visual and explorative variety.
-Allow us to see the lady of the trash lot while we move around and wear the clothes we provide. It’s vital :) (Other NPCs that change what they are doing isn’t a bad either, maybe even a temporary helper?)
-And of course, more cards (though it is likely already in place and a given since they encourage people to submit arts to include in the game)
-Allow playlists of the songs you find. You can manually enter the song to play but then it automatically plays the next. I only really liked a couple of the tracks and there are a few I’d rather not play at all.
Ideas for QoL:
-The ability to trade multiple stacks of a card. At present you can only trade three cards of a rarity for a higher one at a time. In my current late game I could easily have 60 cards each that I would love to be able to trade quickly instead of having to click and sit through animations. As well, being able to sell by quantity instead of individually.
-Remove the sell button from everywhere. Anytime you collect a card (through any means) the sell button is available and dangerously so if you are quickly going through a bunch at once making it likely to sell a card you did not mean to.
-Temporary buffs to specific card drops. I have spent hours, cleared the area multiple times, and still not received even one card I want of the lowest variety. Allow us in an endgame to buy buffs at a high price for a temporary increase to the card drops, even if you are only guaranteed the lower quality it is by far better than the nothing I have been getting.
I like the game, it’s good, but it could be great or even fantastic with even just a few of the changes listed above. Also, I tried, I really tried to go for the last achievement before posting this but I just couldn't bare it any longer. Not without some QoL to ease the journey.
This game has been critically praised to hell and back and while my appreciation of it has grown over time after beating it (even as I write this my personal score has raised by an entire point), I don’t quite hold it to quite the same high regard. I can understand why people love it so much though. It’s PS1 era graphics, well crafted characters, and a well done almost Memento-like non-chonological order of storytelling that informs the character while keeping the greater mystery hidden in their peripherals. They know something is there but they can never quite see it fully. There is plenty of dialogue and interactions but the game does not outright explain everything. It allows the player to piece together the greater picture on their own while providing context clues to nudge them along. I think this is in part why my enjoyment was not quite as high as I did not understand all the set pieces or more importantly some of the relationships the characters had. This did require some lookup on forums though due to the nature of the game it’s largely conjecture and using evidence to support theoretical facts. So, other than the greater mystery some things are left to each individual’s experience. The game doesn’t require much outside of some light exploration, puzzle solving, interactions, and encounters. While unnerving, what the game does best is keeping intrigue in the mystery while it strings the player along and how it develops its characters through what limited time and information it gives you. A good use of music, visuals, and setup create a pretty great atmosphere and interactive horror experience.
Oh… oh no… I like this… a lot. My playtime is from a single session and could have easily extended far beyond what it was had it not been for my grasping of willpower. It’s a horror job sim that has you recover items from a spooky warehouse to ship out as needed and meet your daily quota. Not everything is lethal but will try to jump-scare you from your objective. Print order slips, memorize the location and unlock code for the container and return. It’s as simple as that but so very addicting. Your cat is your timer as any time spent away ticks down the amount of happiness your cat has. If that reaches 0… game over, so be quick to return to your feline friend. You won’t have much to help you until you start investing in more items such as flashlights, scanners, more levels, etc. Even items for your cat to increase their happiness (and yes you can pet the cat). You won’t even have a proper map which I thought would be a problem but exploring and memorizing the layout was actually pretty great. It does have some jank (items disappearing, interactions becoming a bit wonky, tedious enemies) with some ideas left unfinished (either cut content or potential updates, I could not say) alongside the repetitiveness might not be for everyone. I do also hate the “post-game” randomizing the orders you get. Meaning you could be unlucky and get a bunch of low value orders making it eventually impossible to meet your quota. Allowing me to choose the risk/reward level for at least half my tickets or having an extra goal to further give rewards would be nice.
Just being able to plan out your routes in your head, learning navigation routes, and knowing how to avoid dangers is pretty satisfying. It’s simple, it’s repetitive, it’s a job sim horror, and it was my hyper-fixation for over 4 hours. I don’t get it… why I like these kinds of games but running to grab orders in the darkness and among monsters… I liked it there. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I was right where I was supposed to be.
Silent Hill: Townfall
0
1
3
15
Konami continues passing out their IPs to various developers like throwing darts on a dart board. There’s been mixed results but I think so far it’s been pretty positive. So, with all these new hands on the IP we should establish one thing. What makes a Silent Hil game a Silent Hill game? The location is probably an easy answer but pretty limiting. After all, why can’t what happened in that town happen in other places with different or similar results? For me, it’s body horror, sound design, mystery, obtuse puzzles, and atmosphere. These traits are what make SH stand out from it’s contemporaries in the Survival Horror genre. Townfall, I believe, does that pretty well. Technically it’s not the first SH to go First Person, though it is the first one to be an actual full fledged game. It handles it pretty well and is helped by just how crazy good the game looks. Like, it’s been a while since I marveled at how crazy good high def a game looked. It really is beautiful and the European coast town inspired location feels quite fresh and charming (y’know outside of the “SH” aspect of it). Sound design is fantastic and vital both as a way to immerse into the environment as well as track the happenings around you.
Silent Hill, much like most Survival Horror, promotes a fight or flight idea. This one more specifically promotes more stealth as a primary and fighting second due to the limited resources and durability of melee weapons. Peaking, crouching, throwing objects for sound, hiding and closets as well as using the CRTV as your main tools for facing enemies. The CRTV effectively acts similarly as the radio does in the other games. It can be used to track enemies as well as a narrative progression tool. You’ll have to tune it for each and every enemy or narrative point which is kinda neat giving you a little bit of an edge but something you have to manage. Though, whoever designed the controls clearly has not held a controller before. Trying to tune the device while moving or even just standing still feels awkward due to requiring use of the triggers, bumpers, and even sometimes the gyroscope of the controller itself. Combat itself is mostly expected but can be a bit awkward especially against certain enemies.
The story tackles a lot and keeps plenty of secrets along the way while it kept me wondering just where exactly it planned to go. At times it felt like it does try a bit too hard to keep things vague, a mystery, or particularly deep I can appreciate the story they try to tell. It also makes me wonder why we haven’t seen more job sim horror games surrounding hospital work. Something detailed and along the lines of Mortuary Assistant could be great. Puzzles are solid and rarely feel like an overwhelming challenge.
All in all, Konami’s trust in AnnaPurna and ScreenBurn paid off. Though it may not appease those loyal to the original games it does a great job of exploring the world of this universe and those open to it can appreciate everything it offers.
A decent little game that requires you to keep up a few simple tasks while unraveling the mysteries of your work area. With limited air you must blow a whistle to keep a train on pace. Using air vials you can restore your air but you must find or trade tickets for them by doing menial work. The secrets and progression are not necessarily obvious, even when you have found them it still requires some experimenting with actions to get progress to move forward so you can continue your investigations. The constant dealing with air keep up and work is a bit annoying but I did enjoy discovering the various clues and ways to progress since ideally you can get an idea of what to look for from the start and figure out how or when you get there. I didn’t completely understand everything and the story/lore didn’t grip me quite so much but some of the outcomes were interesting and I was able to find some enjoyment on my journey through this.
Alan Wake 2
1
0
3
85
This has been a long time coming. Initially I waited because it was only on Epic store for PC and digital only for consoles. It did eventually get it’s console release but was holding out in the event I ended up playing for an audience. Well, that time has passed and I was finally ready to take on the sequel to a favorite game of mine. Though I wish I had gotten to it sooner, it was well worth the wait. Remedy once again shows they are fantastic at writing and world building while revamping the combat system and feel from the first. Previously, though horror themed, the first was far more of an action thriller. This adopts a full on survival horror experience with darker settings, enclosed pathing, up and close combat, and limited supplies/inventory. Saga Anderson is a welcome new protagonist who offers a unique perspective to this dark story. Her “mind place” allows the player to organize clues to the various cases and profiling ability is almost psychic like giving her the ability to get into the minds of potential suspects. Not terribly unlike Will Graham from Red Dragon/Manhunter. Though, I do wish there was some more freedom when placing clues as Saga will tell you outright that it’s wrong instead of really letting you figure it out and make mistakes. The dual narrative really works for this game and probably is the best I’ve seen something done like this. Allowing you to switch between or proceed until absolutely needed to go to the other. Each one complimenting each other while still standing on their own. Combat feels good, a lot of similar aspects of flashlight, dodge, and shoot. Though the dodge feels a bit finicky and some attacks seem to have persisting hit boxes that seem near impossible to dodge. Tons of secrets and puzzles that endorse taking time to explore. Specifically how the writer shapes the world is a fantastic new mechanic that makes a lot of sense given everything the previous games have been leading up to. There is a New Game Plus that supposedly offers a little bit of new content but in my brief run of it I hadn’t found anything yet.
All in all, a fantastic continuation of a much enjoyed series. So many great and surprising moments along with consistently engaging gameplay. I can only wonder if and where the story could go and how long I’ll have to wait. Very much recommended.
DLC
Night Springs DLC
I won’t go into specifics, but each DLC focuses on a different character both from the game and from the general “Remedy-verse”. They’ll be introduced as you progress through the story but you can play them anytime from the menu. They play pretty similarly but have a far greater focus on combat allowing a nice break from the barely getting by feel of the main game.
The Lakehouse DLC
Focuses more on how Control connects to everything that happens in Bright Falls and it REALLY feels like Control outside of the actual combat. It’s a total shit in feel but makes a lot of sense. It also gave me a lot of appreciation for the protag of this DLC and can only make me wonder why I haven’t heard more about them from others.
Not sure I would consider this a horror game, but it is definitely a future dystopia and quite ridiculous at that. The game is simple. Cook for others by moving your pan to heat the ingredients, flip items to cook both sides, and try to avoid losing any of the ingredients in the process. Each “ingredient” has their own mechanic and each mechanic will often affect the other items on the pan. It should be one of those frustrating games due to the likeliness of failure but honestly it is just too satisfying. Mastering the craft feels good and even when you fail, the ridiculousness of the situation is too humorous to be mad at. Your interactions with the inhabitants will even further cement the ridiculousness of the dish you’re making and even have, sometimes nauseating, camera changes to further exemplify the absurdity. Though there are some context clues, the game won’t explain everything and you’ll often either have to put the pieces together, headcannon, or just accept that things are the way they are as you encounter odd yet seemingly normalized aspects in these limited areas. Once you beat the game you do gain access to a sandbox mode which lets you customize and play various cooking scenarios to your liking.
Unexpectedly a fun game that probably has just the perfect length of content without overstaying itself.
Once again going down memory lane and using the Terminal Cut as an excuse to do so. I’ve always felt this sequel had cleaner combat due to the smoother animations and encounters as well as more sensible learning system. Both the gun system as well as the chain harpoon getting serious updates for the better. Instead of picking up and tossing randomly found guns you now have a dedicated blood gun. Using both the blood from your enemies (or yourself) you will now always have something to shoot with and doing reliably more damage. However they need to be leveled up and it can take a while. Far longer than it should be given when you unlock certain modes for the weapon. The chain harpoon no longer brings you to an enemy but instead allows you to ragdoll them into environmental hazards, in which there are plenty. In fact, it becomes a problem as the majority of the fights will REQUIRE you to utilize this mechanic far too much to the point where you’ll rarely get a chance to properly engage in what should be the regular combat. It’s cool throwing a mook into a spike or exploding barrel from time to time… it’s exhausting when you have to do it as much as you do and that’s on top of the slow-mo effect that happens every time in a required section. I also forgot just how stupidly difficult bosses often were. They take very little damage and do A LOT of damage in return often requiring you to play cat and mouse while using your rage meter. This problem is only slightly bettered by the fact that the devs NEEDED to throw in respawnable henchmen for you to refill your health, rage, and gun meters. Which, as much as I loved the unique boss designs that only further expanded the lore of the Bloodrayne world… vampire only enemies really felt monotonous. Most of the enemy fodder are humanoid vampires wearing different clothes. Also, what is with the henchmen wearing rhino masks? I get the leather bound and gothic fits that come from the 2000’s vampire culture but the rhino masks? It feels like they slipped off a comic supervillain henchmen assembly line and ended up in the wrong game.
Though I still very much appreciate this game, I mean Rayne and the artwork of her have never looked better (not to mention another great performance by Laura Bailey), but it only cements my love of the original and the feeling it had.
A survive-the-night game that requires you to learn the mechanics of each character if you want to make it through each hour before your escape. I had this in my wishlist for a while, not sure what to expect and maybe had I played this years ago I might have felt different but it is really rough. For starters it’s not actually clear when the gameplay starts. There’s also some sort of active issue where encountering a character in the start of the game causes the game to crash consistently. You don’t have to trigger them then but it is a problem nonetheless. You wander around a bunch looking for clues figuring out where to start but it’s unknowingly a matter of waiting. In fact, a lot of this game is waiting. Not in the, survive sort of way but even waiting for a character to do something waiting. Like, the hours feel so long and you have to do so little in them especially once you know each character's trick. There were times that even when adhering to the rules of each character a glitch or something would cause them to break that rule and kill you anyways. Rare, but it happened more than once with varying characters. Otherwise it’s super easy… until you get to the final hour in which the game can block you out of winning. By this I mean that depending on spawns and combinations, characters can stop you from finishing an objective in time (even at times physically blocking you). So, there’s a bit of RNG involved especially when I have had a character spawn on top of me. Luckily, you get checkpoints every hour even if you die so you don’t have to suffer through the time it takes to get to that point.
I’m usually a sucker for these sort of job sim horror games but this one does miss the mark a bit. You are the new cook at an over-the-counter restaurant. Serve food while customers and notes will give you clues to the happenings in the area. You may only have a limited view from your serving window, but their words are the window into the world around you. Suffice to say, you gotta cook their food and serve them. The mechanics to serve the food are just too… wacky for me to get behind. For the most part, you have to throw items to use. Them. For doing things like throwing meat on the grill, toppings onto a bun, etc. which is not a big deal… but you have to throw your knife to cut things which also causes the item to explode everywhere (ground included) and you can never truly stock anything due to this either as you’ll rarely have a great way to do so (the fridge doesn’t even allow you to store items properly). You can drop items but it is so near to your character that it often misses the table. It’s just kinda frustrating and despite the horror premise I’d still like to run a semi functional restaurant. Also, customers rarely tell you specifics from their order and you learn to use the whiteboard which gives you the actual details of their items which lacks a little immersion for me since you are the one taking the order, they should specify their items. Either that or have them ring themselves up. Finally, there is the cookbook. This explains how to make each item which can be necessary since the actual preparation can be specific. Why… Why does it have it in .gif format?! I just want to read or see pictures so I can quickly ascertain the steps instead of having to sit and wait for a repeating video to go through! Oh right, there’s also the horror side of things. Largely it is cartoonish jumpscares, which admittedly got me more than I’d like to admit, but feel pretty cheap overall.
I learned to enjoy the process but overall the narrative and gameplay loop don’t satisfy the itch.
I’m upset. I’m upset because it took me so long to discover this game and I’m even MORE upset that it introduces some of my favorite character designs only for me to have to watch them all die. DAMN YOU SKIN STAPLER! (Seriously we need more alt male/female/etc. Characters to play or even interact with in video games). It’s a narrative driven indie horror game with light exploration, puzzles, job sim aspects, and interactions. Visually it adopts the modernized PS1 graphics that have become ever so popular for indie horrors but it makes me nostalgic so I guess it works. Plus this one looks REALLY good. Like the character models, environments, general assets are all well detailed and the movement feels seamless especially when it even allows for usable mirrors. Hell, even the dynamic camera work gives it an extra edge to bolstering it’s presence among the other indie horror games alongside it. The game is as unnerving as it is comical. It’s unnerving in both expected and unexpected ways as it will often rely on weird innuendo, weird randomness, and sometimes toilet humor. Expected ways often from encounters with and the aftermath from the sinister villain, the Skin Stapler. The unexpected ways often come from the crazed people you will meet during the job sim sections that help establish just how down the toilet this city is. And you know what? I enjoyed it. The cheap humor may not be high brow and sometimes a tad repetitive but I appreciate the laughs it gave me and the hard boiled protag was a nice foil to it all. Speaking of the voice acting was well done and reeks of both a stereotypical noir movie alongside classic B rated horror movies which fits the storytelling just as well. My only serious gripe is that there are no instructions for your job sim mini games which most of the challenge was figuring out what exactly you were supposed to do. Also, no continue button and instead requires you to do chapter select to continue your progress. Each chapter is short, so no big deal, but it’s kind of a common courtesy at this point, ya know?
Seriously though, I only wish I learned of this game sooner and glad I took a chance upon it. Also, I really cannot stress how much I love the look of the characters in this game. Might have to look to see if they have any merch…
Sucker for Love
Charming, relatively short, and very funny interactive VN that pits you with one goal and one goal only. Summon a cosmic horror entity… and smooch them. That’s right your insatiable character has a thing for 4th dimensional entities and he is willing to risk life and sanity for that chance. Carry out rituals and do your best to survive all the while romancing a cosmic god. You only have a few rooms to move between but the game shows just how creative it can be with the limited space and interactivity. The first chapter is pretty simple but as they progress they open quite a bit and even can get surprisingly challenging. In fact, despite not having my favorite entity, the third chapter was a masterpiece in challenge and engagement. Voice acting is fantastic and really cannot give the VAs enough love for nailing their characters. Even I was completely smitten during the second chapter, just that incandescent poetry, line deliveries, and designs! The characters themselves have great and interesting interpretations from their cosmic horror origins to a more “waifu” style while still giving a sense that there is far more than meets the eye. Also, love the 90s anime feel of the intros, chapter select, and opening. Plenty of secrets and additional dialogue and just about every line was golden humor in my eyes. Suffice to say the game doesn’t take itself seriously and I love it for that. Each and every ending was interesting though I do wish bad ends and deaths had more unique visuals as most just show the insanity of your character.
Like, I knew I would enjoy this but it far exceeded my expectations
Best Girl(?) The King in Yellow (they are all great though)
I appreciate the ambition and interesting takes, but I didn’t enjoy this nearly as much as the first. It sacrifices the ridiculous situation and humor of the first and although still fairly light hearted as a much more somber and terrifying tone. I suppose we wouldn’t want to get too one note by just repeating similar premises, but oh well. Specifically, the interactions and relationship between an eldritch god and cult members was an interesting focus that I enjoyed quite a bit.
The game now is much more of an adventure as there are several rooms and even another floor to explore along with new mechanics involving encounters and opening doors. It’s very bold but I feel that choice caused them to also make the game much easier. The rituals are painfully simple and as soon as you start one the map notifies you exactly where to go instead of allowing you to search around. I’m also a bit confused as far as exactly where our protag stands. Their whole ability to resist the eldritch horror is because they have 0 lust… but somehow they can still feel attracted to others I guess? I just don’t think it is particularly presented well. That and the progression with your love interest does not progress in a satisfying way, often relying on off screen implications rather than more genuine moments that we are present for. The game does feel like a bit of a slog, in part due to the off screen implications, though I do appreciate the build up of some newer characters.
Quick note on performance. I’m not sure if it is due to how much bigger the game tries to be but I had frequent issues with the game reducing it’s window size while full screen and making it impossible to navigate without a controller. Occasionally it even crashed. It became rare in later moments but definitely a bit more frequent in the beginning.
YET! The final chapter does a lot of redeeming and fixes a lot of issues I had with the game up until that point. Challenge, story, love progression, HUMOR… it is all so well done in the end that I can forgive the sluggish lead up until this point. There is a sweet and endearing finality to it all. That being said, the ending ending does feel a bit abrupt and would have liked a more detailed send off. I appreciate everything this game was going for and hope they can refine and even return to form a bit in the next game.
Sucker for Love: Prelude
More of a previous version of Sucker for Love than an actual lead up to it story wise. You’ll play through the first chapter of the first game in all of it’s jank and glory. Pretty same dialogue and writing but everything looks slightly different and it all takes place in one room. I also had a recurring issue with coloring and flashing menus. Not sure if compatibility issues or this version is just that unstable. It’s fun, free, and almost acts as a demo but you are better off just going for the main game. Check it out if you really want to see what would eventually become the masterpiece that is Sucker for Love.
FINAL FANTASY VII EVER CRISIS
The Headliners
