End of October Update!

I actually beat Gris in September so it isn't really a horror game, more like an atmospheric puzzle platformer. The puzzles and the platforming are super easy, so the atmosphere is really what drives GRIS.
The art and soundtrack are beautiful. They allow the game to convey many emotions and themes without any words spoken. The game has a sorrowful but beautiful theme that can probably strike some people as personal and relatable.
The only downside is that the game can feel a little boring. Its mostly walking and the story is vague. It can also be a little repetitive. It's overall great though and the fact that its short really helps the game because it was able to keep its charm throughout.

If you enjoy games like Journey, Flower, or Abzu, you will probably love GRIS. I think its a little expensive full price, but I would definitely recommend picking it up on sale.

Perception is a first person horror game where you play a blind girl named Cassie who explores a mansion from her nightmares. Because Cassie is blind, the player can use echolocation to navigate through the mansion. The more you tap on things, the more you can see your immediate surroundings. What started out as a really neat idea became tiring very fast. The whole game is a slow moving walking simulator where you are constantly tapping to see.

It is a horror game that has some scares, but after the first hour, you realize there isn't much of a threat. There is an enemy that is supposed to show up if you make to much noise, but its actually incredibly hard to trigger him. He shows up very rarely even if you are tapping like crazy. I'm a huge baby when it comes to horror games, so I prefer for the enemy to stay hidden, but that takes a big element out of the game when you don't fear the threat.

The story was alright, wasn't bad but didn't keep me super interested throughout. I am a fan of walking simulators but this felt tedious and wore out its welcome within the first hour. It kind of reminds me of the game Beyond Eyes. Both were not my cup of tea, but I liked Beyond Eyes a little bit better because of its visuals and creativity behind it.

If you like walking simulators with some horror mixed in, you might like Perception. I personally just feel like it didn't provide enough for how neat the idea was. I especially don't recommend it for the $20 price tag.

Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins is a found phone game centered around the Doctor Who universe. It's made by the creators of simulacra and has similar gameplay and horror.
If you've played any game like this you know the deal. You find a phone, snoop through it, and then scary stuff starts happening. You and some other characters have to solve what happened to the phones owner and the big mystery overall.

Personally, I really enjoy these games no matter how cheesy they are. I haven't seen Doctor Who in over 5 years but I recognized a lot of the characters and easter eggs. I don't think you have to be a Doctor Who fan to enjoy this game, but it is a lot more satisfying to play if you are.

The game isn't as scary as Simulacra in my opinion, only because there is less of a mystery. The enemy is in the title so you know who are doing these things. There are some genuinely scary moments though.

Overall, if they keep make these phone games, I'll probably keep buying them. I enjoy rummaging through messages and apps to find answers. I only recommend this game if you like this type of thing. It's not for everyone, but if you enjoyed Simulacra and/or Doctor Who, I recommend The Lonely Assassin. Also, is there a name for this type of subgenre? I'm seeing more and more phone games pop up but I've never a name for them.

Vampyr is an RPG where you play a doctor turned Vampire named Jonathan Reid. In Vampyr, you try to find out who turned you and why, as well as fight the infection of the Spanish Flu and the Vampires ravaging each district in London.

Vampyr is mostly a linear game. with some open world. You can visit different districts but gates block a lot of paths until you are meant to go through them and the maps are small. There is also no fast travel, which isn't a big deal since it is a small area, but it can be a little annoying. There are side quests in the game, although tracking them is a little broken. Sometimes they disappear on their own and sometimes you cant mark them.

Speaking of bugs, Vampyr does have them. I spent over an hour trying to figure out how to leave an area, only to discover that a gate was locked that should have been unlocked. That almost made me quit on the spot. There was also quite a few crashes. Plus every time I'd alt-tab out of the game, It would give me an infinite loading screen next time it loaded a new map.

The combat was also kind of bad. The combat was the biggest complaints in the reviews, and I didn't think it was THAT bad, but it also isn't very good or engaging. It can also be very hard and frustrating, especially when you are first starting out and you haven't had time to level up your character. It doesn't help that the game is awful at giving tutorials. I had to google how to do so many things in the game because nothing was explained past the very basic controls.

My last complaint is that the game is not very balanced with its morality. (small spoilers ahead, but they are in the trailers). In Vampyr, you can feed on humans to gain a big amount of experience to level up. Kind of like harvesting little sisters in Bioshock. If you choose to be a nice vampire and rarely feed (or not at all) it will make the game much harder. Another game comparison would be in Dishonored. In Dishonored, you can choose to not use your powers and kill, and you'll get a more difficult playthrough with a better ending. The problem is, with Dishonored and Vampyr, most of the fun lies in killing people. Vampyr can be somewhat frustrating and less entertaining if you go the non killing route. . (which is the route I almost always take.) It's not a game breaker, but I wish they could balance both a little more evenly.

Now on to the things I loved about Vampyr. The atmosphere is great. It takes place in London 1918, and it does a great job at portraying that. The characters are also pretty great. I enjoy all the side characters, even the small characters have interesting backstories and side missions. Doctor Reid himself is fun to play. Mainly because I really liked his voice acting. I enjoyed the non combat gameplay. It's mainly just talking to people and unlocking new dialog paths. Some of my favorite games are just full of dialog that help me connect to the people around me (such as Disco Elysium.) You can also cure sick people. There are a few different medicines you can craft to help people and improve district health. The choices actually feel impactful and you can really impact the world around you.

Overall, I really enjoyed Vampyr. It gave me quite the headache sometimes, but I love RPGS that have an intriguing story and characters. This is the exact type of game I love, and one day I hope they can remake it into something perfect. I might recommend this full price due to how long it is. If you did want to beat all the side quests it can be around 40 hours long. I would more likely recommend it on sale though because of its issues. It's stuck in the middle of being an ambitious well done indie game or a disappointing AAA game.