- Joined
- Oct 27, 2017
I have no idea if I'm doing this right so feel free to tell me what I did wrong if making this thread wasn't the way to go.
So, I got sucked into playing some modded games lately and that kind of threw me off the rails of my usual October ritual of "Spend the month watching horror movies, playing horror games, both late at night while unwinding, and occasionally drinking during either activity".
As such, I haven't done anything horror lately except for playing Cold Fear for the first time. For its age as well as something that acts a lot like classic Resident Evil, it's a pretty dang good game.
Unfortunately, now that I'm neck deep into it and fairly certain that I'm near the end, I'm being reminded of other horror games I have not finished, particularly Araya and Home Sweet Home. This is leaning into November being my October now, with me focusing on horror games.
And speaking of, there's several things so far off the top of my head I want to check out lately in the general area of horror. To list them off and share them with you all:
1. PT for PC: So, in the most dickbag of moves, Konami has released a patch that locks down P.T. and makes it completely unplayable for anyone who managed to preserve it on their PS4 consoles. Luckily, someone has been working on a PC version using the original as reference, and it LOOKS good, but I haven't exactly checked it out yet. And, of course, he has already received takedown requests, keeping him from hosting the download on his page. Fortunately, he's savvy and aware of the concept of random anonymous mirrors, which I already found for version 0.9 and 0.9.2, and I both assume and hope he's still working on this game with the intent of keeping the latest version on various mirrors. I know, I know, let it die, but P.T. is a novel concept in my opinion and deserves to be preserved in some way or another, and Konami is literally doing everything it can to make sure it's gone and forgotten.
2. The Works of Mercy: Steam reviews are mixed, plenty of negative reviews, but I notice many of the recent negative reviews are low play time while the positive reviews are higher play time. Either way, its plot is that a mysterious person is forcing you to commit murders on seemingly random people because he has your family. Now, I know the scenario is drastically different, but this makes me think of Manhunt where you're given instructions and watched by a mysterious "Narrator" or whatever he called himself to kill people as brutally as possible in the town you're trapped in or you will likely die. Except the differences for this one is just that you have to kill who you're told to, which is more like a horror version of Hotline Miami's plot, or your family dies. It gets a bit dramatic with the whole questioning your own morality thing, but either way, I'm looking forward to trying it and being the killer rather than running from one.
3. Terror: From the comments I've read so far, this game is short, and it doesn't have an Early Access tag, so it's a small one. Of the few Steam reviews there even are, only one is negative, and most of the players have less than an hour of playtime, so it might be REALLY short. What sells this for me is the metro aspect of it all though. Whether it's the metro from, well, Metro, or the underground subway and work station levels from Condemned: Criminal Origins, I'm a huge sucker for spooky underground rail systems in games. This even reminds me of a found footage movie I just can't remember the name of, where a group of freelance filmers are going into abandoned parts of an underground network connected to a subway network. I loved it because they got the atmosphere just right with that, first the crew going through populated and electricity provided areas, then completely lifeless off-limits areas with nothing more than lights that are still powered by the city, and finally underground tunnels and old WWII shelters that have zero electrical infrastructure. It was great. But I ramble. While I usually don't like pure walking simulator looking games, and one of the few Steam discussions indicates it has bad grammar, this has my attention and I want to check it out.
4. Infliction: This one is pretty interesting to me, but even some of the good reviews say the ending completely betrays everything else in a bad way. It looks like it takes some inspiration from P.T., but it also has other themes, and seems to have some pretty interesting puzzle elements, so it's worth at least a playthrough for me. I've played good games with disappointing endings before, so this isn't anything too rare for me, and never stopped me from enjoying the game.
5. Hell Shooter: I won't mince words with this one, it looks like a combination of Devil Daggers and a Painkiller ripoff, but lunchbreak horror(ish) games have always been a favorite of mine for busy days in the Autumn season. No point in artificially dragging this one out, what you see is what you get, all for the price of a measly dollar.
6. Agony Unrated: Now, the original Agony was a shitfest. I had hype and high hopes for it but heard nothing but bad things when it released. I chose not to actually get it, and focus on other, more interesting things in my backlog while dismissing the whole situation as Studio Madmind going under from a clusterfuck of a release that was handled poorly on their part. I mean, shit was just a trash fire by the time I stopped paying any attention to it at all. Backers saying they didn't get keys or that the keys weren't working, people saying the game is lackluster visually and/or that cutting out content is not what they were promised. Even people saying this was a total scam planned ahead of time. Personally, while I complained a bit, I just saw the whole thing as the studio handling their first major release very poorly and with little organization or communication. I was rather shocked to discover two days ago that Agony Unrated is now a thing, and I'm hoping this goes the way of Slain: Back From Hell Edition where the studio of that managed to redeem a failure by fixing what was wrong with it and making it better. So it's definitely something I plan to try out soon.
7. Visage: This one's still in Early Access, but by God it's looking good. It's really looking fantastic. Usually for a horror game that looks like it's presenting itself as a walking simulator to be at all engaging for me, it has to meet some form of criteria. For Infliction it's the puzzle gameplay elements, some of the atmosphere, that bit in the trailer that looks like you're hiding from a huge butcher with a meat cleaver. For Terror it's the underground tunnels and metros, and however the hell your character loses that index finger as shown in the trailer. For Visage, it's the sheer atmosphere of it all, and it is presented as being beautiful and yet spooky. Definitely looking forward to its complete release.
8. The Council: Now, this isn't really horror like the rest, but it's portrayed as a suspenseful and gripping game. It looks great, and I'm hoping it plays just as great. My only problem is, like Visage with Early Access, I usually dislike jumping into games incomplete in terms of "episodes", but even this problem can be overlooked by now with four of the game's five stated episodes released and my backlog still growing. So yes, I may jump into this one eventually whether Episode 5 is out or not.
That's about it for my list right now, not even counting the currently playing Cold Fear and the unfinished Araya and Home Sweet Home. Like I said, looks like November is going to be my October this year. But what about the rest of you? Anything in the general ballpark of horror that's struck your fancy as of late?
So, I got sucked into playing some modded games lately and that kind of threw me off the rails of my usual October ritual of "Spend the month watching horror movies, playing horror games, both late at night while unwinding, and occasionally drinking during either activity".
As such, I haven't done anything horror lately except for playing Cold Fear for the first time. For its age as well as something that acts a lot like classic Resident Evil, it's a pretty dang good game.
Unfortunately, now that I'm neck deep into it and fairly certain that I'm near the end, I'm being reminded of other horror games I have not finished, particularly Araya and Home Sweet Home. This is leaning into November being my October now, with me focusing on horror games.
And speaking of, there's several things so far off the top of my head I want to check out lately in the general area of horror. To list them off and share them with you all:
1. PT for PC: So, in the most dickbag of moves, Konami has released a patch that locks down P.T. and makes it completely unplayable for anyone who managed to preserve it on their PS4 consoles. Luckily, someone has been working on a PC version using the original as reference, and it LOOKS good, but I haven't exactly checked it out yet. And, of course, he has already received takedown requests, keeping him from hosting the download on his page. Fortunately, he's savvy and aware of the concept of random anonymous mirrors, which I already found for version 0.9 and 0.9.2, and I both assume and hope he's still working on this game with the intent of keeping the latest version on various mirrors. I know, I know, let it die, but P.T. is a novel concept in my opinion and deserves to be preserved in some way or another, and Konami is literally doing everything it can to make sure it's gone and forgotten.
2. The Works of Mercy: Steam reviews are mixed, plenty of negative reviews, but I notice many of the recent negative reviews are low play time while the positive reviews are higher play time. Either way, its plot is that a mysterious person is forcing you to commit murders on seemingly random people because he has your family. Now, I know the scenario is drastically different, but this makes me think of Manhunt where you're given instructions and watched by a mysterious "Narrator" or whatever he called himself to kill people as brutally as possible in the town you're trapped in or you will likely die. Except the differences for this one is just that you have to kill who you're told to, which is more like a horror version of Hotline Miami's plot, or your family dies. It gets a bit dramatic with the whole questioning your own morality thing, but either way, I'm looking forward to trying it and being the killer rather than running from one.
3. Terror: From the comments I've read so far, this game is short, and it doesn't have an Early Access tag, so it's a small one. Of the few Steam reviews there even are, only one is negative, and most of the players have less than an hour of playtime, so it might be REALLY short. What sells this for me is the metro aspect of it all though. Whether it's the metro from, well, Metro, or the underground subway and work station levels from Condemned: Criminal Origins, I'm a huge sucker for spooky underground rail systems in games. This even reminds me of a found footage movie I just can't remember the name of, where a group of freelance filmers are going into abandoned parts of an underground network connected to a subway network. I loved it because they got the atmosphere just right with that, first the crew going through populated and electricity provided areas, then completely lifeless off-limits areas with nothing more than lights that are still powered by the city, and finally underground tunnels and old WWII shelters that have zero electrical infrastructure. It was great. But I ramble. While I usually don't like pure walking simulator looking games, and one of the few Steam discussions indicates it has bad grammar, this has my attention and I want to check it out.
4. Infliction: This one is pretty interesting to me, but even some of the good reviews say the ending completely betrays everything else in a bad way. It looks like it takes some inspiration from P.T., but it also has other themes, and seems to have some pretty interesting puzzle elements, so it's worth at least a playthrough for me. I've played good games with disappointing endings before, so this isn't anything too rare for me, and never stopped me from enjoying the game.
5. Hell Shooter: I won't mince words with this one, it looks like a combination of Devil Daggers and a Painkiller ripoff, but lunchbreak horror(ish) games have always been a favorite of mine for busy days in the Autumn season. No point in artificially dragging this one out, what you see is what you get, all for the price of a measly dollar.
6. Agony Unrated: Now, the original Agony was a shitfest. I had hype and high hopes for it but heard nothing but bad things when it released. I chose not to actually get it, and focus on other, more interesting things in my backlog while dismissing the whole situation as Studio Madmind going under from a clusterfuck of a release that was handled poorly on their part. I mean, shit was just a trash fire by the time I stopped paying any attention to it at all. Backers saying they didn't get keys or that the keys weren't working, people saying the game is lackluster visually and/or that cutting out content is not what they were promised. Even people saying this was a total scam planned ahead of time. Personally, while I complained a bit, I just saw the whole thing as the studio handling their first major release very poorly and with little organization or communication. I was rather shocked to discover two days ago that Agony Unrated is now a thing, and I'm hoping this goes the way of Slain: Back From Hell Edition where the studio of that managed to redeem a failure by fixing what was wrong with it and making it better. So it's definitely something I plan to try out soon.
7. Visage: This one's still in Early Access, but by God it's looking good. It's really looking fantastic. Usually for a horror game that looks like it's presenting itself as a walking simulator to be at all engaging for me, it has to meet some form of criteria. For Infliction it's the puzzle gameplay elements, some of the atmosphere, that bit in the trailer that looks like you're hiding from a huge butcher with a meat cleaver. For Terror it's the underground tunnels and metros, and however the hell your character loses that index finger as shown in the trailer. For Visage, it's the sheer atmosphere of it all, and it is presented as being beautiful and yet spooky. Definitely looking forward to its complete release.
8. The Council: Now, this isn't really horror like the rest, but it's portrayed as a suspenseful and gripping game. It looks great, and I'm hoping it plays just as great. My only problem is, like Visage with Early Access, I usually dislike jumping into games incomplete in terms of "episodes", but even this problem can be overlooked by now with four of the game's five stated episodes released and my backlog still growing. So yes, I may jump into this one eventually whether Episode 5 is out or not.
That's about it for my list right now, not even counting the currently playing Cold Fear and the unfinished Araya and Home Sweet Home. Like I said, looks like November is going to be my October this year. But what about the rest of you? Anything in the general ballpark of horror that's struck your fancy as of late?
