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King Vidiot
Feb 17, 2007

You think you can take me at Satan's Hollow? Go 'head on!

...! posted:

Because of the constant praise Fatal Frame gets, I bought it. I played about two hours of it the other night and hated it. It never really explains anything about what you're supposed to be doing, the camera angles suck, the controls suck, there are so many invisible walls that I had to use a lot of trial and error to figure out if it would actually let me walk around certain obstacles (and that was in the first room!) and at no point was it even remotely scary.

I feel like I played a different game than you guys.

I'm just going to assume that in those two hours you maybe encountered one ghost and barely saw any of the game. I mean, don't fight against the controls and interface if it all just doesn't make sense to you, but at the same time it doesn't really sound like you gave it much of a chance.

I guess the one thing to understand about it is that it's an old game by now, with old school survival horror rules. If you weren't a fan of those games and didn't play a ton of them, it's going to be really hard for you to get into it.

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oriongates
Mar 14, 2013

Validate Me!


I am a big fan of the fatal frame series, but the control scheme can be pretty painful at times, and 1 is particularly bad in that regard. It doesn't help that it seems to be somewhat harder (in terms of how difficult it is to put down ghosts and how much damage they do) than 2 and 3. But then again its been a while since I've played so my recollection could be hazy.

joylessdivision
Jun 15, 2013



I initially put SH down because the controls were pissing me off. After you spend a bit of time with it, they become a little less tedious, and when all else fails just grab a walkthrough online to help you. Honestly a friend pointed out to me that the SH controls make sense in context because the protagonist isn't an action hero, just a regular dude so of course he's combat will be wonky.

Sure it's a weird justification, but it made my play through of SH much more fun when I took it into account.

BTW, has anyone see the Siren movie? It came out in '06 called "Forbidden Siren", it's available on the internets with English subs, I just haven't had a chance to sit down and watch it because I don't want it to potentially ruin my Siren experience, whenever I get to it.

DeathChicken
Jul 9, 2012

Nonsense. I have not yet begun to defile myself.

I never really got the complaints about Siren's weird requirements for progressing the story, since once you clear a chapter it pretty much spells out the second time just what you need to do.

woodenchicken
Aug 19, 2007

Nap Ghost

Zombie Samurai posted:

Anyone know where the Wii one fell in terms of quality? I know it never got a proper release outside of Japan.
It's incredibly easy; maybe it's just the superior Wii controls, but I blew through it without breaking a sweat. The atmosphere is solid and constantly makes you feel like you're about to be hosed up, but then you're like "was that it?"

SkeletonHero
Sep 7, 2010

:dehumanize:
:killing:
:dehumanize:
One of our Halloween radio station liners uses the same music as the mission objective screens from ILLBLEED. You have no idea how disappointed I was to learn that it's a public domain spooky song and not an obscure reference by our intern.

Currently playing through Siren: Blood Curse. It's really cool but sightjacking gives me a major headache after a few minutes. Just how many filters did they think they needed to use?

Too Shy Guy
Jun 14, 2003


I have destroyed more of your kind than I can count.



Forgot to post this here last night.

:spooky: The 31 DaysGames of October :spooky:

1. Alien: Isolation
2. Year Walk

3. Deadlight



I can sum this up real quick for you as Zombie Prince of Persia. Prince of Zombies? Zombies of Seattle? Also, I mean the old Apple II one.

Deadlight is a 3D side-scrolling platformer with the same precise yet tanky controls from two decades ago. There's running and jumping and turning in place and stopping on a dime, and God help you if you flub a jump. You play Randall, a gravelly survivor of the zombie apocalypse who wishes he had half the gravitas as Bill. You must guide him as he mantles up and over the thousand fences, crates, and fire escapes of Seattle in search of his three survivor buddies and maybe his family? I dunno, I was too busy wrestling the terrible combat controls.

Melee in this game is awful, as it only functions a certain distance from your character. Any closer and you harmlessly shove enemies away instead of whacking them. It makes mobs of zombies a proper death sentence, but in a game like this where it's easy to miss one running jump and land in a pit of undead, it can get frustrating fast. The gun is more effective but your ammo is rather limited and headshots are a must. I tended to do a lot more running from fights, which the game seems to support and often expects anyway.

Do not buy into this one for the story, for it is terrible. The characters are incredibly one-dimensional and the writing is bad to the point of nonsense in some places. It is a pretty game however, in that lovingly-rendered hellscape sort of way. There's a lot of detail in the environments (so much so that it can obscure your path at times), and plenty of little collectibles hidden in out-of-the-way spots or obvious deathtraps. Looks to be about a 5-6 hour game, quicker if you don't bother looking for goodies. Decent playtime for the price, but the rough edges lead me to suggest a sale purchase if at all.

If you thought Prince of Persia needed a modern reboot with zombies and bad combat, by all means give it a try.

Vakal
May 11, 2008

Xenomrph posted:

I hadn't played Outlast in a good while, I'd forgotten how relentless that game was.

Does the DLC continue on from the the original's ending, or is it a separate thing?

year199X
Oct 9, 2012
Grimey Drawer

Vakal posted:

Does the DLC continue on from the the original's ending, or is it a separate thing?

It takes place before and during the main game. You play as the guy that sent out the email that lured the reporter to the asylum. I would also say it's way more hosed than the main game.

Hakkesshu
Nov 4, 2009


The Cheshire Cat posted:

It is so much dumber than that you won't even believe it. Watch the LP - it's great.

Seriously, I believe there's a case to be made for Illbleed legit being one of funniest games ever made.

poptart_fairy
Apr 8, 2009

by R. Guyovich

year199X posted:

It takes place before and during the main game. You play as the guy that sent out the email that lured the reporter to the asylum. I would also say it's way more hosed than the main game.

Yeah, there's a...certain sequence that puts the Strogg cutscene from Quake 4 to shame. :stare:

Jmcrofts
Jan 7, 2008

just chillin' in the club
Lipstick Apathy
I'm also doing a :spooky:October Horror Game Marathon... thing:spooky:. I'm not playing a game every single day, but I'm trying to get through as many as I can. I'm streaming it too, my twitch is http://twitch.tv/jmcrofts/ in case anyone wants to watch me being scared. Here's my thoughts on the ones I've played so far:

1. Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. I talked about this game some already. In short, I enjoyed it a lot, but perhaps not as much as the first game. I like how they de-emphasized action elements and inventory management in favor of more of an exploration feel, but it simply wasn't as scary as the first game.

2. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. This game kind of reminds me of Dear Esther, but with adventure game elements. Absolutely gorgeous graphics, thanks in part to some really cool tech you can read about on the dev blog. Not a particularly scary game, but the atmosphere is great and the murder-solving segments can be pretty disturbing.

3. Year Walk. Great hand-drawn art style that creates a mood of anxiety that hangs over you the whole game. There are some difficult puzzles here, but the hint system is really great at leading you in the right direction without being too easy. I love the folklore influence, and the scary parts of the game can be really frightening. Biggest bummer is it's very short, and the game ends with a "bad" ending, and then it tells you to start the whole thing over and try to get the good ending.

The next games I have on my list are Alien: Isolation, Outlast, and Fatal Frame 2. Any other suggestions people have would be much appreciated.

Jmcrofts fucked around with this message at 17:06 on Oct 9, 2014

Vargs
Mar 27, 2010

Hakkesshu posted:

Seriously, I believe there's a case to be made for Illbleed legit being one of funniest games ever made.

The toy story level is just about the craziest poo poo I have ever seen. I cannot comprehend how that stuff managed to find its way into an actual video game, made by actual people. The secret ending is equally insane. Anyone who hasn't experienced Illbleed needs to, either through playing it or watching an LP. Supergreatfriend's is good if you want a more comprehensive look at the game, while gameinformer's super replay is fantastic if you want to see a bunch of dude's often hilarious reactions to the nonsense that's happening on screen. Illbleed is real fitting for the halloween season, as a bonus.

The Saddest Rhino
Apr 29, 2009

Put it all together.
Solve the world.
One conversation at a time.



Jmcrofts posted:

3. Year Walk. Great hand-drawn art style that creates a mood of anxiety that hangs over you the whole game. There are some difficult puzzles here, but the hint system is really great at leading you in the right direction without being too easy. I love the folklore influence, and the scary parts of the game can be really frightening. Biggest bummer is it's very short, and the game ends with a "bad" ending, and then it tells you to start the whole thing over and try to get the good ending.


The true ending is actually not as terrible to obtain as implied - you're meant to, without giving too huge a walkthrough, watch the whole credits for a particular information which you can immediately employ on a previously unused menu item once you start a new game, and then solve a series of very different puzzles that do not require you to go through everything.

Jmcrofts
Jan 7, 2008

just chillin' in the club
Lipstick Apathy

The Saddest Rhino posted:

The true ending is actually not as terrible to obtain as implied - you're meant to, without giving too huge a walkthrough, watch the whole credits for a particular information which you can immediately employ on a previously unused menu item once you start a new game, and then solve a series of very different puzzles that do not require you to go through everything.

Oh, thanks for the heads-up. I'll give it a try then if I don't have to repeat a bunch of content.

Poulpe
Nov 11, 2006
Canadian Santa Extraordinaire

...! posted:

Because of the constant praise Fatal Frame gets, I bought it. I played about two hours of it the other night and hated it. It never really explains anything about what you're supposed to be doing, the camera angles suck, the controls suck, there are so many invisible walls that I had to use a lot of trial and error to figure out if it would actually let me walk around certain obstacles (and that was in the first room!) and at no point was it even remotely scary.

I feel like I played a different game than you guys.

Yeah, you need to remember that the original Fatal Frame was an early release title on the PS2. It is not a modern game.
Having that said, a game can still be loved by a lot of people and not by you :shrug:
Nothing is universally palatable.

Brovstin
Nov 2, 2012

It really seems like the first Fatal Frame would have been a better choice to remake than the second.

some bust on that guy
Jan 21, 2006

This avatar was paid for by the Silent Majority.

...! posted:

Because of the constant praise Fatal Frame gets, I bought it. I played about two hours of it the other night and hated it. It never really explains anything about what you're supposed to be doing, the camera angles suck, the controls suck, there are so many invisible walls that I had to use a lot of trial and error to figure out if it would actually let me walk around certain obstacles (and that was in the first room!) and at no point was it even remotely scary.

I feel like I played a different game than you guys.

Did you have a problem with the camera angles and controls of RE1, RE2, and SH?

Neo Rasa
Mar 8, 2007
Everyone should play DUKE games.

:dukedog:

Brovstin posted:

It really seems like the first Fatal Frame would have been a better choice to remake than the second.

Is the FF2 remake really a "remake?" I thought they just went with it because it's universally praised and plays better than the first. Path of least resistence like most ports.

sticklefifer
Nov 11, 2003

by VideoGames

Deadlight is a fun enough game in terms of gameplay, but it definitely suffers from all the problems you mentioned. The writing in particular, yeesh. The voice acting is pretty weak too, but there's only so much they could do with that script. "Ungh! My head! It hurts so much to think about my family!"

I also ran into the same bug multiple times, where I somehow reached the end of the world because it didn't load the whole map space, and then I'd have to turn around and get eaten. Otherwise it was fun, and I like the 1980s Seattle setting. If you didn't catch it, there's a running gag about a hair metal band called Raven Thunder that shows up every once in a while. If you're thorough you can find three old-rear end Tiger handheld games too.

Hakkesshu
Nov 4, 2009


Neo Rasa posted:

Is the FF2 remake really a "remake?" I thought they just went with it because it's universally praised and plays better than the first. Path of least resistence like most ports.

Yeah, it's just a port. There's no real reason why they didn't re-release all three as a trilogy. I personally don't find 2 to be massively superior.

papasyhotcakes
Oct 18, 2008

Hakkesshu posted:

Seriously, I believe there's a case to be made for Illbleed legit being one of funniest games ever made.

Special mention goes to one of the final bosses ohnoman is the best name ever conceived in the story of videogames . I just watched again the superfriend let's play and it indeed holds up as an extremely funny game.

Too Shy Guy
Jun 14, 2003


I have destroyed more of your kind than I can count.



:spooky: The 31 DaysGames of October :spooky:

1. Alien: Isolation
2. Year Walk
3. Deadlight

I hope you guys can forgive me...tonight's games aren't horror in the least, but they still got a Halloween feel to 'em.

4. Adventures of Shuggy



I'm a sucker for cute games, especially cute platformers (thanks Kirby) and this is one of the better ones I've come across. Adorable little bat...thing Shuggy inherited a mansion from his uncle, but it's all haunted and stuff. To get the place in order he has to collect gems (it is ALWAYS gems) through more than 100 puzzle rooms and beat up some equally adorable bosses along the way. It's standard fare for a puzzle platformer, but what makes Shuggy shine is the variety in the puzzles. The devs took every gimmick they could think of short of an actual portal gun and mixed them up to round out the rooms. There are rooms with low gravity, reversed gravity, rotating gravity, rooms where you can fly, clones you can switch between, time travel, a personal teleporter, and my favorite, the magic rope. The rope trails out from a box in the room and you can use it to tangle up machinery, swing around like a monkey, and other neat tricks.

In addition to the 100+ puzzles in the base game, there's also a fully separate co-op campaign and an additional level set that gives you an extra teleporter on top of the other gimmicks. All this comes in a charming package with sharp, colorful graphics and some sweet jazz accompaniment. It hooked me hard enough to finish all the levels in the base game and try my hand at the achievements, some of which are surprisingly challenging. For the money, it's well worth your time if you love adorable platformers at least half as much as I do.

5. Atom Zombie Smasher



Who remembers this one? Back from the olden days of Winter Sale coal and fresh indie zombie games. Actually, maybe it's more appropriate to ask if you remember that decade-old zombie simulator with the colored dots, because this is the fully gameified version of that. Humanity is on the retreat from the zombie hordes and it's up to you to evacuate the survivors from your region. You can select different infested areas from the strategic map based on the infection level (difficulty), and it takes you to a small city map where you have to plan the evacuation. You get a helicopter that airlifts folks (yellow dots) out every 20 seconds or so, and up to 3 mercenary units to help defend. These units are anything from soldiers and snipers to landmines and barricades. After each mission you AND the zombies get victory points based on the final number of survivors and zombies. New events occur as you both reach certain victory point milestones, and the first side to rack up the target number of points wins.

Sounds solid, right? Unfortunately, this all comes together to form a strategy game that's mostly based on random chance. Just like the old simulator, humans turn into zombies instantly when touched, and you better believe the survivors clump up around the landing zones like delicious stuffing. All it takes is one zombie escaping your best-laid deathtrap to ruin an entire map. This is further exacerbated by the fact that your 3 mercenary units are randomized for each mission. So while you're in good shape if you get your mortars and zombie baits in one mission, you're boned if you get stuck with barricades, mines, and bombs, all of which are one-use tricks. There's also random variance in the performance of your units; soldiers can miss, and your mortars can go off-target, ruining that hail mary shot you needed to save the day. There are a host of other frustrations, like how you and the zombies get points for holding territory, but you only claim territory if you kill ALL the zombies on the map before sundown, which is ludicrously difficult even if you have the right mercs for it.

It's a shame, too, because the presentation is stylish and weird, and there are some neat systems to explore like XP to improve your mercs and rescuing scientists to upgrade your other abilities. The story vignettes are compellingly strange as well and I still can't make heads or tails of the story, but I know Tesla and an antichrist baby are involved. Shame I'll never figure it out, because the game's just too drat discouraging and frustrating to get through.


sticklefifer posted:

If you're thorough you can find three old-rear end Tiger handheld games too.



I found the first one, and that might've been the highlight of the game for me. :) LCD Guitar Hero is addictive.

Cardiovorax
Jun 5, 2011

I mean, if you're a successful actress and you go out of the house in a skirt and without underwear, knowing that paparazzi are just waiting for opportunities like this and that it has happened many times before, then there's really nobody you can blame for it but yourself.
Atom Zombie Smasher is pretty tolerable as a coffee break kind of game, just don't expect anything more out of it.

woodenchicken
Aug 19, 2007

Nap Ghost
I tried watching both the LP and the Super replay of Illbleed, but it seems like such a super monotonous game. You look around through a scope and then walk forward and a trap activates, but you can either gain points or lose points depending on whether you stood around and watched the nothingness carefully enough. The cuscenes were fairly amusing, but probably not worth enduring hours of that "gameplay" for.

overeager overeater
Oct 16, 2011

"The cosmonauts were transfixed with wonderment as the sun set - over the Earth - there lucklessly, untethered Comrade Todd on fire."



Zombie Samurai posted:

This is further exacerbated by the fact that your 3 mercenary units are randomized for each mission. So while you're in good shape if you get your mortars and zombie baits in one mission, you're boned if you get stuck with barricades, mines, and bombs, all of which are one-use tricks.

There is an option for turning off the randomization, as well as one that always gives you at least one offensive unit.

al-azad
May 28, 2009



woodenchicken posted:

I tried watching both the LP and the Super replay of Illbleed, but it seems like such a super monotonous game. You look around through a scope and then walk forward and a trap activates, but you can either gain points or lose points depending on whether you stood around and watched the nothingness carefully enough. The cuscenes were fairly amusing, but probably not worth enduring hours of that "gameplay" for.

It's important to understand what the game is asking of you from the scope. You're punished for wasting time looking at unnecessary things but the game gives you context clues to what you're supposed to be looking out for. Just for example, if a telephone registers as "smell" then it's not something you should waste time investigating.

Cardiovorax
Jun 5, 2011

I mean, if you're a successful actress and you go out of the house in a skirt and without underwear, knowing that paparazzi are just waiting for opportunities like this and that it has happened many times before, then there's really nobody you can blame for it but yourself.
ILLBLEED is all about loving around and enjoying the sheer schlocky insanity of it. If that doesn't appeal to you, it's probably not worth playing or watching.

Improbable Lobster
Jan 6, 2012

What is the Matrix 🌐? We just don't know 😎.


Buglord
Atom Zombie Smasher works best if you dig through the options to make things a bit easier. It's a really solid strategy/defense game.

Morpheus
Apr 18, 2008

My favourite little monsters
I watched an LP for IllBLEED and I'm pretty sure it's the best game every made in the history of mankind.

I mean, holy poo poo, there's a serial killer who leaves a star-shaped 'kill mark' on his victims. It's star shaped. So, because of this star-shaped kill mark, it's only natural that the media give him the nickname KILLERMAN BECAUSE WHY THE gently caress NOT.

Also, doing a run through a dialogue-heavy chapter as a character who has not had his lobotomized brain replaced is just fuckinghilarious.

"Who could've done this?"
"Ughhhuhhhhuhhsuhhh?"
"What? But how could that possibly happen?"
"Bughuhhhhuahhhh!"
"You might be right after all..."

Len
Jan 21, 2008

Pouches, bandages, shoulderpad, cyber-eye...

Bitchin'!


Morpheus posted:

I watched an LP for IllBLEED and I'm pretty sure it's the best game every made in the history of mankind.

I mean, holy poo poo, there's a serial killer who leaves a star-shaped 'kill mark' on his victims. It's star shaped. So, because of this star-shaped kill mark, it's only natural that the media give him the nickname KILLERMAN BECAUSE WHY THE gently caress NOT.

Also, doing a run through a dialogue-heavy chapter as Brock from Pokemon who has not had his lobotomized brain replaced is just fuckinghilarious.

"Who could've done this?"
"Ughhhuhhhhuhhsuhhh?"
"What? But how could that possibly happen?"
"Bughuhhhhuahhhh!"
"You might be right after all..."

Fixed that for you.

King Vidiot
Feb 17, 2007

You think you can take me at Satan's Hollow? Go 'head on!

Cardiovorax posted:

ILLBLEED is all about loving around and enjoying the sheer schlocky insanity of it. If that doesn't appeal to you, it's probably not worth playing or watching.

Yeah, pretty much this. Some people just don't like weirdness or camp enough to look past horrible gameplay. That's why as much as people like Deadly Premonition there's so many people who say "don't even bother playing it, just watch the LP". But I thought the experience of ILLBLEED and Deadly Premontion outweighed the jankiness of playing through both. Supergreatfriend's LPs are awesome and should be viewed by anybody who hasn't, but I think those games are best experienced first-hand sans-commentary first. If you can stomach it.

Safari Disco Lion
Jul 21, 2011

Boss, if they make us find seven lost crystals, I'm quitting.

Illbleed is the best example I can think of of a game that's more than the sum of its parts. The developers obviously had such a good time making the game and doing whatever crazy poo poo they could think of that the whole experience is so much more than a clunky, not-actually-scary horror game with odd mechanics.

Hakkesshu
Nov 4, 2009


Deadly Premonition wishes it was half as good/funny/weird as Illbleed.

Too Shy Guy
Jun 14, 2003


I have destroyed more of your kind than I can count.



Alright, alright, I'll give AZS another go! I'm still not counting out the possibility that I just suck at it, though.

:spooky: The 31 DaysGames of October :spooky:

1. Alien: Isolation
2. Year Walk
3. Deadlight
4. Adventures of Shuggy
5. Atom Zombie Smasher

6. Alan Wake's American Nightmare



It would be hard for me to talk about American Nightmare without touching on the original Alan Wake, because it very much feels like DLC that got spun into its own game. Alan Wake's strengths were its story, pacing, and graphics. The combat was a bit of a toss-up between decent and monotonous, depending on who you asked. American Nightmare is a shorter, weirder story told across three mostly open areas that you visit multiple times. The visuals are still sharp, but lose a lot of the atmosphere that Alan Wake had... the open desert just doesn't have the same creep factor as the dark woods, at least not as it's shown here. Dialogue is pretty snappy and clever, but it's propping up a story that really adds nothing to the themes introduced in Alan Wake.

So the main draw is the combat, and to its credit, it's a little more interesting than in Alan Wake. Enemy encounters are varied in makeup, and there are some new foes like ones that split if you shine light on them and creepy jumping spider things. All the original weapons are here, along with new additions like a nailgun, uzi, and carbine. You can unlock weapon cases with additional weapons by finding manuscript pages scattered around which encourages exploration, but honestly as large as the areas are, there's not much to find. Enemies only appear as you follow the main plot, and the game showers you with ammo and flare, more than enough to handle any situation. I tried playing on the harder of the two difficulties and the battles were still a breeze with all the resources I had, but I could be killed in just two hits which led to some frustration with unlucky hits at the ends of long fights.

There's an arcade mode similar to the mercenaries modes in Resident Evil that's pretty fun, assuming you like the combat. And that's really what American Nightmare boils down to, did you like the combat in Alan Wake? If so, this is for you, but don't come looking for the atmosphere or story of the original.

7. Infected: The Twin Vaccine - Collector's Edition



I've got a soft spot for hidden object games. They're a great way to relax, and they're often unintentionally hilarious. I reviewed Shadows: Price For Our Sins in the old Steam thread (entertaining but has some really lovely item hunts) which would be more appropriate for Halloween, but Infected is pretty entertaining in its own right. You play a doctor exploring the town of Oxford, where a mysterious disease has wiped out the population. You're looking for patient zero, a little girl, who is hiding behind some of the most hilariously contrived locks and barriers I've ever seen.

Seriously, this game is straight from the old Resident Evil school of security. One of the first puzzles in the game has you removing a train crest from a train to get at a tractor key behind it, and then later you have to put the crest on a gate to activate the sliding ring panels that open it (second screenshot above). There's an apartment that only opens when you slot stained glass windows into the door, and a safe keyed to the genetic code of a hornet. It's bizarre as all hell, but as long as you examine every out-of-place feature of the scenes, you should have no problem finding all the crests and sigils you need to proceed.

The actual item hunts, ironically, make more sense than in most games of this type. Instead of picking out a bunch of random doodads and shapes, every item you're ordered to find must then be used in the same scene to open up access to other items. It becomes this neat Rube Goldberg chain of unlocking that concludes with you getting a new key item needed to progress. I find myself really looking forward to the item searches in this game, because they feel much more like logic puzzles than idle clickfests, especially when compared to the contrived puzzles in the rest of the game.

Overall the game has a grimy, late 90s feel to it thanks to some Harvester-level modeling and FMVs. There are a few characters you interact with that are caricatures of real people, but still entertaining for that same reason. I'm not sure where the story's going yet and I don't really care, because solving puzzles and clicking through the town has been a lot of fun so far. If you ended up with it in a bundle by all means give it a try, and if you enjoy hidden object games I think this is a decent one to pick up.

Cowman
Feb 14, 2006

Beware the Cow





Infected is goddamn hilarious but a lot of the puzzles are really obtuse.

al-azad
May 28, 2009



I'm going to do my own Halloween roundup but with a focus on the weird and obscure just to set myself apart. My choices of games aren't necessarily "horror" in the strictest sense but include games heavily inspired by the horror genre.

31 Days of Weird Games

1. Zombies Ate My Neighbors


LucasArts' love letter to campy B horror. ZAMN is a top down 2D shooter where one or two players have to rescue up to 10 survivors in labyrinthine levels. Enemies constantly respawn and are hunting down the survivors. If they all die it's gameover! Each level is either named after or themed from a horror trope like Mars Needs Cheerleaders and Chopping Mall.

ZAMN is unique in several areas. The levels are destructible allowing you to destroy barriers to create shortcuts. Several enemies can even bypass barriers or destroy them to reach you. You've got a huge arsenal of weapons and enemies have various weaknesses like blobs being susceptible to freezing from popsicles and werewolves dying to silverware. This game is hard, even with two players, and I've never completed the 55 stages in one sitting. To make things worse your saves only carry over survivors and the later levels practically require a large arsenal. A battery backup would have gone a long way in making this game more approachable but it's one of the best Gauntlet-clones and a great co-op experience for the SNES that will have you cursing every time your friend steals a health pack.

ZAMN spawned a pseudo-sequel called Ghoul Patrol which is not every good. It's slow, introduces platforming for no reason, and has linear level design which goes completely against the spirit of the original. On the other hand, check out Monster Madness: Grave Danger on the PS3. It's the spiritual successor in every way to ZAMN. The PS3 version gives a major overhaul to the game's systems so avoid the other versions.

2. The Orion Conspiracy

On board the research ship Cerberus, engineer Danny McCormack falls into a black hole. After his father Devlin attends his funeral he receives a message saying Danny was murdered. Devlin vows to avenge his son's death. Complications arise when Danny's gay lover confronts Devlin, accusing him of being dismissive about Danny's sexuality which drove them apart. poo poo hits the fan when shapeshifting aliens begin hunting the crew and the tone shifts from mystery to horror.

TOC isn't an amazing adventure game, suffering from a poor interface and glacial pacing. But it has a surprisingly mature story and takes heavy inspiration from Ridley Scott's Alien. Unlike most adventure games of the 90s which were largely light-hearted, TOC is dead serious with gory deaths and gratuitous profanity. It's up there with The Dig as one of the more traditionally cinematic adventure games of the early CD era. Setting the game in a single, fully explorable location lends a grounded atmosphere to the setting. Each NPC has a name and they patrol the hallways at random while you're exploring.

3. Monster Party

Monster Party was something of a cult anomaly. Released in 1989 on the NES you played as Mark, a kid on his way home from baseball who is accosted by a flying demon named Bert to save his world from evil monsters. In spite of Nintendo's strict rules Monster Party features blood, religious symbols, cartoon nudity, and irreverent bosses. Perhaps most famous is a scene change upon reaching the mid-point of level 1 which results in the colorful landscape warping into a hellish nightmare. The ending completely subverts the traditional NES game where you rescue the princess who transforms into a monster and melts your skin.

In July of this year the Japanese prototype ROM was released. While I think the American version is overall better (surprisingly there's no real edited content for violence aside from the title screen) this version is more focused on affectionate parody. Some of the bosses visually edited for copyright reasons include Jason, Mogwai/gremlin, a horse riding ape from Planet of the Apes complete with fallen Statue of Liberty in the background, a xenomorph, and the giant plant more resembles Audrey II. I can't call Monster Party a good game but it's one of the more interesting artifacts from an era of bland, uninspired platformers that stood in the shadow of Mario.

There's a Splatterhouse spinoff called Wanpaku Graffiti. I think Monster Party is a better game but if you're looking for another irreverent horror themed platformer then check it out.

4. Cosmology of Kyoto

Cosmology of Kyoto is an exploration of Japanese folklore. The player is a nameless mystic who explores Heiankyo, the center of modern day Kyoto and Imperial capital of Japan for over a thousand years. Despite being labeled an adventure game, it's actually an interactive encyclopedia. You walk around the city, watch disturbing animated events, and have an entire database at your disposal to read up on Japanese mythology and culture. Probably the most disturbing game on my list, CoK is filled with gore, scenes of torture, and grotesque nudity. I love all the little animations and they certainly make the world fun to fully explore.



You will often die in CoK. Each death sends you to one of the many afterlives where you're tortured by demons or forced to consume the flesh of the dead before you're reincarnated to continue your nightmarish journey. Roger Ebert is quoted for his enjoyment of this game.

al-azad fucked around with this message at 07:33 on Oct 12, 2014

Too Shy Guy
Jun 14, 2003


I have destroyed more of your kind than I can count.



al-azad posted:

I'm going to do my own Halloween roundup but with a focus on the weird and obscure just to set myself apart. My choices of games aren't necessarily "horror" in the strictest sense but include games heavily inspired by the horror genre.

Oh man these are some awesome choices. Zombies Ate My Neighbors owns (and some of the levels are legit scary, like the hedge maze full of chainsaw maniacs), and Cosmology of Kyoto looks amazing. I can't wait to see what else you have to share.

Accordion Man
Nov 7, 2012


Buglord
I never heard of The Orion Conspiracy. Does it run on fine on Windows 7? Amazon has it for pretty cheap.

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Doctor Goat
Jan 22, 2005

Where does it hurt?
I played a bunch of Deadlight and thought it was okay until you drop into a sewer where you do nothing but jump around on wooden deathtraps made by a guy who can help you, but will only do so if you get through them all.

Then, right after that, I began trying a jump and kept launching off to the right through the geometry at mach 5.

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