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The Cheshire Cat posted:Yeah if you give a player a lovely weapon they'll just complain that the game has lovely combat rather than realizing you aren't supposed to use it. It's the main reason they dropped combat entirely from Amnesia; the Penumbra games did let you kill enemies but it was awkward and generally not worth the effort. I'll be honest, my first reaction to the giant worm was to run at it armed with a pick axe and northern fury. With that said I still hurled boxes at poo poo in Amnesia. I want to say it slows them down for a second, but that might just be an excuse I made up to continue throwing boxes.
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# ? Jun 2, 2015 13:33 |
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# ? May 9, 2024 12:29 |
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al-azad posted:When given the choice a player will always fight back. It's hardwired in our brains because that's what you do in 99.99% of games. If the player has a weapon that does nothing they'll blame the game. If the enemy is too strong they'll keep reloading a save thinking they're doing something wrong. That doesn't match my experience with Alien isolation. Once you get past the first third of the game, fighting is almost always an option. Even so, except for certain set pieces where you're expected to fight, sneaking is usually the best, if slower, option. I think that game did a good job of letting you figure out which course of action to take by letting you face a simple threat early on, like a lone android or aggressive human, and then compounding it later in the game after you've had a chance to gauge what the likely threat level is.
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# ? Jun 2, 2015 14:02 |
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They could do something like throw a chair, or lamp, or something. It could slow them a bit but that's all, thus you'll need to hide, but can be more active in the approach. Or one time use flares that will scare them away, but they're very limited. Or just show a cut scene for why it's a bad idea to attempt to fight whatever they may be. Some form of show, don't tell. You can do combat without directly combating the opposition as well like Dino Crisis, as had been mentioned.
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# ? Jun 2, 2015 14:16 |
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Jia posted:Trying to play it by trying to force individual flags seems like the opposite way you're supposed to play PT This is true, but trying to solve the last "puzzle" in PT without aid of the internet is an exercise in frustration. I played for like over an hour redoing that last segment alone, trying to do whatever I had to do to continue. I hadn't checked the internet for puzzle spoilers at the time, so I was still trying to solve it clean. But there's only so many times I could keep trying and doing nothing, sometimes randomly triggering baby giggles that I had no firm understanding of. It was just repetitive and annoying at that point, so I used the internet for solving that last part. It had gotten no longer scary, just like "okay what stupid videogame logic hoops do I have to jump through to solve this part". I tried! I knew the thing was all a teaser for Silent Hills, I just wanted to get there myself without watching the ending sequence on youtube, but I couldn't solve it without puzzle answers. I was able to solve other potentially-tricky parts of PT by myself, but that last friggin' puzzle, man. Those lousy giggles. The rest of it was put together great, I felt. I had a friend play through PT as well, and when she got to the last part I just told her that the game goes stupid videogame nonsense logic at that point and I performed the rituals to unlock the ending for her. She didn't even know it was a Silent Hill teaser, so revealing the ending that she had been playing a Silent Hill teaser all along was a great moment. Too bad the dream is dead now, ah well!
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# ? Jun 2, 2015 14:51 |
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I forgive the last puzzle of PT being obtuse because you're not intended to solve it on your own. It's supposed to be a community puzzle. It gets everyone on the Internet talking and speculating and finding individual pieces of the puzzle until eventually, bam, the full puzzle is solved and you have a captivated audience for your big reveal of the new Silent Hill. It's a solid bit of marketing, even if it fell victim to the "million monkeys on a million typewriters" effect and had people accidentally stumble through to the big reveal almost immediately. (As a side note because it's a marketing stunt there's pretty much a 0% chance of a puzzle of similar obtuseness having made it into the final game, or if it did it would have been for a super-duper-secret ending.)
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# ? Jun 2, 2015 16:25 |
HJE-Cobra posted:This is true, but trying to solve the last "puzzle" in PT without aid of the internet is an exercise in frustration. I honestly don't think those were meant to be actual puzzles rather than just a time-gate on streamers announcing Silent Hills. Edit: beaten.
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# ? Jun 2, 2015 16:26 |
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good start to dreadout, got totally stuck within 10 minutes and had to look up a walkthrough to know there was a hidden wall and oh god it doesnt capture the mouse, i keep losing the window by right clicking in my second monitor Relin fucked around with this message at 02:38 on Jun 4, 2015 |
# ? Jun 4, 2015 02:36 |
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Relin posted:good start to dreadout, got totally stuck within 10 minutes and had to look up a walkthrough to know there was a hidden wall
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# ? Jun 4, 2015 02:37 |
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A.o.D. posted:That doesn't match my experience with Alien isolation. Once you get past the first third of the game, fighting is almost always an option. Even so, except for certain set pieces where you're expected to fight, sneaking is usually the best, if slower, option. See, this is the thing. I know from playing too many games that you're going to throw a surprise at me so while playing I'm constantly in a state of preparing for it. I will use the flamethrower on the alien because I don't want to deal with its bullshit, I have a game to play! Developers need to take a hard stance on the direction and tone of their game. It's like The Last of Us was advertised as this survival horror experience when really it has just as much action as Uncharted although with far less ammo. I'm still murdering everyone but now you're forcing me to count shots while doing it so it's even more annoying. If there are expendable, limited items then I'm going to go out of my way to seek them out. But all of these enemies are getting in my way of seeing the game world. If given the option to permanently defeat enemies I will absolutely go out of my way to do that unless they're not really a threat (like the zombies in early Resident Evil). I probably would like the idea of using whatever is at hand to combat an enemy. You watch a slasher movie and whenever the characters fight back it's with improvised, breakable weapons like chairs and fire extinguishers. If anything and everything present is a possible weapon and you can only hold one at a time (who is walking around with 4 lead pipes, an axe, a shotgun, pistol, and chainsaw anyway?) then I can imagine some tense moments where I'm like "I can stun the monster long enough to open the door if I hit him just right in the back of the head...". But if I'm capable of collecting things then I will hoard them. If an enemy can be killed I will try until it frustrates me. These things are hardwired into my brain.
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# ? Jun 4, 2015 04:58 |
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I'm pretty new to Horror games, (I've played Resident Evil 4 a lot but I'd hardly call it a straight horror game) and I really like Amnesia so far - what other games like this are out there that are really atmospheric and not necessarily focused on fighting and combat? Some combat is fine and kinda fun too, but I'm looking for real atmosphere. I just picked up the first two Silent Hill games and I'm definitely excited to start those, but what else should be on my list?
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# ? Jun 4, 2015 05:08 |
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Niggurath posted:Wait till you have to figure out the pig man or how to shoot that one lady ghost in the back.
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# ? Jun 4, 2015 05:13 |
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Did people ever actually figure out the final bit of PT? Last I checked there were a bunch of theories that kind of worked but no one actually knew what triggered the ending. As for what to play: Fatal Frame (2 is my favorite, but I like them all) Siren Blood Curse (PS3. may not be for everyone, definitely creepy. Can be frustrating) System Shock 2 is a classic though it's dated. Dead Space is more action (similar to resi 4). 1 is the best, imo. 2 is good, skip 3.
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# ? Jun 4, 2015 05:16 |
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after half an hour of trying to get the ghost lady to do something I gave up. that's PT's official ending IMO
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# ? Jun 4, 2015 05:18 |
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Spite posted:Did people ever actually figure out the final bit of PT? Last I checked there were a bunch of theories that kind of worked but no one actually knew what triggered the ending. Concretely? No. But the instructions floating around about taking 10 steps at midnight, waiting for the baby to cry or whatever, then saying poo poo into the mic until it triggers again or whatever can be replicated every time and is as close as a definitive answer as you can get until Kojima says otherwise.
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# ? Jun 4, 2015 05:23 |
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Games where you can only stun or temporarily impede the big scary monster are the best; it gives you the immediate gratification of being able to do something (however brief), reinforces that you should be running rather than fighting due to the temporary nature of your solution, and helps build up the enemy as truly threatening. The flamethrower in Alien: Isolation was an absolutely perfect example, especially as it developed a mutual understanding between you and the alien. I heard that once you teach it that fire = bad, it will become more courageous and eventually completely ignore the fire, but will immediately become wary the moment it even sees the pilot light come on.
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# ? Jun 4, 2015 05:25 |
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al-azad posted:See, this is the thing. I know from playing too many games that you're going to throw a surprise at me so while playing I'm constantly in a state of preparing for it. I will use the flamethrower on the alien because I don't want to deal with its bullshit, I have a game to play! Developers need to take a hard stance on the direction and tone of their game. It's like The Last of Us was advertised as this survival horror experience when really it has just as much action as Uncharted although with far less ammo. I'm still murdering everyone but now you're forcing me to count shots while doing it so it's even more annoying. Alien Isolation is ok. But I thought it was loving cheap how the Alien would just ignore the androids, and imagine that most of the enemies in the game were androids despite the humans being a lot more interesting to fight. There were also times where the Alien just pissed me off to no end because he would escape into the vents and then pop right back down 5 seconds later. Solid game, but it was full of nitpicks that ate away at me after a while to the point where I was glad for it to be over with when I finished it.
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# ? Jun 4, 2015 05:28 |
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blackguy32 posted:Alien Isolation is ok. But I thought it was loving cheap how the Alien would just ignore the androids, and imagine that most of the enemies in the game were androids despite the humans being a lot more interesting to fight. The alien doesn't give a poo poo about androids because they're not alive. Also, depending on your difficulty, the alien is actually specifically trying to fake you out with the vents. If it knows you're nearby but can't find you, it'll try to fool you into thinking it's gone. Alternatively, if you tossed a bomb or torched it, it's just coming back for revenge; you're supposed to use weapons for breathing room, not as an actual 'go away for a while' button.
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# ? Jun 4, 2015 05:39 |
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Alabaster White posted:The alien doesn't give a poo poo about androids because they're not alive. Also, depending on your difficulty, the alien is actually specifically trying to fake you out with the vents. If it knows you're nearby but can't find you, it'll try to fool you into thinking it's gone. Alternatively, if you tossed a bomb or torched it, it's just coming back for revenge; you're supposed to use weapons for breathing room, not as an actual 'go away for a while' button. It does this on normal, easy, and novice. It is just the AI bugging out. As for the androids, I get that, but that doesn't make it anymore interesting.
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# ? Jun 4, 2015 05:57 |
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Captain Q posted:I'm pretty new to Horror games, (I've played Resident Evil 4 a lot but I'd hardly call it a straight horror game) and I really like Amnesia so far - what other games like this are out there that are really atmospheric and not necessarily focused on fighting and combat? Some combat is fine and kinda fun too, but I'm looking for real atmosphere. I just picked up the first two Silent Hill games and I'm definitely excited to start those, but what else should be on my list? Penumbra (series) Haunting Ground/Demento Outlast + expansion Rule of Rose Fatal Frame (series) Siren (series) Kuon Condemned (shakily recommend the sequel, too) The Last of Us For some not-too-bad indie horrors on PC: Hide (predecessor to Slender and all the clones, the only "Collect the pages" game worth playing) Phobia imscared I SEE YOU Fingerbones Bunker 16 Ildefonse ERIE Babysitter Bloodbath Powerdrill Massacre Sad Mammal fucked around with this message at 06:11 on Jun 4, 2015 |
# ? Jun 4, 2015 06:04 |
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Sad Mammal posted:Rule of Rose To add more recommendations: Eternal Darkness The Suffering (Skip the sequel though, it blows) Resident Evil (Namely REMake, 2, and 3. Code Veronica is good but not as good as the others) Deadly Premonition (Not really scary, but its a great game regardless) Scratches (It's an adventure game with a lot of old-school sensibilities so play with a guide but the atmosphere is fantastic. You'll have to track down a hard copy though because they pulled it from Steam and GOG some time ago)
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# ? Jun 4, 2015 06:18 |
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Kicking myself for missing Eternal Darkness. Rule of Rose gets a reluctant as hell recommendation solely on the atmosphere. The combat's legit horrendous, as in: literally some of the worst I've seen in a third person horror game, and the most damning thing is it's required to pass multiple areas. But the soundtrack alone is reason enough to play it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqiuG5ixVKE
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# ? Jun 4, 2015 06:28 |
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I feel like the Thief series (at least the first two, and parts of the third – we'll pretend the fourth doesn't exist) would be good recommendations, too. Some levels are practically straight-up survival horror, and the ones that aren't carry enough elements of tension and vulnerability that they're not far off. Few games have scared me more than those games have, and I really like horror games.
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# ? Jun 4, 2015 08:00 |
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blackguy32 posted:It does this on normal, easy, and novice. It is just the AI bugging out. As for the androids, I get that, but that doesn't make it anymore interesting. No, it's intentional. The alien adapts to what you're doing over the course of the game - the difficulty determines how sensitive it is to noise and movement you make, while determining how close to you it's "leashed".
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# ? Jun 4, 2015 08:07 |
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Accordion Man posted:Also you're best off emulating it if you want to play it, because used prices have gotten ludicrous, I like Siren (first game is scarier than Blood Curse) but it's extremely hard and definitely isn't for everyone. It's kind of a puzzle game because you have to figure out the monster's movement patterns and how far they can see so naturally, you're gonna die a lot. Echo Night Beyond is also great. You're the only survivor of a plane crash on a haunted moon base, looking for clues as to where your fiance might be. Paths are cleared by bringing mementos to friendly ghosts. If you see a hostile ghost, you have to get out of there ASAP otherwise you'll die of a heart attack. I can't phrase this in a way that doesn't sound silly. Everblue 2 isn't a straight up horror game, it's rated E and pretty relaxing at times but the sunken wreck and deep water dives are definitely tense. The game does a really good job at simulating how dark and claustrophobic diving in a shipwreck would be. I find this to be the scariest one I've played because getting lost and running out of air while diving in a big cruise ship/submarine/whatever is something that could actually happen. As for the deep water dives, you can only barely see what your flashlight is pointing at so when the shark theme (it's the only music that plays underwater) fades in, you usually don't know whether you're just hearing things until the shark is right in your face. Celery Face fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Jun 4, 2015 |
# ? Jun 4, 2015 19:07 |
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poptart_fairy posted:No, it's intentional. The alien adapts to what you're doing over the course of the game - the difficulty determines how sensitive it is to noise and movement you make, while determining how close to you it's "leashed". Like a lot of horror games, the tension at the beginning was pretty masterful, but it tried to stretch it out for too long without changing things up.
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# ? Jun 4, 2015 19:38 |
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Accordion Man posted:To add more recommendations: DP is a charming game, but not a good game. The combat was added last minute and if you don't want to get frustrated or even spoiled by the game's own trading cards you need a guide. Just watch SupergreatFriend's LP instead
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# ? Jun 4, 2015 19:46 |
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Lord Chumley posted:DP is a charming game, but not a good game. The combat was added last minute and if you don't want to get frustrated or even spoiled by the game's own trading cards you need a guide. Similarly: if you're interested in Rule of Rose I'd recommend just watching Niggurath's LP of it. It's a very interesting (and occasionally horrifying) game, just not a terribly fun one to play.
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# ? Jun 4, 2015 20:03 |
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Okay Horror games megathread, is DreadOut worth it at $5?
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# ? Jun 12, 2015 01:06 |
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I got about that much pleasure out of playing, so yes.
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# ? Jun 12, 2015 03:02 |
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I was about to pull the trigger when I read that they stripped high res textures from the game with no word from the devs since. So, screw it.
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# ? Jun 12, 2015 04:08 |
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Skip Dread Out. It's an really unpolished and not worth the time. You'll miss a significant amount of content if you don't fully explore the town once darkness falls, for example. I guess Alone In The Dark Illumination is out today? Seems to also be bad, but I can't comment on personal experience unlike above
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# ? Jun 12, 2015 12:37 |
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I liked Dreadout, but it was crazy buggy. I haven't played the 2.2.1 version though, cause I had to restart the game three times cause of game breaking bugs and just got mad at it and said screw it. If they fixed the bugs I'd say it's pretty cool, it's basically a Fatal Frame clone. Leper Residue fucked around with this message at 12:48 on Jun 12, 2015 |
# ? Jun 12, 2015 12:41 |
man nurse posted:I was about to pull the trigger when I read that they stripped high res textures from the game with no word from the devs since. Wait, what? Does anyone know what's going on with this?
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# ? Jun 12, 2015 16:46 |
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Relin posted:I guess Alone In The Dark Illumination is out today? Seems to also be bad, but I can't comment on personal experience unlike above The second beta was much better than the first, if not quite where I'd hope it'd be, but I haven't tried the release version yet. I'll see about trying it out and getting back to here. Edit: Ok, it's a half-step above the second beta. It would be better if it was a more traditional survival horror experience, since it's actually sorta nice when you're wandering the empty town, but when the enemies show up and it becomes more of the bastard offspring of Left 4 Dead and Alan Wake... well, it's middling, and why not play Left 4 Dead or Alan Wake instead if that's the case? Maybe pick it up if it goes on sale and you and your buddies want something new to mess around with? Or don't, I don't think you'll be missing out on much. catlord fucked around with this message at 02:59 on Jun 13, 2015 |
# ? Jun 12, 2015 23:50 |
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Leper Residue posted:I liked Dreadout, but it was crazy buggy. I haven't played the 2.2.1 version though, cause I had to restart the game three times cause of game breaking bugs and just got mad at it and said screw it. The low res textures things is pretty lovely, I'm assuming they replaced them for performance or something but yeah, no idea. It didn't bother me too much, as the look sort of fits the whole PS2-era graphics thing the game has going on in general and usually it's not too jarring, but there are a few egregious instances of stuff like this (I lost a bunch of my old pre-update screenshots, but this is one that really stood out):
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# ? Jun 13, 2015 02:51 |
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Ugh, the N64 actually had better textures than that.
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# ? Jun 13, 2015 03:02 |
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The PS2 didn't look like that hot garbage, goddamn. Also that Alone in the Dark game looks like poo poo. I mean graphically it's kinda nice but the gameplay looks rote and worse than God Mode which is really saying something.
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# ? Jun 13, 2015 03:05 |
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Yodzilla posted:Also that Alone in the Dark game looks like poo poo. I mean graphically it's kinda nice but the gameplay looks rote and worse than God Mode which is really saying something. Yeah, basically. I had to look up God Mode because I'd never heard of it, but it looks like a pretty apt comparison. Did anybody play The Haunted: Hell's Reach? I'm just trying to think of horror-y third person games focused on multiplayer.
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# ? Jun 13, 2015 03:14 |
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Kholat is out and the reviews are interesting. Destructoid reads positive throughout, only ending with a lower score than you'd expect mainly due to there being zero reason to replay it. It runs on UE4 and looks really nice. Could be a good experience. Kholat is about exploring a snowy mountainous region to discover what caused the deaths of nine russians who died on a mountain slope due to unknown reasons. Basically evidence suggested they cut themselves out of their tent in a panic and just ran off, only to be found dead hundreds of meters further. Save a few, who were found with a cracked skull and a missing tongue, no injuries were found on them. This actual real event is the base for the game's story. You, narrated by Sean Bean, walk about with a map and compass to piece about what happened. I'm tempted to pull the trigger on this.
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# ? Jun 13, 2015 10:14 |
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# ? May 9, 2024 12:29 |
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Dreadout is now less than 4 dollars , and it has a new patch. People should buy it. No idea about the textures, never really cared about that stuff.
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# ? Jun 18, 2015 13:09 |