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Skyscraper posted:Interesting, I'll have to pick some different dialogue options this time. In mine, the assassin doesn't call anyone except reporting the photographer dead at the end, and there was as far as I could tell no body outside the diner. Also, I could tell no relation between the Power Company experiment and the tapes other than the logo. Does the weird bird do anything in this plot other than lead the photographer to her death? In the beginning of the game before you load your gun there are two voices, I'll just call them yellow and orange. Yellow orders orange to clean up and you never hear this voice again. Orange (the assassin) is the one who calls 911 at the end of the game. If you look out the window before loading the gun there's a woman's body being pecked on by birds in the street. The connection between the power company and the tapes is the symbol which is the exact same stencil on the tape container and the overturned cargo containers. The weird bird just seems to be a symbolic albatross.
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Jul 24, 2019 18:35
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Paratopic is super neat. Great soundtrack too.
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Jul 24, 2019 20:49
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In anticipation of this year's Spooky Game lineup in October, I'm back to streaming some of the indie horror titles I'll be covering on Wednesdays. Tonight's the first night, I'm starting with Pamali: Indonesian Folklore Horror if you'd like to see what that's all about in motion: https://www.twitch.tv/goldplatedgames EDIT: Done for tonight. Very interesting open-ended game about learning how to not piss off ghosts. Too Shy Guy fucked around with this message at 08:16 on Jul 25, 2019 |
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Jul 25, 2019 05:08
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I dig some of Sinking City but man theres no loving reason for the open world. Tedious. Also yeah Evil Within 2 owns bones. Love those games.
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Jul 25, 2019 05:36
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Too Shy Guy posted:In anticipation of this year's Spooky Game lineup in October, I'm back to streaming some of the indie horror titles I'll be covering on Wednesdays. Tonight's the first night, I'm starting with Pamali: Indonesian Folklore Horror if you'd like to see what that's all about in motion: https://www.twitch.tv/goldplatedgames btw what's your av from?
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Jul 25, 2019 06:08
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I'm so glad they looked at the camera and went full-on with it. Haha
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Jul 25, 2019 06:51
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Discendo Vox posted:btw what's your av from? My pink one here? It's fan art of Zarya from Overwatch that I found on Twitter ages ago.
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Jul 25, 2019 08:15
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Too Shy Guy posted:In anticipation of this year's Spooky Game lineup in October, I'm back to streaming some of the indie horror titles I'll be covering on Wednesdays. Tonight's the first night, I'm starting with Pamali: Indonesian Folklore Horror if you'd like to see what that's all about in motion: https://www.twitch.tv/goldplatedgames
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Jul 25, 2019 08:31
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Blackout Club good?
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Jul 31, 2019 23:12
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It is a multiplayer horror game that wants to be one part goonies, one part Stranger Things and all set in "the early 2000s", but utilizing tech that was a few years away to be honest. if you want something scary, I don't know if it personally hits that for you - but its maybe interesting? Seems to really want a full group. It might be more payday 2 then creepy.
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Aug 1, 2019 00:04
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I'd love a horde shooter like Payday 2 but with cosmic horrors trying to swarm you. edit: Doubt I'd ever play Blackout Club but I'm loving that weird set up with the music and the cult and everything. Got a Siren vibe from it all, as weird as that is because the games couldn't be more dissimilar. Drunken Baker fucked around with this message at 13:40 on Aug 1, 2019 |
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Aug 1, 2019 13:00
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I'm starting something new this year, an effort to go back and revisit the reviews from my original Spooky Games series. That was nearly six years ago, and I'm pretty sure my ability to review things has improved even if my opinions haven't. I've picked 31 titles out of the giant mass I did back then, and I'm writing new reviews to replace all those short impression pieces. This won't be a daily series or anything, I'll be posting one or two a week on an irregular schedule, but it might be a good opportunity to look back on some older horror games in the lead-up to October (and probably beyond). So with that, I present you with... Spooky Games: Or1gins Year Walk    You can make perfectly effective horror games out of aliens, made-up demons, or haunted dishwashers if you know what you’re doing. But there’s something special about horror rooted in folklore. Telling a story that’s been told before, and told by people who took it far more seriously, grounds your horror in reality and gives it that unsettling edge of being just the tiniest bit more plausible. Year Walk is built around an actual historical belief in Sweden, something that people have attested to experiencing. It’s not the longest or most complex horror title around, but that factual grounding and excellent aesthetic make it an experience you won’t soon forget. The concept of year walking is a sort of vision quest that allowed the walker to glimpse the future. Starting on a particularly auspicious day like New Year’s, after fasting and remaining in solitude, the walker could depart their house into the spirit realm, to face the hidden beings of the world. A year walk could be dangerous to both body and mind, but by following certain rules and customs, the walker could arrive at their destination and receive visions of their fate. The year walker you play here has a particular reason for their walk, and by overcoming the hardships along their path, will get an answer to a question they might not have truly wanted answered. All of this information is culled from the game’s built-in encyclopedia, a small collection of pages that give scholarly descriptions of the concepts found in the game. It’s a useful tool both for clarifying the historical background of Year Walk and for puzzling out some of the interactions you’ll have with the unearthly beings you’ll meet. It also features prominently in one of those very puzzles, in a way that does a lot to immerse the player in the game. For other titles such a reference might be a nice detail, but here it is indicative of the care and consideration put into the overall design. You won’t spend the whole game reading up on ravens and huldra, of course. There is walking to do in Year Walk, and you’ll do that from a first-person point-and-click interface. Each area is a panorama of snowy fields and barren woods that you can scroll horizontally across, and then move forward or backward into adjacent areas. It’s a little disorienting at first but the map is very smartly laid out the exact same way, and there’s only 20 or so areas to explore to begin with. You’ll find some kind of clue or object to fiddle with in nearly every area though, so it’ll certainly pay to get and maintain your bearings as you walk. The puzzles are simple, for the most part, challenging you to find hidden spirits or recall patterns or piece together the meaning of runes. A few of them can stray into frustrating territory, particularly one that requires you to pick out specific notes from a chorus of voices. But the rest make wonderful use of the ominous atmosphere and otherworldly beings to both tax your brain and unsettle your nerves. There are a handful of jumpscares in this one, none of them particularly bad and in my opinion earned. Your whole journey should take you an hour or less, so it’s a nice, compact experience where nothing really wears out its welcome. Among the most impressive aspects of Year Walk is its art style, a simple collage of shapes and silhouettes that manages to evoke exactly the kind of wonder and desolation the setting needs. The sound design is suitably understated when it needs to be, and perks up with sharp stingers and dramatic flair at just the right times. Coupled with the clean interface and genuinely interesting encyclopedia, the presentation of this title is absolutely top-notch. Really there’s no reason why any fan of adventures should pass this one up, and fans of horror should be just rattled enough to find it a fine use of an hour. There’s a secret ending to hunt down too, but I think one long walk into the future is plenty to illustrate the artistry that made Year Walk possible.
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Aug 1, 2019 16:47
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If you have a phone, Device 6 by the same devs is loving fantastic and totally worth playing . It makes pretty heavy use of the "phone game" medium and wouldn't really translate well to a PC interface but I strongly recommend it. There's some creepy bits but it's more "espionage" than "horror" probably
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Aug 2, 2019 00:48
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goferchan posted:If you have a phone, Device 6 by the same devs is loving fantastic and totally worth playing . It makes pretty heavy use of the "phone game" medium and wouldn't really translate well to a PC interface but I strongly recommend it. There's some creepy bits but it's more "espionage" than "horror" probably iOS only looks like
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Aug 2, 2019 01:10
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Oh, "Atmospheric Horror" Silver Chains is gonna release in 4 days.
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Aug 2, 2019 01:49
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People really love that Love, Sam game
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Aug 2, 2019 03:59
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Tired Moritz posted:People really love that Love, Sam game Played it with some friends tonight, we were quite impressed with it. Excellent scares and a surprisingly engaging plot with some twists and turns. I think it's like 4 bucks on steam, definitely worth a play in the dark
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Aug 2, 2019 04:03
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Tired Moritz posted:People really love that Love, Sam game It does a lot with very little which all horror games big and small could learn from.
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Aug 2, 2019 12:38
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Incidentally, I've got a review of The Church in the Darkness going up in the next couple of days on GeekWire. It's interesting and creepy more than it's fun, if only because it's so loving weird. The primary antagonists' motivations and actual goals are randomized on every trip through the game, so sometimes you're the closest thing it has to a villain, and it's got a lot of period-specific anti-capitalist sentiments that have only gotten more relevant now.
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Aug 3, 2019 19:03
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I'm way behind on this thread, has this been posted? https://store.steampowered.com/app/1120560/Sense___A_Cyberpunk_Ghost_Story/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qdq2jMwjbs Theres a demo
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Aug 4, 2019 21:38
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Basticle posted:I'm way behind on this thread, has this been posted? Jesus that's thirsty.
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Aug 4, 2019 21:50
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Tired Moritz posted:People really love that Love, Sam game +1 recommendation, it's short, effective, and tells a complete story with a neat twist
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Aug 4, 2019 21:54
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They seriously had to tread all over some cyberpunk horror with big anime tiddy.
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Aug 5, 2019 03:02
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Glukeose posted:They seriously had to tread all over some cyberpunk horror with big anime tiddy. A horror game where you play as a prostitute (minus all the sex having) and maybe solve some hosed up murder mystery, because you know and see what happens on the streets at night, would make for an interesting idea. But I doubt this game is about that.
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Aug 5, 2019 05:32
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WaltherFeng posted:A horror game where you play as a prostitute (minus all the sex having) and maybe solve some hosed up murder mystery, because you know and see what happens on the streets at night, would make for an interesting idea. Looking forward to the day this premise is announced, and it's made clear that a) that not a single writer involved is a woman, b) there was no actual research done/interviews conducted on the subject of predation on sex workers, c) lol tiddy. I mean there's something to be said for it. A very personal horror in which even attempting to solve the murders of women (and men, yes) society discards on a regular basis (and frankly doesn't give even half a poo poo about) is not only necessary, else it'll never get touched because who cares, but effectively futile, has some teeth. But lol, jesus, I would never expect it to be anything other than neckbeard gutter trash that goes full-tilt edgelord Outlast, and aggressively misses the point.
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Aug 5, 2019 09:36
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Basticle posted:I'm way behind on this thread, has this been posted? If only they had been fixated on butts. Cyberbadonk is just sitting there in my brain, so close to being appropriate for use.
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Aug 5, 2019 14:18
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Man, I was actually kind of interested in that game until I watched the YouTube video. Just scanning the Steam screenshots I thought it looked kinda neat, then I saw it in motion and saw the rest of the thirst.
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Aug 5, 2019 14:25
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mysterious frankie posted:If only they had been fixated on butts. Cyberbadonk is just sitting there in my brain, so close to being appropriate for use. Callipunkian
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Aug 5, 2019 14:27
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Cyperspunk.
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Aug 5, 2019 14:50
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I got to revisit Eldritch (actually Eldritch Reanimated now) in my look back at older reviews, and remember how well it did the whole first-person roguelike thing before they really blew up. It's admittedly light on horror outside of tense moments with statues and the occasional shoggoth sneaking up on you, but the action more than makes up for it. Spooky Games: Or1gins Year Walk Eldritch Reanimated    There seems to be some sort of curse on games based around Lovecraft’s work. Lovecraft-inspired games tend to avoid it, if titles like The Last Door and Darkest Dungeon are anything to go by. Once a game invokes dread Cthulhu or his ilk directly, though, it has trouble doing the Old Ones justice. Eldritch might have released before this curse was set, or perhaps it side-steps it by not taking the mythos terribly seriously. Either way, it takes what it needs from Lovecraft to make a creepy dungeon crawler, and then goes on to pack it full of colorful action and unexpected hijinks. By means completely unknowable, you find yourself trapped in an infinitely-sprawling library. The exit is sealed by three pillars, and three enchanted books hold the keys to their unbinding. These books lead to realms under the sway of great Old Ones like Dagon and Nyarlathotep, their twisting halls packed with bizarre and deadly minions. Luckily there are weapons to be found and artifacts that may give you the edge you need to survive, if you comb the labyrinthine chambers carefully. At the bottom of these dark places lie the keys you need to escape the prison of the library, but that may in turn reveal a more terrible fate in store. First-person roguelikes were still in their infancy when Eldritch rose from the depths in 2013, but it has a solid structure for randomized adventuring. Each of the book realms is comprised of three stages, and each of those is like a cube of shuffled chambers. They connect in strange and confusing ways, such that the only way down to the exit on the bottom layer is to descend down to the bottom layer, come back up to the top layer in a different area, and then descend again where the exit is. This means treasure rooms and secrets can be tucked away almost everywhere, making exploration key to success. But the need for loot must be balanced against the possible attrition your foes can inflict upon you. The movement and combat are perhaps where Eldritch diverges furthest from the atmosphere of cosmic dread, but it’s a sacrifice made in the name of fantastic gameplay. The first thing you will surely notice about your character is that she is incredibly fast. Like, Doomguy fast. You might also notice that your foes are, well, not. You do have the option of gliding right past fishmen, cultists, star children, and even shoggoths if space allows. And in the first area you generally can, but in later areas this will be less of an option. Still, your movement speed makes combat a thrilling dance of bullets and stabs when surrounded by enemies, and it also makes stealth not take ages if you choose to use the game’s quite powerful stealth mechanic. There are also items to further enhance these aspects of your character and others, so finding a playstyle that helps you survive eldritch horrors is definitely a consideration. Actually I have to admit I lied in that last paragraph… the presentation might be where the game diverges furthest from cosmic horror. I mean, you can still do cosmic horror with a Minecraft motif, and there are times when a shoggoth appears where it shouldn’t, or you stumble across a room full of mysteriously dead cultists, and the game will give you a little shiver. But it’s also a bright, vibrant game with low-res textures, the fishmen gurgle adorably, and one of the shops is owned by a pleasant star child with a monocle. The story and setting are clearly Lovecraft inspired, but you won’t be getting much more than a glimpse of the atmosphere found in those macabre tales. Some might balk at this but it’s a good fit, especially when you’re hunting keys to break into cultist dorms and blowing holes in temple walls with dynamite. The gameplay is the real star of the show here, between terrain destruction and magical powers like mind control and just the absurd speed of your character. It’s built with all this in mind, too, as you’ll realize when you start facing monsters that can’t be permanently killed and that can catch up to you no matter how fast you are. You’re in for a treat if you beat all three book realms, as the game gets quite a twist and opens up with multiple endings. There are additional game modes, too, one based on At the Mountains of Madness featuring evil penguins and another designed as a time attack run through a twisted asylum. Both modes were added in post-launch patches, and the game is still being patched even now in 2019. For being one of the first first-person roguelikes Eldritch is still one of the best, taking the fun parts of the Cthulhu mythos and mixing them with some rollicking good gameplay.
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Aug 6, 2019 16:34
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lovecraft didn't go any of his ideas justice anyway. call of cthulhu ends with them ramming cthulhu with a boat. the idea of the eldritch nightmare is always way better than the execution imo. eternal darkness is pretty good tho.
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Aug 6, 2019 23:35
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Spite posted:lovecraft didn't go any of his ideas justice anyway. call of cthulhu ends with them ramming cthulhu with a boat. the idea of the eldritch nightmare is always way better than the execution imo. And he didn't go back to sleep because he got hit with a boat. He went back to sleep because the stars weren't right man.
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Aug 7, 2019 00:08
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Len posted:And he didn't go back to sleep because he got hit with a boat. He went back to sleep because the stars weren't right man. If I get bit by a mosquito and also it's 3am, I'm going to bed because it's 3am not because of that little bastard
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Aug 7, 2019 00:24
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Eldritch is definitely one of those games that I always wanted to like more than I really did. The whole idea is neat and cool and fun, but... something about it just doesn't come together for me. I think I would've really enjoyed if instead of a roguelite it had been an open-world RPG in just the exact same style instead. Repeatedly running dungeon for points and horror just don't mix that well. Ultima Underworld, that's what I think it should've used as a template. Cardiovorax fucked around with this message at 17:13 on Aug 7, 2019 |
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Aug 7, 2019 17:10
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One of the most impressive things I’ve seen happen in Eldritch was when I noticed some enemies staring at the ceiling to the point of not being distracted by me. I went up a level to find two enemies in a nonstop fight because one can be downed but is immortal and the other has a ranged attack and high health. Before I can do anything the shopkeeper nearby walked out, killed the ranged attacker, and walked back into the shop like nothing happened.
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Aug 7, 2019 21:14
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Cardiovorax posted:Eldritch is definitely one of those games that I always wanted to like more than I really did. The whole idea is neat and cool and fun, but... something about it just doesn't come together for me. I think I would've really enjoyed if instead of a roguelite it had been an open-world RPG in just the exact same style instead. Repeatedly running dungeon for points and horror just don't mix that well. What you're describing would be absolutely amazing, and hopefully with the sudden influx of Lovecraftian adventures and RPGs like Stygian and A Place for the Unwilling something along those lines will appear as well. And yes, the emergent infighting between enemies can be super interesting because of how different their abilities are. Spooky Games: Or1gins Year Walk Eldritch Reanimated Home    You would think, what with games being an interactive medium, that making the player’s choices matter would be simple. It’s far from it for a number of reasons, primarily because every choice you allow a player has to be coded and tested for. But it’s a goal of so many titles, to make your choices matter and to grant the player the satisfaction of shaping their own story. Home tried to do this in a rather novel way back in 2012, and I still can’t think of another game that took this route and made it work. I mean, Home didn’t make it work either, and didn’t offer a very compelling experience to get there. You awaken, battered and bloodied, in a house that is not your own. Stumbling around in the dark, you discover that even darker events have taken place here. Fearing for your own safety and that of your wife back home, you set off to rejoin her as soon as possible. However, your route takes you through ominous tunnels and grim ruins that shed further light on the terrible things happening in your town. As you piece together the clues a picture of dread begins to form, one that may be confirmed when you finally pass into the familiar confines of your home. Or it may not. I would call Home a side-scrolling walking sim without a hint of derision, because it does a fine job of approximating a desperate journey in 2D. Your poor fellow shuffles left and right, checking highlighted objects he passes and climbing stairs and ladders with a press of a button. You have an inventory but not one you need to manage, as it will only ever contain a few key items. There’s no combat and only the barest traces of puzzles, which allow you to focus on the unfolding story and the oppressive atmosphere than runs through the entire hour-long experience. There are two problems with Home that spoil its premise, and to explain them I’ll need to spoil aspects of its design. If the premise and presentation sound interesting enough to you, go ahead and check out of this review and pick this one up. But if you’re still here, we can talk about how long that presentation holds up. There’s no denying that areas of Home are genuinely creepy, and the occasional creaking board or rattling door or throbbing mechanical hum will tense you up. It all works for your first stroll through the game, at which point you will discover there are no threats of any kind, at any point. The game will still try to jumpscare you a times with loud bangs and slams, but they’re a cheap, unpleasant way to maintain the illusion of danger when there is none. I would be a bit more forgiving of the gameplay if the narrative paid off, but it’s this primary selling point that is Home’s biggest fumble. As you progress and discover new clues about what’s happening around town, this supposedly shapes the story and conclusion that you reach. At the end of the game, you are presented with a series of questions about what did or did not happen. You can answer these in accordance with the evidence you’ve found or try to resist the apparent conclusions, but it seems either way you go it won’t actually give you any sort of resolution. The first two times I played, I got frustratingly vague “guess we’ll never know” endings. And the third time, I followed all the clues to their logical conclusion only for the game to give me a meandering explanation of how the opposite thing from that conclusion happened. Home claims that “you decide what ultimately happens” but all you really have control of is how much of your time this game will waste. Beyond the convincing atmosphere of your very first run through the game, there’s very little to compel or reward the player. The gameplay is thin, the writing is passable, and all that changes between attempts are small vagaries in the nebulous ending you get. We’ve come a long way in interactive storytelling since 2012 but if the review this one is replacing was worth anything, Home didn’t have much to offer the medium even back in its day.
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Aug 8, 2019 16:32
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Home was crap. I collected most weapons I found just in case (knowing nothing about the gameplay). In the end it asked me if my character was killing people. I said 'no', and the game shrugged, told me I was inconsistent, its story didn't work that way, and what the hell, man, and it shrugged and walked away.
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Aug 8, 2019 16:39
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Isn't Home one of those games that says "well what do you think happened?????" instead of giving an actual conclusion to the story? I just remember being quite disappointed by it.
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Aug 8, 2019 16:47
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Morpheus posted:Isn't Home one of those games that says "well what do you think happened?????" instead of giving an actual conclusion to the story? I just remember being quite disappointed by it. I can't believe killerman was killerman
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Aug 8, 2019 18:21
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Procrastinator posted:I can't believe killerman was killerman So fuckin' obvious, he leaves a star shaped mark, or 'kill mark' on his victims, of course it's Killerman.
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Aug 8, 2019 18:26
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