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Morpheus posted:I kind of wish it didn't give away its premise within the first, like, five minutes of the game, but other than that yeah it's a neat game. I used to feel this way, but then I realized that no one was going to buy this little game from an unknown dev without hearing about it, and the only people likely to talk about it are horror game fans... so in the end, embracing the conceit and getting into it right away rather than trying to hide it was probably the right move. I feel like Eversion was the last (only?) game able to pull off that hidden meta-horror well, mainly because it was one of the first games to try something like that and it was originally a freeware platformer so it was easier to get people to play it without spoiling anything.
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Oct 18, 2019 19:00
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Big Mad Drongo posted:I used to feel this way, but then I realized that no one was going to buy this little game from an unknown dev without hearing about it, and the only people likely to talk about it are horror game fans... so in the end, embracing the conceit and getting into it right away rather than trying to hide it was probably the right move. I think Doki Doki Literature club hid it pretty well also - it had been out long enough by the time I played it that I knew something was going to be off about the game, but the spoilers hadn't been so abundant yet that I knew what was going to be wrong. The first people who played it must've been surprised, to say the least.
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Oct 18, 2019 19:04
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Eversion is a love story, not horror. 
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Oct 18, 2019 19:05
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DDLC plays its hand, and in the right to do so, by having the trigger warning at the top of the hour.
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Oct 18, 2019 19:10
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This thread moved FAST in the last couple days Good review! I didn't even know this was out of Early Access yet. Any idea if it's getting regular patches, or is it just going to be broken forever? woodenchicken posted:I remember it, and, especially, the DLC, Extraction point, having some good 'scary parts'. Can't name anything specific obviously, it's ancient history at this point. F1AR had better horror than the sequels, and maybe better gunplay? Also yeah the DLC had some quality horror content. DeathChicken posted:See, I remember being pretty spooked at playing as this badass kung-fu man in FEAR, then Alma strolls along and none of that matters, confronting her means she'll rip you into goo dogstile posted:I don't really find scripted instant death things scary, they just annoy me. Alma specifically doesn't do scripted instant death on the main character, as far as I remember, which leaves their relationship ambiguous and also makes sense given what that relationship is specifically later. She DOES rip most NPC's into red goo as soon as the main character is near them, and while some of those were genuinely pretty good I think they could've gotten more mileage out of it by making it a plot thread that the main character recognizes this and is trying to avoid this, by avoiding people or trying to react before Alma or something to make it so they aren't just a bystander. Section Z posted:Like guilty pleasure zero horror first person puncher, Breakdown. Dodging through a maze of instant kill trip-mines while pantsless not Sephiroth casually strolls through them giving no fucks? At least that stands out as more creative than the usual "Scary thing is scary because it can one-shot you, here is an empty hallway to flee through that maybe has a stubborn door handle at the end of it" Disposable Scud posted:There's nothing guilty about thinking Breakdown whips rear end. One of like two or three games from OG Xbox that I want to see emulated or GOG'd or whatever. That game was amazing and I don't know if it still holds up but I'd like to re-play it without having to break an xbox out of storage and fix all the blown caps or whatever.
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Oct 18, 2019 19:12
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Cardiovorax posted:Eversion is a love story, not horror. I was going to argue that this was only the true ending, but then I remembered Zaurg and now I have to concede the point.
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Oct 18, 2019 19:21
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Morpheus posted:I kind of wish it didn't give away its premise within the first, like, five minutes of the game, but other than that yeah it's a neat game. I kinda like that it does that so instead of being a cute game with a DARK SECRET like a whole bunch of things it's a horror comedy about how Satan sucks at programming
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Oct 18, 2019 19:32
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Skyscraper posted:Good review! I didn't even know this was out of Early Access yet. Any idea if it's getting regular patches, or is it just going to be broken forever? It just left Early Access last month and the developers haven't posted anything since then, so it's definitely a wait-and-see situation.
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Oct 18, 2019 19:39
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Too Shy Guy posted:It just left Early Access last month and the developers haven't posted anything since then, so it's definitely a wait-and-see situation. Oh thanks! I'll do just that, then.
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Oct 18, 2019 20:03
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Too Shy Guy posted:I like this idea but it is an extremely specific, off-beat one for a genre that's still horribly mired in abandoned asylums and mimicking Silent Hill 2. Management sims have an even more niche audience than horror games these days and there's not a lot of perceived crossover between them, so there's only like three that I can think of:
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Oct 18, 2019 21:11
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Want to chime in on Breakdown. That is a truly epic game and absolutely had me on edge for 90% of it. But seriously, did anyone ever beat that giant rear end white room with pillars right near the end full of heavies and other super dangerous crap? I'm pretty sure it's literally the room before the final boss but holy poo poo did I slam about 6 hours into that one section before I actually gave up. Returned my rental a day early even.
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Oct 18, 2019 22:11
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Zeno Clash is the successor to Breakdown
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Oct 18, 2019 22:12
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And I have both.
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Oct 18, 2019 22:12
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TheCog posted:Its me, I'm the demographic for these games. Is Lobotomy Corporation any good? 25$ is pricier than I like to spend on a game I know very little about, but from the description it would be exactly my jam. I wish I knew, but I haven't tried it or MachiaVillain. I just know that Daily Chthonicle is real neat and totally worth the $4 or whatever it is it normally goes for.
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Oct 18, 2019 22:25
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There is a couple where she does. Fire corridor is one where if you don't run away she just mulches you.
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Oct 18, 2019 22:29
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So I'm playing through metro last light as one of my horror titles of the month. I've played metro 2033 before and that's it. Is it me or is last light way better in terms of atmosphere? They have more monster variety and there's a lot more interesting levels to creep through.
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Oct 18, 2019 23:06
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Bogart posted:DDLC plays its hand, and in the right to do so, by having the trigger warning at the top of the hour. Yeaaaah it's definitely good they decided to let everyone know what's up ahead of time because while I feel like the actual first big shock moment is pretty hard telegraphed because I was pretty sure I knew exactly what I was gonna see on the other side of that door, it still hit really hard. I would really, really hate to sneak that up on someone unprepared.
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Oct 18, 2019 23:17
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Zushio posted:Want to chime in on Breakdown. That is a truly epic game and absolutely had me on edge for 90% of it. But seriously, did anyone ever beat that giant rear end white room with pillars right near the end full of heavies and other super dangerous crap? I'm pretty sure it's literally the room before the final boss but holy poo poo did I slam about 6 hours into that one section before I actually gave up. Returned my rental a day early even. I do know that I got stuck right at the end. That definitely wasn't an easy game. Zeno Clash is awesome. I've heard mixed things about the sequel. Is it worth playing?
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Oct 19, 2019 00:49
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I actually haven't played the sequel outside of a few minutes. It feels a little more... focused might be the right word, but barely. Multiplayer seemed to be pretty broken for me and my brother when we played, which is why I didn't play much. I seem to remember something about hidden secrets or something else non-obvious that was a pain in the rear end. I should replay both of those. Are they really horror though? Outside of some very uncomfortable creature designs that is. I basically think of them as somewhere between Ralph Bakshi's Wizards and Heavy Metal Magazine. My current options are Alien: Isolation, Evil Within or Return of the Obra Dinn. I've been wanting to play all three for a long time, but I figured its Spooky Games Time. I'm also working through The Silver Case when I want something a little slower paced. It's got some horror elements, but I'm not far and it's Suda51 so I honestly don't know where it's going in the end. Zushio fucked around with this message at 01:00 on Oct 19, 2019 |
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Oct 19, 2019 00:57
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Alien: Isolation for actual fear, Evil Within for action, Obra Dinn for thinkin'.
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Oct 19, 2019 01:35
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Please note that the exact moment you get tired of the Xenomorph in A:I is the exact moment you should stop. That game is entirely too long and you aren't really missing anything if you don't play the back half.
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Oct 19, 2019 01:48
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I'm not sure that will happen. Other than the user named Xenomorph (pretty sure that was the name) I suspect I am the biggest Alien fan on SA. I've got all the Dark Horse comics (Even the terrible ones), played every game (except Isolation), read most of the books and of course watched all the movies obsessively. I'm such a big fan that I even know Prometheus is essentially a redo of a fairly obscure run from the comic. I literally can't get enough of that particular sci-fi universe. The fact that it is also the Predator universe is just the icing on the cake for me. And it is remarkable how good the AvP movies actually are considering there are is only one remotely well done AvP comic storyline. The first one. Some good one-shots but they don't usually have dialog. Zushio fucked around with this message at 02:36 on Oct 20, 2019 |
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Oct 19, 2019 05:50
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Too Shy Guy posted:- Daily Chthonicle, where you run a newspaper reporting on eldritch horrors (I can vouch real hard for this one) I still have very little idea what I am doing and what is going on. But one thing I know for certain. I would love to cut out the middleman of "Dog + Whiskey", and just buy a bunch of those St Bernards that bring their own barrels of booze. EDIT: "So a reporter with a shotgun, a suspect with a can of gasoline and a dog, and a zombie, caused a blackout... I know we're making a newspaper, but I don't want to know how you managed that." ...Or how Sam Spade managed to injure himself trying to unlock a door. Section Z fucked around with this message at 07:01 on Oct 19, 2019 |
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Oct 19, 2019 06:17
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Anyone tried Worse Than Death? It's from the guy that made Home and it's really very good. It's a hide and puzzle style pixel horror game with hand-drawn art peppered throughout. I'm about an hour in and really enjoying it.
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Oct 19, 2019 06:34
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This game is entirely free and only an hour long, so honestly instead of reading about it you should just go play it right now. SPOOKY GAMES 6: Hellseeker 1. Apsulov: End of Gods 2. Conarium 3. TAMASHII 4. Apparition 5. Secrets of the Maw (DLC) 6. Bad Dream: Coma 7. They Breathe 8. The Final Station 9. Love, Sam 10. Pacify 11. Return of the Obra Dinn 12. Silver Chains 13. Bad Dream: Fever 14. DISTRAINT 2 15. Pamali: Indonesian Folklore Horror 16. Tormentum - Dark Sorrow 17. The Light Keeps Us Safe 18. Kalaban 19. Verde Station    The hard part of reviewing a game like Verde Station is explaining why it’s so good without spoiling any of the things that make it good. It’s one of those games like Eversion or Doki Doki Literature Club where all the magic is in discovery and perception, and the more you know about it going in, the less effective it’ll be. Don’t worry, it’s not wholly dependent on its twists to do what it does, but I wouldn’t want to rob anyone of their full impact the first time through the game. And it’s one you’ll probably want to revisit anyway, perhaps to see what other possibilities the station holds, or perhaps to really dig into the fantastic, thought-provoking story. You have been selected for a special year-long mission on Verde Station, a special research station designed to test the limits of both terrestrial plant life and the human psyche in space. The heart of the station is a greenhouse, filled with plants of all shapes and sizes which you will be responsible for. Beyond that you have your quarters, a lounge, a kitchen, and storage for your supplies. It’s not a big place but that’s part of the challenge, making do with the confines of the place as you carry out your long, interminable mission. Fortunately most everything on the station is automated… just don’t think too hard about what happens if those processes fail. In addition to all the items and features of the station you can pick up and fiddle with, each chamber has a computer console to interact with. The interface here is a delightfully retro command line thing where you enter numbers for menu selections and full file names to run programs. There’s a lot to poke at on the station, and that will only become more important as your situation changes. You’ll find curious logs that don’t seem to line up with the experiences you’re having, and far more dramatic encounters that indicate just how wrong things have gone on the station. That’s really all I can say about the game without stepping on its dramatic toes. Verde Station does some absolutely brilliant things with perceptions and expectations that I wish I could tell you about, but experiencing them for yourself makes for such gratifying moments. The graphics and gameplay are just good enough to support this, and while the sound design is effective, it’s the writing that really makes this feel like such a sinister, mysterious journey. You’re going to have to trust me that Verde Station is an excellent psychological adventure, filled with horrific twists and realizations, and something that any fan of dramatic storytelling in games needs to see.
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Oct 19, 2019 16:44
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Disposable Scud posted:Zeno Clash is awesome. I've heard mixed things about the sequel. Is it worth playing? About 6 months ago, I played Zeno Clash 1 & 2 back to back for the first time. I actually thought they were very similar games--so much so that my memories of them sort of bleed into each other, and I can't really remember if certain scenes were from the first game or the second. Honestly, I'd be willing to bet that if you enjoyed the first game, the second game will be enjoyable as well. Zeno Clash 2 has a more open world of interconnected maps that lets you do more exploring, but on a fundamental level they play very similarly. Ineffiable posted:So I'm playing through metro last light as one of my horror titles of the month. I feel like--without doing any research--Last Light had a larger budget and better idea of what to "do", perhaps by virtue of having a development team that had already made a previous Metro game? I know what you're saying, though. Metro 2033 definitely has memorable, highly-atmospheric moments (such as the Moscow State Library that's occupied by the "Librarian" mutants) but if I had to go back to Metro 2033 or Last Light, I'd probably always go back to Last Light. I think Exodus' open world environments and variety makes it my favorite of the three, nowadays, however.
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Oct 19, 2019 18:15
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I also recently played The Evil Within 1 & 2 back to back, and weirdly...I think I prefer the original more? I don't feel like #2's open areas really did much for the game, especially since a significant portion of the game takes place in "Union", a suburban town, and the "Marrow", a bunch of concrete tunnels and service centers. The disorienting, horrific environments of the first game are largely absent, and I think I had an issue with that. There are a few areas later in the game that are gorgeous and surreal, and it's a shame that they're so uncommon. Also--and this is my own fault, I'll admit--I made the mistake of insisting on playing TEW2 on a controller, and didn't realize that the "Nightmare" difficulty completely disables aim assist until like 4 hours into the game. Let me tell you, trying to score vital shots on TEW2's enemies (who come in greater numbers, can often soak up a lot of punishment, and violently jerk around like methheads) was often a frustrating experience without any sort of aim assistance. I tried going back to a lower difficulty but then the game lost a lot of the challenge. It was kind of frustrating because there didn't seem to be a happy middle ground. Lastly, I believe that TEW2 was made on the same engine as Dishonored 2, and both games have a noticeable amount of performance issues to this day. So it's doubly annoying when you have a scene in TEW2 where, for instance, you randomly and abruptly wake up in a cabin in the woods and have to fend off 15-20 enemies with an NPC partner, and they're skittering around like crackheads, and the game is slowing down because there's so many of them and you've got a GTX1080 and don't even have the graphics settings maxed out or anti-aliasing enabled, but the engine is kind of garbage, so it's like a double-whammy of annoying bullshit. I was actually playing TEW's DLC alongside TEW2 and it was jarring how much smoother the former played. EDIT: I just checked and apparently both TEW and TEW2 were on id tech 5, but TEW2 was on a custom version called the "STEM Engine", whereas Dishonored 2 was on a custom version called the "VOID Engine". Maybe the performance issues are from loving around with the engine and trying to get it to do poo poo it shouldn't be doing. Cream-of-Plenty fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Oct 19, 2019 |
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Oct 19, 2019 18:24
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TEW2 is an objectively better game in a lot of ways, but it's more polished package lacks a certain je ne sais quoi that TEW1 had. I'm one of the weirdos who really liked the first one though, so that may just be me.
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Oct 19, 2019 18:39
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Metro games would be so much better without the hackneyed morality mechanics.
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Oct 19, 2019 19:03
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I am one of those people who genuinely cannot tell what the big difference between TEW1 and TEW2 is even supposed to be, because for all I can tell, they play next to identically - except for the fact that TEW2 actually features levels that aren't just one long corridor, there seems to be nearly no difference at all to me. It makes all those strong opinions that people have about those games seem kind of strange to me.
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Oct 19, 2019 19:10
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Cream-of-Plenty posted:
Yeah I just feel like Metro Last Light has more memorable areas. I haven't even finished the game and it's already way more interesting with the catacombs, the marshes, the escape from the shrimps and on and on. It certainly has more boss monsters too. Cant wait to start Exodus after this. I'm also going to try and give Darkwood a try this month. Anyone have tips for this game?
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Oct 19, 2019 19:19
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Cardiovorax posted:I am one of those people who genuinely cannot tell what the big difference between TEW1 and TEW2 is even supposed to be, because for all I can tell, they play next to identically - except for the fact that TEW2 actually features levels that aren't just one long corridor, there seems to be nearly no difference at all to me. It makes all those strong opinions that people have about those games seem kind of strange to me. TEW2 has more long corridor levels than TEW1 does so yeah your perception is warped. There are two open world hubs, yes, but all the big scripted events take place in really smallish levels which was a big miss for me. TEW1 really understood the RE4 style of making small levels but multiple paths to navigate through them. I've gone on way too much about how much I prefer the first game but it largely comes down to the first one embracing its video gamey-ness. You are in a literal horror trope dream world and each level throws away everything from the last to introduce something weird. Sometimes it doesn't work like the terrible chase sequence through a boiler room against a one-hit enemy or a stealth sequence where if you got a certain upgrade you literally can't use that weapon without dying, but usually it always hit the right note for me. The sequel takes the horror dream simulator and does the most mundane thing with it and while there are a lot of standout individual sequences some of the moment-to-moment parts couldn't be more dull. I think the defining difference can be summed up in how the games handle the safe haven. In the first game it's kind of tedious when all you want to do is upgrade your poo poo but it visually represents the player's mental state and how it changes or weaves in Clair de lune into the levels is deeply integrated into the theme of the game. In the sequel it's clean, clinical, everything is readily available with little fluff but now it feels like a fancy menu straight out of Terranigma or something more than it does a thematically ingrained space.
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Oct 19, 2019 19:32
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Yeah I agree with this. TEW1 really leaned into the setting and, before you fully understand what's going on plot-wise, it kind of feels like anything can happen. You're shifting from a current-day hospital to a weird peasant village to a 1900's estate to Silent Hill dungeons and castles and modern urban environments. It's surreal and nightmarish and then, beside the regular monsters, there's a handful of recurring creeps that you're trying to evade and defeat. I understand why you spend a majority of your time in TEW2's "Union" and Marrow passages, and why they're designed as a simple Rockwell suburbia and concrete tunnel system, respectively, but holy cow did it get boring. I think that's why I was saying that TEW2's relatively open maps didn't do much for me: Because after a while, I didn't really want to explore them. They were just...boring. Hell, even the ghost woman who occasionally spawned was tedious as gently caress. There were multiple times where her appearance just disrupted whatever I was currently trying to do (since the map changes slightly and the regular enemies temporarily disappear and you can't progress/interact with most of the environment until she leaves). It wasn't tense or interesting, it was just like, "alright I guess I have to walk far enough away that she'll despawn, and then I can waste more time returning to whatever I was previously trying to do." Also I'm pretty sure she spawned at least once or twice when I was in a building, and I couldn't interact with the door until she left, so I was just stuck sitting in a shed while she wandered around outside until she left again. Cream-of-Plenty fucked around with this message at 20:10 on Oct 19, 2019 |
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Oct 19, 2019 20:05
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Zushio posted:I'm not sure that will happen. Other than the user named Xenomorph (pretty sure that was the name) I suspect I am the biggest Alien fan on SA. I've got all the Dark Horse comics (Even the terrible ones), played every game (except Isolation), read most of the books and of course watched all the movies obsessively. I'm such a big fan that I even know Prometheus is essentially a redo of a fairly obscure run from the comic. I have to agree that while Alien Isolation is a generally good game on its own, for fans of the franchise it's like the culmination of a lifelong longing and a transcendent experience. I'm a few steps short of Zushio's level of fandom, but I'm high enough up there that even though I'm not a stealth gamer at all, Isolation is easily a top-5 all time game. Me and that franchise go way back, and I anxiously await every new game even knowing that most of them are pretty bad. I can't recommend Isolation enough to people who like the original film. It's got all sorts of gameplay and narrative problems, but the universe mood bath is completely worth it. The long length wasn't a con for me at all; just more time for me to enjoy some adequate writing, decent gameplay mechanics, good environments, and truly godlike music and sound design.
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Oct 19, 2019 20:15
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I must be one of the few who enjoyed TEW2 more than TEW1. Thematically, it makes sense for the levels to be a disjointed mess because you're inside the mind of a crazy psychopath, but until that reveal I found the frequent changes annoying. Gameplay-wise, it felt like it was trying to thread the needle between being stealth-oriented but also having boss fights and action set pieces and it didn't quite pull it off. Personally, I found the characters boring and I thought the dead serious tone was a misstep. To be fair, I thought the Kidman DLC was far superior.
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Oct 19, 2019 20:17
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I liked TEW 2 more as well, it didn't have the crazy feel of the first one but didn't have most of its lovely bits either and I enjoyed looking for stuff in the open maps, they were the best part of the game.
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Oct 19, 2019 20:29
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al-azad posted:TEW2 has more long corridor levels than TEW1 does so yeah your perception is warped. al-azad posted:I think the defining difference can be summed up in how the games handle the safe haven. In the first game it's kind of tedious when all you want to do is upgrade your poo poo but it visually represents the player's mental state and how it changes or weaves in Clair de lune into the levels is deeply integrated into the theme of the game. In the sequel it's clean, clinical, everything is readily available with little fluff but now it feels like a fancy menu straight out of Terranigma or something more than it does a thematically ingrained space. 
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Oct 19, 2019 20:30
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TEW1's narrative decisions were baffling because it was a conscious choice to explain the plot in the DLC but I didn't play it so every detail was lost on me. But I think that also lead to me paying more attention to how thematically integrated everything is. All the monsters have a backstory for existing and all the character's different mental states bleed together so on a second play you can pick out these disparate elements. Like I don't think the main story ever explains the loud noise is what triggers the shift into another character's brain and you're thinking to yourself "how is it that Kidman isn't negatively influenced by this world" then on a second play you notice she's the only one who doesn't wince in the intro. Just little things like that were fun to pick out.
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Oct 19, 2019 20:49
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rudecyrus posted:I must be one of the few who enjoyed TEW2 more than TEW1. Thematically, it makes sense for the levels to be a disjointed mess because you're inside the mind of a crazy psychopath, but until that reveal I found the frequent changes annoying. Gameplay-wise, it felt like it was trying to thread the needle between being stealth-oriented but also having boss fights and action set pieces and it didn't quite pull it off. Personally, I found the characters boring and I thought the dead serious tone was a misstep. Please do not let this thread convince you it's unusual to like TEW2 more than TEW1 instead of it being, like, a very common opinion shared by many people
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Oct 19, 2019 21:00
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Yeah most people like TEW2 over 1, and for good reason because 2 rules.
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Oct 19, 2019 21:14
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