|
CharlestonJew posted:I think its one of those pages that you only see on the highest difficulty, which is why most people don't see it
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2016 16:10
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 18:08 |
|
|
FNaF: SL is getting free DLC in December, a "custom night" that Cawthon additionally pointed out is non-canon. Past games had straightforward "survive X by doing Y" and individual enemy AI could be customized based on difficulty, but Sister Location doesn't quite follow that formula, so fans are speculating if the DLC will have additional challenges (or different enemy AI) not in the main game.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2016 17:10
|
|
|
CharlestonJew posted:I think its one of those pages that you only see on the highest difficulty, which is why most people don't see it
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2016 17:45
|
|
|
 1. DISTRAINT 2. Shadowgate 3. Miasmata 4. SOMA 5. Haunt the House: Terrortown 6. Oxenfree 7. Vlad the Impaler 8. Condemned: Criminal Origins 9. The Last Door: Season 2 10. Shadowgrounds 11. The Last NightMary 12. Kholat 13. Fran Bow 14. TRAUMA 15. Alan Wake 16. Dark Fall 1: The Journal 17. Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart 18. Gabriel Knight - Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition 19. Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion 20. The Swapper    I know what you're thinking, and no, this isn't some weird sex thing. It's weird, but in a way that gets the gears in your head turning about existence and identity. It's also a puzzle platformer, one of the good ones like Braid where its mechanics and story are finely intertwined to make a meaningful, unified experience. That really should be enough to sell anyone on The Swapper, but I'll happily go through the details for anyone holding out on this excellent title. You play an unnamed astronaut, unceremoniously ejected from a science station onto a barren mining colony. There you find the game's namesake, a device that can create perfect clones of you AND swap your consciousness between them. If you're thinking that opens a whole can of philosophical worms, the inhabitants of the station and colony would agree (if they hadn't mysteriously vanished). As you puzzle your way back onto the station, you'll learn plenty about the device aiding you, its part in the disappearance of your peers, and the creeping existentialist horror therein. In terms of game mechanics, this is a straight puzzle game. The first few areas introduce the Swapper and its two functions, and the rest of the game challenges you to solve convoluted rooms using those same functions. The fine details help flesh out some of the puzzles; for example, your clones mimic your moves perfectly, so some puzzles call for careful clone choreography across pressure plates or platforms. Aiming a new clone also slows down time, allowing you to make fine adjustments and precise swaps for time-intensive puzzles. There are two kinds of light that can block your abilities as well, along with some gravity shenanigans to spice things up. Solving puzzles earns you "security orbs" which are used to unlock doors and activate important systems. In truth they function like Mario 64 stars, where you have hubs of puzzle rooms and need like 75% of the available orbs to progress, and those margins shrink as you get near the end of the game. There are logs to read, mysterious stones to examine, and some scattered cutscenes that progress the story, but much of what you're doing is moving from hub to hub, solving puzzles. This leads to the station feeling less like a functional place and more like a funhouse, but that's seriously my only knock against the incredible atmosphere. While the story and mechanics would by themselves set The Swapper apart as an excellent title, the shadowy corridors and brooding, ambient soundtrack take it to another level. The graphics are all real-world models made from everyday materials like tin cans and styrofoam, but blended together to give an otherworldly yet photo-realistic feel to the station. The detailed textures make the stark lighting pop, and the sharply contrasting colors lend heavily to the unease of the derelict halls. I'm easily won over by games that have unique plots that they explore fully, but The Swapper starts there and crafts a magnificent experience around its hook. It's similar in some ways to SOMA, touching on the same themes in environments meant to isolate and unsettle you. You'll only get about two hours out of this one, unfortunately, but there some of the best two hours to be found among puzzle platformers, or really any genre. Seriously, don't let any game this polished or intelligent pass you by.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2016 19:56
|
|
|
Swapper is really good and don't be afraid to look up a guide for some of those final puzzles. It's worth it to experience the story.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2016 21:59
|
|
|
The Swapper is great and the ending is brutal. Some of the puzzles needed to be a little too pixel-perfect for my tastes (I remember solving one but placing one of my clones slightly off, which caused me to waste a bunch of timing assuming I had it completely wrong until I watched a video) but it's otherwise a blast. A depressing, harrowing blast.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2016 22:04
|
|
|
boy are my arms tired posted:balance slays the demon is very good too The office game you're thinking of is probably One Late Night. If you're looking at office horror, try Nighttime Visitor, which has been mentioned in this thread before. Sound design is really important for me in a horror game. Following the Stephen King school of thought, the right subtle sound cues can add to the imagined horror of whatever unseen monster the player is picturing and can ratchet up the tension, even if the pay off is underwhelming (Nighttime Visitor does this really well). A couple of games have used "listening" as a mechanic recently and it seems pretty effective, whether as a setup to a jump scare or otherwise. Personally, I love normal places for horror settings, particularly if they should be busy and full of people. Silent Hill 3's subway and shopping mall come to mind (before they get rusted). Establishing a safe place and having it feel unsafe long before any danger is actually present (Eternal Darkness) or having something be safe and gradually eroding it (SH4 and FF3) are really nerve-wracking for me as well.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2016 22:42
|
|
|
Speaking of that, I'm finally getting around to playing Outlast, and...it feels like this game would have been better off if you *didn't* almost always have a clear view of the things after you. Like, it would potentially be really scary if Nemesis Jr. turned up in the areas where you're forced to have your night vision on, but it seems like most of the time he's content to goober around where you can see him just fine.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2016 05:28
|
|
|
The O2 demo and the recent discussion really makes me wanna go back and play Outlast for real. It wasn't a good game, but it sounds like it went places  I remember really hating the clunky stealth though.. when the stalker was teleported in to get a drop on me at a scripted moment even though I had successfully avoided it until then, I was too pissed off to continue.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2016 08:23
|
|
|
I've played the Swapper some time ago, but never really got far into it. I'll give it another go this weekend since I did like what I've played of it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2016 12:34
|
|
|
why are there infinitely spawning enemies on a ship in the middle of the ocean, cold fear
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2016 16:04
|
|
|
Because it's spooky October time I'm playing Soma for the first time! So far I'm enjoying my multipass and oh christ what was that noise every two minutes.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2016 16:53
|
|
|
Reporting in: Anatomy by Kitty Horrorshow hosed me up real bad/good.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2016 18:03
|
|
|
1. DISTRAINT 2. Shadowgate 3. Miasmata 4. SOMA 5. Haunt the House: Terrortown 6. Oxenfree 7. Vlad the Impaler 8. Condemned: Criminal Origins 9. The Last Door: Season 2 10. Shadowgrounds 11. The Last NightMary 12. Kholat 13. Fran Bow 14. TRAUMA 15. Alan Wake 16. Dark Fall 1: The Journal 17. Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart 18. Gabriel Knight - Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition 19. Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion 20. The Swapper 21. Monstrum    Being chased in a game gets me worse than anything else. I can deal with spooky ambiance and deadly monsters, and as much as I hate jumpscares they're at least over in an instant. But the sensation of being hunted, being pursued, quickens my pulse like nothing else. Quite a few games play on that fear, and Monstrum might be one of the most effective, as long as you can look past its limitations. Monstrum drops you, the unnamed protagonist, onto a derelict cargo ship and challenges you to escape. There are three ways off this deathtrap, but each requires a spread of items that must be collected from around the ship. The layout of the ship is randomized every time you play, as are the item locations and your own starting position, so don't expect to memorize any of the key locations. Every attempt is going to take significant snooping around, from the engine room all the way up to the observation deck. You're being hunted during this endeavor, of course, by one of three creatures. Each is unique in how it detects you, how it searches for you, and how it catches you. There's no teleporting here, either... these things know how to hunt and will waste very little time in locating you. Fortunately every room has features like cabinets and beds that you can use to hide, and there are items to find that can distract the monster with noise or scare it off with fire. If you play your cards right you can give them the slip for a time but they are very aggressive in seeking you out. Also, fair warning, once you gather the items for an escape you have to distract the monster for a short time while your vehicle gasses up, otherwise they can smash it and cut off that option permanently. Speaking of permanence, you get one shot at every game of Monstrum. Yes, this is a horror roguelike; every time you play the ship is randomized, and when you die you get to start all over. It's not a bad setup, because the different monsters keep things fresh and a single round should last you 20-30 minutes unless you keep getting your escapes cut off. That permadeath element helps heighten the tension as well, especially as you close in on completing an escape. Despite the variations in monsters and layout, though, you're still going to be on a derelict ship every time. And that means a lot of samey corridors and stairways and supply cabinets. You might be taking different turns to get to the next room, but it's all going to look very familiar very fast. It might also be an unpleasant experience, too, because the field of vision is unusually small. Coupled with the tight corridors, I started getting motion sick not 20 minutes in. While I'm skeptical of how long Monstrum can maintain its appeal, I can't deny how effective it is while it has you. Being stalked by the monsters is a terrifying experience, aided by some sharp, gritty graphics and awfully effective sound cues. The ship feels utterly isolated and unwelcoming, and only becomes moreso when the creature catches wind of you. It works like a pocket roguelike Alien: Isolation, pitting you against a lethal stalker with just enough differences to get you to give it one more try. I mean, I had to tap out after just a few attempts because I was getting rattled so bad, and that has to count for something.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2016 18:33
|
|
|
VoidBurger posted:Reporting in: Anatomy by Kitty Horrorshow hosed me up real bad/good. It's impressed/spooked me more than most horror games I've played this season.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2016 18:48
|
|
|
DeathChicken posted:Speaking of that, I'm finally getting around to playing Outlast, and...it feels like this game would have been better off if you *didn't* almost always have a clear view of the things after you. Like, it would potentially be really scary if Nemesis Jr. turned up in the areas where you're forced to have your night vision on, but it seems like most of the time he's content to goober around where you can see him just fine. The game does this a couple of times. The sewers and outdoors come to mind. Those areas are better at creating tension and fear than the well lit ones, but they're also my least favorite due to generally hating not being able to find my way around and going in circles in games.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2016 19:00
|
|
|
1. DISTRAINT 2. Shadowgate 3. Miasmata 4. SOMA 5. Haunt the House: Terrortown 6. Oxenfree 7. Vlad the Impaler 8. Condemned: Criminal Origins 9. The Last Door: Season 2 10. Shadowgrounds 11. The Last NightMary 12. Kholat 13. Fran Bow 14. TRAUMA 15. Alan Wake 16. Dark Fall 1: The Journal 17. Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart 18. Gabriel Knight - Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition 19. Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion 20. The Swapper 21. Monstrum 22. Serena    I'll say up front, I'm pretty torn about this one. On the one hand, it's an interesting experiment in storytelling through non-traditional means, and it's no secret that I love stuff like that. On the other hand, it's not a terribly fun one for reasons I will get into. In the end, I think it being free and short really work to its advantage and put it in a place where I can recommend people trying it for themselves. But now I'm getting to the end before I even begin, so let's back up a little. Serena is the story of a man alone in a cabin, musing about his marriage. The cabin is just two rooms of static, rendered scenes to navigate, with hotspots to examine for fully-voiced narration. This is the entirety of gameplay, and to explain at all about what he finds would be to spoil most of Serena's appeal. Don't come looking for puzzles or investigations or scares, because what you're getting is a low-key journey into one man's psyche. The issue here is that you need to examine everything in the cabin until something changes, and then examine everything AGAIN until it changes, and so on. You might cotton on to the specific hotspots to trigger the next change but they're not really hinted at, and checking everything over and over can really stretch this journey out. The saving grace here is that the journey is a pretty interesting one. As you examine the cabin, you'll hear plenty of monologues that reveal glimpses of the man's personality and relationship with Serena. They're not exactly subtle, but for a game this short they help hustle the story along with a welcome briskness. It's clear a lot of consideration went into the relationship on display, especially once your examinations start yielding new information. And it all winds to a bit of a twist ending that's worth seeing once for how well it's set up. This is one of the rare games where the asking price really factors into my assessment of it. While I appreciate the story woven into the quality dialogue and detailed locale, it's just not that fun to get through. You're going to have to go through several cycles of examining the cabin's contents in the 30 minutes or so it takes to see Serena finished, and yes, that means clicking on the same cabinet or magazine quite a few times. It's limited enough in scope that I wouldn't be comfortable paying money for it, but as a free experience, there's really no reason not to see if it works for you.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2016 07:28
|
|
|
I only ever watched harshlycritical play Monstrum and I don't recall if he was able to beat it or not, but it definitely looked neat and I'd like to see a sequel some day that develops on some of the concepts with more varied environments, monsters, and maybe some better balancing and clearer gameplay since the game seemed to get really confusing over what you could and couldn't do to impede a monster's progress when it came time to making your escape. The spectral enemy definitely seemed like crazy harder than the other two though. IIRC the best bit of monstrum trivia is that they didn't tell their players about when they patched the third monster in, so while there eventually was a patch with an official statement of "hey check out the third monster," there were players before said patch getting the poo poo scared out of them by a sudden third creature they had no familiarity with FirstAidKite fucked around with this message at 07:48 on Oct 23, 2016 |
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2016 07:46
|
|
|
Is it just me for some reason or are all of Too Shy Guy's pictures showing broken right now? Though weirdly I can open them in a new tab fine.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2016 09:05
|
|
|
Just wanted to pop in and say that I bought DISTRAINT on Too Shy Guy's recommendation, and just finished it tonight. While the writing started to falter a bit (particularly some of the dialog, which gets pretty function-before-emotion towards the end) it was a pretty nice little experience. It was like a bite-sized Silent Hill with a little bit of strange humor thrown in, all with a pretty awesome aesthetic and tone. Well worth the time and money. Thanks for recommending that! On that note, anyone have any other bite-sized horror experiences to recommend? Specifically, if there's any other neat little 2D games out there that do something similar, I'm super down to try some more of these little indie horror titles out. I say 2D mainly because I kinda suck at most games, and taking a dimension out helps my wee gamer brain sort out the occasional puzzle or action sequence a little better. Also I happen to enjoy horror games with unique aesthetics, and with the standard indie horror title being some 3D walking simulator with standard Unity store assets, it seems 2D horror games are more likely to try something a little more out of the box. At least from what I've gathered from titles like Neverending Nightmares and Lone Survivor. Anyway, Distraint is awesome, so anyone who hasn't already jumped the gun should definitely try it out.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2016 09:30
|
|
|
Yardbomb posted:Is it just me for some reason or are all of Too Shy Guy's pictures showing broken right now? Though weirdly I can open them in a new tab fine. Not all of them but yeah, they're not working for me either. It's a mystery.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2016 11:44
|
|
|
Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion is a really cool game in theory but in practice it's incredibly dull. For every bit of coolness there's a huge pile of monotony. You might get 5-10 good levels out of 100 and the not good ones are just monotonous and boring. I couldn't make it that far just because I got bored of it 
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2016 12:49
|
|
|
VoidBurger posted:Reporting in: Anatomy by Kitty Horrorshow hosed me up real bad/good. Yeah, holy poo poo, I got the rec to play this from this thread, and goddamn that was good. Even the second playthrough felt ominous as hell, which is saying something.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2016 13:05
|
|
|
Bert of the Forest posted:Just wanted to pop in and say that I bought DISTRAINT on Too Shy Guy's recommendation, and just finished it tonight. While the writing started to falter a bit (particularly some of the dialog, which gets pretty function-before-emotion towards the end) it was a pretty nice little experience. It was like a bite-sized Silent Hill with a little bit of strange humor thrown in, all with a pretty awesome aesthetic and tone. Well worth the time and money. Thanks for recommending that! LIMBO is a great 2D platformer that is fairly short and quite creepy. I think it fits the bill!
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2016 14:05
|
|
|
Monoclinic posted:LIMBO is a great 2D platformer that is fairly short and quite creepy. I think it fits the bill! Have yet to play it through all the way but this is a solid point here; think this ought to be a good time to finish it! I've also dug out the original Clock Tower which I've never played before, but have heard many good things about. This will be a good  month yet!
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2016 21:39
|
|
|
By popular request! (i.e. one person said I should) 1. DISTRAINT 2. Shadowgate 3. Miasmata 4. SOMA 5. Haunt the House: Terrortown 6. Oxenfree 7. Vlad the Impaler 8. Condemned: Criminal Origins 9. The Last Door: Season 2 10. Shadowgrounds 11. The Last NightMary 12. Kholat 13. Fran Bow 14. TRAUMA 15. Alan Wake 16. Dark Fall 1: The Journal 17. Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart 18. Gabriel Knight - Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition 19. Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion 20. The Swapper 21. Monstrum 22. Serena 23. Cry of Fear    It's a shame modern games don't really have the kind of modding scenes older FPSes did. The Half-life games in particular spawned some quality mods and conversions across quite a few genres, horror included. Cry of Fear is just such a project, with so much work put in that it's barely recognizable as a Half-life 2 mod save for the familiar movement mechanics. And while it may have some rough edges, you might be surprised how spooky this one can get. You play Simon, a hoodied inhabitant of Stockholm, on his way home for the night. Through a mysterious and sudden event, he finds himself roaming deserted streets and buildings while assailed by nightmarish figures. Using the few meager weapons you find, you'll have to battle through the countless monsters to reach whatever lies at the end of your journey. In contrast with most first-person shooters, Cry of Fear has you fighting small handfuls of enemies with a very limited arsenal. During the first hour of the game, you'll have naught but a pocket knife and a weak pistol to guide you through. It's enough to overcome the mostly melee-focused monsters in your way, especially since you tend to encounter them one at a time. There's also a stamina bar used for dodging that's going to get a lot of use, because you're soon going to find there's only one good way to fight monsters in the cramped quarters of the game. I give Cry of Fear credit for crafting environments that look very much like real places, but this is one of those times where realism eats into the actual fun. Real-world alleys and hallways are VERY narrow, cutting off a lot of tactical options. Most of your encounters are going to be in tight hallways where you can't get around or past your foe. This leaves you doing the old duck in, stab, duck out shuffle for virtually every creature you come across. It's not quite as easy as it sounds but it can get very tedious very quickly. Despite the flat combat, the inhabitants of the game do a fine job of spooking you. There's a wide variety of horrors to battle, from eye-gouged murderers to spike-armed puppets and all the way to flying hospital bed monsters. They'll often come screaming at you from down a dark hallway or behind a door they just smashed down, and I had a few good jolts from them including the ones I kinda knew were coming. Cry of Fear's horror is very shock-centric, with herky-jerky creatures barreling out of the shadows and disembodied heads screaming at you in the cutscenes. It's not just monster mashing, either. You'll come across a number of puzzles, each one more grounded than hunting crests and some of them actually being pretty clever setups, like hacking a PC cafe terminal for a padlock code. There are also keys, health syringes, and other important items to collect and keep in your mostly unnecessary inventory screen. This screen lets you assign items to your three paltry hotkeys and use things like keys on doors, but honestly the game would flow a lot better without it. The game would also flow better with less backtracking in some of the larger levels, like the nigh-endless apartment complex. I also have gripes with the monsters sometimes glitching out and doing no damage, and the bosses being pretty underwhelming and a bit sloggy. Honestly though, I'm prepared to forgive all that for the excellent atmosphere and craftsmanship that went into this game. What you're getting is like a looser, less-polished Condemned, right down to the melee focus and decrepit setting. The dark, cramped, detailed levels establish a very grimy, oppressive feel that lends terror to the already freaky enemies. The soundtrack takes cues from Silent Hill in the best ways, going for grinding, pounding songs and effects when the action peaks. It's a long, long game as well, so if you're digging the grunge feel and stabby combat, there'll be plenty of it, and that's not even touching the custom story and co-op support. Cry of Fear trips on a few fronts but still clears the bar for an excellent horror game, thanks to some choice atmosphere and amount of content.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2016 23:33
|
|
|
Double-posting without fear.Tired Moritz posted:Not all of them but yeah, they're not working for me either. It's a mystery. Which ones are giving you guy trouble? Sometimes I link my own screenshots, but the last few games (and today's) I've been linking storefront screenshots. Bert of the Forest posted:Just wanted to pop in and say that I bought DISTRAINT on Too Shy Guy's recommendation, and just finished it tonight. While the writing started to falter a bit (particularly some of the dialog, which gets pretty function-before-emotion towards the end) it was a pretty nice little experience. It was like a bite-sized Silent Hill with a little bit of strange humor thrown in, all with a pretty awesome aesthetic and tone. Well worth the time and money. Thanks for recommending that! Someone asked a similar question awhile ago and I made a little list to help. Too Shy Guy posted:I've looked at and reviewed a bunch of the indie pixel horror games on Steam, so I'm just going to list them all off for you. Good ones first:
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2016 23:37
|
|
|
Wasn't Cry of Fear a Half-Life 1 mod and not 2?
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2016 23:43
|
|
|
Yeah, the Steam thread set me straight. Pretty nuts how good it looks, then.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2016 00:23
|
|
|
Y'know, I could have sworn at first listen the guy from Serena was the one who voiced Max from Sanitarium (a really cool game available on Gog! Go play it!). Sadly it isn't
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2016 00:52
|
|
|
Too Shy Guy posted:Double-posting without fear. the ones with the storefront screenshots. It's not that big of a problem since I'll just right click to see it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2016 05:33
|
|
|
Too Shy Guy posted:Which ones are giving you guy trouble? Sometimes I link my own screenshots, but the last few games (and today's) I've been linking storefront screenshots. For me it's just all of them, even went back to your earlier ones and those are busted too, I dunno what the deal is but same as above, open in a new tab shows them fine for whatever reason.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2016 07:47
|
|
|
Old Boot posted:Yeah, holy poo poo, I got the rec to play this from this thread, and goddamn that was good. Even the second playthrough felt ominous as hell, which is saying something. I want to nth the love for Anatomy. It's super unique and legitimately creepy. I recommend taking a look at kitty horrorshow's other games. None of them are quite as good as Anatomy, but they all all have their little unique horror twists. My favortie is Leechmeat from the haunted cities bundle.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2016 16:27
|
|
|
I've been playing The Solus Project on my Vive lately, and there a lot of elements in there that effectively creep you out, and that really gets heightened since it's VR. Being alone in a pitch black cavern deep underground with a sentient killer cloud that is attracted to light got my heart racing like nothing else. Or seeing a tornado coming right at me. It's frankly a fairly clunky game, but some of the encounters really hit that fight or flight response. I'm really excited to see some good horror games in VR (there are some, but all the one's I've seen have been terrible so far). Something where the player is being stalked would be terrifying. Hell even FNaF would be really effective in VR.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2016 18:39
|
|
|
BluJay posted:I'm really excited to see some good horror games in VR (there are some, but all the one's I've seen have been terrible so far). Something where the player is being stalked would be terrifying. Hell even FNaF would be really effective in VR. Are you kidding, this would be terrifying. Left controller could be used to bring up the security screen, right controller could be used to click on stuff...and then BAM fuckin' animatronic. People jump a meter out of their seats when it's on a computer screen, they'd probably poo poo themselves if it took up their entire field of vision.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2016 19:43
|
|
|
Sorry about the screenshots, then! Maybe I should try attaching them to my posts like no one ever does ever. 1. DISTRAINT 2. Shadowgate 3. Miasmata 4. SOMA 5. Haunt the House: Terrortown 6. Oxenfree 7. Vlad the Impaler 8. Condemned: Criminal Origins 9. The Last Door: Season 2 10. Shadowgrounds 11. The Last NightMary 12. Kholat 13. Fran Bow 14. TRAUMA 15. Alan Wake 16. Dark Fall 1: The Journal 17. Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart 18. Gabriel Knight - Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition 19. Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion 20. The Swapper 21. Monstrum 22. Serena 23. Cry of Fear 24. Black Mirror II    The original Black Mirror was an interesting bit of classic adventuring, a slow burn through the mysteries of an ancient British castle and its noble line. Personally I loved it but it's a tough sell in the modern era, with some questionable puzzles and practically glacial pace. Black Mirror II needs no such qualifications though, as it builds on the pedigree by improving virtually every part of the formula. You play Darren Michaels, a young physics major out of Boston who's spending time with his mother in remote Biddeford, Maine. The appearance of a striking young woman in town sets off a chain of grim events that entangles Michael in the mysteries of Black Mirror, a storied castle in the English countryside. There's a lot of ground to cover between Maine and England but it's filled with tantalizing secrets, vicious machinations, and plenty of puzzles to solve. The gameplay is standard point-and-click gameplay from the classic era, updated for more modern sensibilities. Double-clicking on a point of interest jumps you right to the action, bypassing the slow character plods and sometimes laborious animations. There's a highlight button to see all the interactables in a scene, and a very useful journal that includes optional clues for trickier puzzles. Most importantly, the bizarre left click/right click mechanics of Black Mirror I have been dropped for simple left-click interactions which progress through stages of discovery with every click. Keep this in mind, too... There's one object in the game you have to click five times; the first two clicks get you an item, and the next three reveal a key puzzle. Your adventure is rendered in sharp detail, with 3D characters superimposed on 2D rendered backgrounds. I generally don't like this style but Black Mirror II has one of the better renditions of it, since the backgrounds almost match the detail of the characters and ONLY the characters are 3D, so no out-of-place polygonal items laying around. Everything is voice acted as well, and outside of some questionable European accents and a few weird word choices it adds greatly to the feel of the game (and can be freely clicked through for the impatient). That feel of the game is really what helps set Black Mirror apart from other adventures. What I liked about Black Mirror I was the sense of forlorn decay as you plumbed the depths of Gothic ruins. That feeling is still around in II, but is mixed with a lot more detective work and scheming. You were fighting an expression of evil in the first game, whereas here you're contending with conspirators and villains, and the more active antagonism really helps keep the game fresh and engaging. Biddeford, Maine might not seem like an interesting setting at first, but mix in a murder and blackmail and it really starts to grab you. There's not much negative I can say about the game, outside of Darren. He's an acquired taste to be sure, a hot-headded Boston youth who doesn't shy from getting in people's faces. I found him annoying early on but by the late game he mellows a bit as the stakes become clear. In fact, the overall game really improves as it rolls on, making more and more connections with the first game. That's something I really want to praise, too, how Black Mirror II builds off the first game without making it necessary. You can easily play this installment without having touched the first because Darren learns of the backstory as you do, and prior events are only used as solid world-building for the story told here. Black Mirror II really took the best parts of Black Mirror I and made a fantastic new experience out of them. The gameplay is more streamlined, the puzzles are more challenging but also clearer, the story builds on the original while standing tall on its own, and the graphics and polish are a huge step up. It's still on the slow burn side of the adventure spectrum but is even more worthwhile than its predecessor. I would absolutely put this one near the top of any adventure or horror list for how well it handles both genres.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2016 20:02
|
|
|
Too Shy Guy, do you plan on covering Scratches? I have a strange fondness for it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2016 21:26
|
|
|
Lakeview cabin collection looks neat but I wish it had a more clear plot. The dev(s?) really want you to explore the game and piece together everything for yourself but as far as I can tell from the vids I've seen, there is all kinds of vague poo poo in there. I mean, apparently there's even a whole extra episode in there (lakeview cabin II) that was never officially announced and was put into the game as a secret and I can't even find vids of it on youtube, it's like nobody cares or nobody knows or idk
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2016 21:34
|
|
|
chitoryu12 posted:Too Shy Guy, do you plan on covering Scratches? I have a strange fondness for it. I'd like to, but I'm sticking to games that are available on Steam. If and when I move away from Steam as the main platform for my reviews, the first thing I'm going to do is a series on de-listed games since I have quite a few of them. I was actually going to include The Void this year but I didn't notice until a few weeks ago that it was also de-listed.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2016 21:47
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 18:08 |
|
|
Went and bought Monstrum thanks to Too Shy Guy's review. A half-invisible jellyman ate my face while I was repairing a sub. 10/10 would scramble panicked in the dark again.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2016 23:22
|
|
