Horror Games

My interest in Stray Souls hasn't diminished at all.

Sometimes you've just got to take a chance on a wildcard, I've bought a few this year. If you want to play it safe and get exactly what you're expecting for your money AAA and first party stuff is there for that mostly.

I've been meaning to post my thoughts on my recent wildcard purchase, I actually ended up liking it a fair bit despite the jank.

Although I really want to know what your recent purchase is now.

I've been SO close to buying Dreadout 2 every time it goes on sale! I'm getting it.

So WORLD OF HORROR is finally out. It's a roguelike... point and click adventure? Something like that? With eldritch monstrosities and knockoff Junji Ito art.

I'm definitely intrigued, for the Junji Ito if nothing else. That stuff gives me the scaries.

It's a semi-roguelike structured a bit like a tabletop RPG. Can't think of many games like it. But it can be quite hard. Even on the lowest difficulty, you are not guaranteed to get to the end until you learn some decent combat tactics. On the default difficulty, I only managed to complete the game once, and only because of some lucky rolls.

I liked it though, definitely worth the price. Need to get back to it now they have added more content.

It sure takes some acquired taste to say there was something good in Knights Contract!

Even if the game was definitely rushed, to go from Majin to that... I don't know how Game Republic did it.

Somehow I forced myself to finish it, and then decided to forget about it too.

I don't think Namco is going to remaster that anytime soon. I do wish they would remaster Majin though. One of the best games from the 360 gen imo.

With Splatterhouse gone, the pile of PS3 horror Poo-Poo that I need to finish is down to just a few games.

Vampire Rain where I'm stuck at a really annoying boss battle. It's been so long since I last played, all the muscle memory will be gone, my chances against a boss are slim.

Alone in the Dark, which is supremely annoying throughout, just a couple more chapters to go but I don't think I can do it without the assistance of alcohol to dull the pain.

Dante's Inferno, not poo at all, I remember taking the piss out of it a bit when it released, but it's actually pretty worthwhile with lots of interesting enemy designs and things to see. That's what I like about horror, the imagination doesn't need to be shackled to reality. Sure, let's just take a trip through hell. I've been saving this for last as something to take the bad aftertaste away.

I don't fancy the boss battle, so today I'll try to finish up Alone in the Dark. Pray for me.

Ha. Yeah Infliction isn't bad. The trouble is that it's a bit too janky to really fulfil it's potential, but it's a decent little game.

Alone in the Dark is finally done and dusted. Anybody considering it, know what you're getting yourself into. A miserable experience throughout, it never hits it's stride it never gets better.

Somebody was really proud of the fire, right analogue stick object waving and spaghetti rope physics. They throw down a gauntlet of puzzles and traversal heavily featuring them right at the end. I was stuck on one puzzle where the time limit was ridiculous, what with having to fight against the controls all the way, I finally pass it... And the game crashed. It turns out checkpoints are 'soft' saves and the game only properly saves at the end of episodes. Hours of progress, where I'd been forced to go around burning roots to hit a high enough percentage before I could proceed. All gone.

I very nearly broke the disc in two. This, right at the end of the game. Fortunately Alone in the Dark has one pretty unique feature, you can start at any checkpoint you want in any episode. I just skipped right to just before it crashed, solved the puzzle again, got through the last couple of horrible sections and that was it.

Just in case anybody was wondering, the PS3 exclusive section in this supposedly 'improved' version of the game is dreadful too. I don't know how they made a train set-piece so bad.

Scenario: You're in a semi-destroyed subway station. Initially you just have to clear an obstacle and get a train moving (right through a massive tunnel blockage that magically disappears when the game wants it gone. This triggers a massive eldritch horror to appear and start chasing the train. You're prompted to fight it with explosions and the game spawns in bottles of flammable liquid and other stuff just for this section. But where did it all come from? It definitely wasn't there a minute ago when I walked the empty train before starting up. When a game is this bad, major continuity errors are barely noticeable.

By the way. Alone in the Dark is lying. You can fight with explosions as much as you want, you will only pass this section if you exactly follow the 'script'. The game won't tell you what the script is though, it's like you're an actor in a film trying to ad-lib your way through scenes.

I'll try and explain how bad this game can control and feel. You need to throw bottles of flammable liquid at the horror and shoot them in front of it's face, this will only knock the horror back. What you're actually doing is buying yourself time... But not really.

When you throw the bottles you also need be standing in the 'correct' spot, there is no indication, you just get punished with splash damage and the loose bottles at your feet blowing you up. This is the only point in the game where you get splash damage from thrown explosives. It's something special, just for right now, just for you. You learn by dying, again and again.

The horror gets an explosion in the face, you've bought yourself 15-20 seconds to run down the opposite end of the carriage to the next car. If you're quick, you may think you've got a spare 10 seconds to play with. Wrong. Alone in the Dark now does some time rubber-banding and the horror, having read the script appears at the end of the train and derails the last car. Now you need those 15-20 seconds back again, another explosion in the horror's face, you're under constant time pressure and Carnby feels so clumsy and slow, I think it's because no other encounter requires you to do 180º turns. To increase the pressure the script throws hazards into the carriages, eating into your 15-20 seconds as you work your way down the train, with each carriage you leave getting destroyed.

Finally you reach a dead end, you now have to go outside and run along the carriage roof, you still need to keep 'resetting the timer' on the horror if he reaches the train and enough time elapses before you either bomb him or escape the end carriage, instant game over.

By the way, this game is very dark, the very first time I didn't even realise there was no more train and walked right off the front to my death. Okay, what does the script want me to do now? There's no more train, you'll eventually run out of bottles and can't repel the horror any longer. If at any point you die, you will start this sequence again from the very beginning.

You'll probably do a fair bit of dying. There's a hatch on the last carriage, the 'script' needs you to shoot the four retaining bolts and get back inside. Why? Because the script says so. Each bolt takes two shots, just for extra fun. Why does Carnby turn so bloody slow?

Get to last carriage. Bomb horror in face. Shoot bolt. Shoot bolt. Turn excruciatingly slowly, bomb horror in face to buy some more time. Turn back to hatch, slowly oh, so slowly. Shoot bolt. Reload. Shoot bolt. slowly turn, bomb horror in face again. Slowly turn back, drop into the carriage.

What do I do? What do I do? You pick up one last bottle from the floor. The horror has torn the end off the train like it's an old can. All I have is this bottle. This one final explosion kills the horror. Why? Because the script says it will. What? You thought you were fighting an enemy? Knocking down their health? No, you were following a script you weren't allowed to see.

Alone in the Dark is a bad game.

I've got some credit left on my PSN account, I wonder if I Amy is still up.

I'll be looking to play something that doesn't raise my blood pressure so much for the time being.

I thought it looked really good on ps5, atmosphere is still great too.

I cant imagine fiddling with graphic settings these days. Even with pc games most have an auto detect option, so I always do that.