Horror Games

Am I missing something with Phasmophobia? I must be. So far it’s not scary, janky, annoying, and incredibly boring.

Disappointed.

I mean, I like the whole idea. On paper it should really be my dream game, which is why I wanted to play it. I like all the equipment you get to use and the whole premise. It's just... a bit shit. The first proper ghost encounter I had I just laughed as it was so ropey. The trouble is that if you're doing a game like this, you can't really have any jank. It needs to be polished as fuck as it all relies on immersion. However it's a low budget game, and you're not going to have that level of immersion.

It seems to boil down to :

1) grab some stuff from your truck
2) walk in to house
3) wait for something to get thrown/knocked over/a light to go out after you put it on
4) follow activity back to find the specific room that's haunted
5) trial and error your gear until you guess the ghost - which is made worse by how fiddly everything is
6) fuck off back to truck

Sometimes the lights all go off and the janky ghost hunts you and you do the old hide-in-a-locker routine

That's it.

I must be missing something.

Infliction was another one that was meant to be scary but the ghost was too janky to be anything other than amusing.

It's crazy that PT is still pant wettingly terrifying. If you're going to make a ghost game. Your ghost has to be absolutely on point. If you don't nail the encounters, the look, the animation, it's just not going to work.

Crow Country doesn't appeal in the least as I really don't like the art style at all.

Conscript is on my list and I'll grab it when it's cheaper.

Also quite fancy Clock Tower Rewind.

I'll persevere with Phasmophobia for a bit but don't hold out much hope.

To whom it may concern: Slitterhead seems pretty good!

www.eurogamer.net/slitterhead-review

Holy crap, I can't believe I've played 13 hours of Withering Rooms in four days. Despite some issues, it has a very Souls-like quality to it that makes you want to keep going for just one more floor, every floor. It's hard, to be sure, but gives you many combat options to either come out on top, or at least run away in one piece (and it's a good idea to stay alive, because dying means you lose all your consumables and even most equipment). Winning often depends more on skillful item or spell usage than combat prowess. It's visually striking and the soundtrack is pretty good too. Even the story is more interesting than usual. At least you aren't just trying to link the fire or something like that.

Even assuming it gets too hard at some point, there's a "narrative" difficulty option in the settings. Don't know what it does, but if the going gets too tough, I won't have to just ragequit. So far however, it's been pretty manageable. In fact, I haven't died in a while. The game is generous enough to give you a proper save point before each boss.

In a sea of From clones, this one stands out because it's attempting something very different at least. I'll probably have it as my game of the year, thank you very much (... and I think it would be so even if I had played more than two games from this year).

Silent Hill 4 on sale on GOG (not much for sure, but a pretty low price overall), and here I'm wondering if it might be worth a punt. I've heard enough good things and bad things about it that I just can't make up my mind.

For easily frustrated sorts, whilst playing Silent Hill 4, it's worth consulting a guide on the locations of the Swords of Obedience.

There are five in total, which sound pretty far short of what you will need but the trick is you can retrieve them and use them multiple times to pin down ghosts that are causing a problem in specific areas. There are certain especially troublesome ghosts that you just want to keep pinned.

With some minimal planning you're into the swing of getting what you need to do done, then retrieving the sword to use elsewhere. Unless you hang around, you'll be long gone before the ghost comes looking for revenge.

I'd advise you to check other reviews as well, because the game -while certainly interesting- seems to be rough around the edges, especially regarding the combat. Also, there's a dedicated thread for it here: fontgeek.io/thread/1405/slitterhead