Horror games for the season (and beyond)

[Puukko]

Put a few hours into Kuon and I'm impressed. Nice building of atmosphere via visual and sound cues as well as setpieces. Some jumpscares, in that there's a loud sound and something spooky pops out, but I find those to be done tastefully. Decent amount of backtracking but the playable area seems to be surprisingly large if the number of maps I am missing is of any indication. It's been a long while since I did any puzzles in any game so I don't mind the ones here even if they are either a bit too simple or just obtuse. There was one where I had to align three wheels that had the Chinese zodiac and cardinal directions on them, except in reverse, and with all of the symbols untranslated so I felt like I was shooting in the dark even with two pages of hints. Turns out you could just listen to the sound and I beat it without really understanding what I did, and then I found the third hint afterwards which would have made it clearer.

I like the spell system. You get tags with a limited number of different spells on them like fire arrows and animal summons. Some of those are very strong. I knew from the start I should try and save them but I was still surprised how stingy the game got after frontloading you with a decent selection so my spells dwindled down to near nothing and I still don't have enough to pick any fights I absolutely don't need to do. Relying on the knife for anything but a one on one against a gaki or other basic enemy is bound to end badly and you don't want to waste healing supplies. The difficulty is pretty spot on, also thanks to the limited saves.

If I had to complain about something, I'd say having unavoidable damaging scares is a bit cheap. Some ghosts also spawn if you knock something over but those items really don't stick out as something you want to avoid touching. And being that the rest of the game pushes you to inspect everything, there's a bit of a mismatch of incentives there.

There are two routes available at the start and if memory serves right, you unlock a third after those two. I have no idea how much content is recycled between them but I'll aim to do all three I think.

 

[toughasnails]

Well iirc meditation regenerates your health in Kuon (this should be the case on all difficulties?) so those scripted moments aren't much of a problem. Once I got a hang of that I only ever used the healing potions or whatever they were in combat since sometimes there was no way to avoid getting damaged or at least it seemed that way to me.
But the atmosphere is top notch I agree, that and the historical setting that is p underutilized in the horror games carried it even if it was a bit rough around edges. I was also impressed that it p free of the usual anime trappings save maybe for that younger priestess girl you play as in one path but even that wasn't as bad as it could have been (and if you switch to the Jap voiceovers she doesn't sound as annoying or out of place). So the game has some class and authenticity in that way.

btw if you like that sort of traditional Japanese environments and their ghost stories I'd recommend checking out early Fatal Frame games even though they have contemporary settings.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

The ps2 has a lot of good horror games. Too bad I already played all of them in the last few years using emulation...

 

[Puukko]

I just booted up FF2 and was positively surprised how well it held up visually. Definitely a series I want to get into, I could see myself playing that one in the near future.

And I may have completely forgotten about meditation, lol.

 

[Venser]

Missed October release by just 3 days.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Despite card games of this sort not really my thing, I've found myself playing The Monster Within quite a lot lately, its in early access, but it looks like its going to leave pretty soon. Its got a theme of '50s horror comics, with a few other '50s references thrown in. Bit buggy though. You play as a monster fighting other monsters for reasons. The gameplay involves buying various cards to put in your deck, which starts off with simple resource cards you use to buy the other ones. You get a new hand each turn and if you run out of cards your used/discarded pile is just put back in your deck. There are three resources, day, night and monster. You start off with only day cards and get the latter two as you take damage. All resources, including attack and defense, is pulled together into one pile that disappears at the end of each turn. So basically every turn is about playing everything in the right order. I find it strangely enjoyable.

 

[Puukko]

Alright, done with Kuon. The whole thing took me maybe 10-11 hours. The first two routes start off very similar and then diverge considerably, while the third one is much shorter. There was a lot to try to figure out in the story and I kept coming up with (wrong) theories all throughout. Some of it is intentionally obscure and up for interpretation.

As for the gameplay, the difficulty mainly seems to change enemy health, and not by a whole lot. Seeing as most of them are already fairly tanky, I wouldn't say going with hard mode is particularly worthwhile. It'll just drag out the game's weakest aspect. I'd say a self imposed challenge of not using meditation would be the way to go for an effective increase in challenge and thus tension, though those unavoidable damaging scares are pretty common which doesn't necessarily mesh well with that idea. But I did play like that at first, even if unintentionally.

Overall I'm glad I played the game, it was a very solid example of classic PS2 horror. I don't know what those reviewers giving it 6's were smoking. Slow pace... No, that works to its advantage.

Next up, I think I'll keep the ball rolling with more Japanese horror. Fatal Frame is a strong contender.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I don't know what those reviewers giving it 6's were smoking

Cocks, obviously

 

[manifest]

Horror games get away with some fairly egregious design choices. There's a conflict of interest between their function as entertainment, and their inlaid goal of instilling distress in their players. Not with tank controls, I love God Hand and Brigador, but there's plenty of development sins committed besides. I make it my goal to run through a couple horror games every October, but ultimately I don't play games to be annoyed.

To wit, let's talk about Uncanny Valley.

There's an Accursed Farms video on this one, which should've been enough warning to steer clear, but I didn't remember enough details to swerve this garbage. These things accumulate in my Steam library almost of their own accord (I think this one was in a Humble Monthly, though I would've guessed Groupees) and perforce I get curious I will suffer out of some misplaced sense of obligation. Uncanny Valley looked like a quick play, relatively inoffensive, of the Clock Tower/Elevator Action style of side-scrolling adventure. Art style is pure indieshit, but there's some nice assets and animations regardless. You play as Tom, night watchman extraordinaire plus hobo drunkard.

Each day, you go to your job in a shitty abandoned office complex, poke around and spy on people's emails to piece together the plot as well as find clues to where certain required keys are to unlock further areas in the building. English is clearly not the developer's native tongue, and these logs contain telltale grammatical errors. Although the game makes no effort to inform you, each night shift is on a time limit. A seven minute timer, accessed by a button, counts down at all times. Get dressed, walk to work, do your rounds, and when your timer runs out your avatar becomes tired and wants to return home. This is not a game over. If you do not make it to your bed in time, you will pass out on the floor, entering a Silent Hill-style otherworld where cryptic spooky shenanigan's go down. This timer counts down during puzzles and your time reading logs, which use an incredibly shitty faux-pixelated font. It took me several nights to explore just the first level of the building. You have a run button, but after a comically short time your character needs to catch his breath. Based on your whether you pass out or complete certain puzzles (the power went out on the second day) there's dating-sim style interactions with the guard you relieve at the start of your shift. If nothing else, I appreciated some slight reactivity from the stagnant adventure genre. There is no save function as far as I can tell.

I made it to the third or fourth day. I collected a few keycards and keys, a safe combo. A mysterious red light began shining through the apartment next door (locked, of course.) I had several unconnected dreams, waking up in unfamiliar places, a recurring element established from the first moments of the game. The story is mostly a mess but not completely incomprehensible. Maybe I can push through and something interesting will happen. One of the employees is having a gay affair behind his wife's back with another coworker. Tension ensues. "Either way, you get fucked in the ass." Riveting stuff. At this point, as far as I can tell, the shift timer stopped working, which throws the already haphazard structure of the game into further disarray. I was teleported several more times, scenes flashed for maybe a half-second before bugging into the next, interrupting plot dialogue. Think Paratropic but infinitely shittier. A shard of glass disappeared from my inventory before I even found a use for it. Areas of the map, exits that need explicit interaction, are pitch black. While you have a flashlight it is disabled when you run. If I had subjected myself any further, I probably would've found more problems.

I checked some reviews after quitting the game in disgust. Dying in your nightmares apparently cuts you off from the good ending, and fuck knows how many different paths there are. The disjointed nature of the game makes it basically impossible to discern where branch points are. While searching for the country of origin of the developer, Cowardly Creations, now defunct, I found a single eliciting comment on IndieDB:

In the genitalia room of the game, there is no foreskin on the synthetic penises, why? Especially when nerves have such an emphasis on the creation of them in the room, and the foreskin has 20,000 of them. Please explain.

Presumably the Jews who made this are still laughing. If anyone has their addresses, I'd like to mail them a bag of my own shit.

 

[Mexi]

I don't play games anymore, but I love watching horror games on YouTube being played nowadays. Some great games I've watched.

Silent Hill: 4 looked like it would be a fucking drag to play, but it was extremely enjoyable to watch.

Soma was fucking brilliant and very sad.

Puppet Combo games are extremely atmospheric. Murder House and Stay out of the House were really fucking good.

Call of Cthulu: DCotE was fucking great. Funnier yet, my professor had me watch his son's fishes when he went out of state right after I finished it. His son was ridiculously autistic and had eyes that were wide apart like those Innsmouth citizens .

It's difficult finding games to watch because it seems like 99.9% of horror games are fucking walking simulators. Games like that suck ass!

 

[Valestein]

Battle the undead and other horrors.... with your FISTS like a MAN.



Or you could try this horror rpg on the NES.




This game has perma-death for party members too...

 

[Great Deceiver]

Night Slashers is pretty cool.

Sweet Home is widely considered to be the second big inspiration behind Resident Evil (the first being Alone in the Dark), and is a cool game on its own. Definitely worth playing.

 

[Arthandas]

Battle the undead and other horrors.... with your FISTS like a MAN.

Sadly, the Steam version is pretty much unplayable.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

my professor had me watch his son's fishes

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

It's difficult finding games to watch because it seems like 99.9% of horror games are fucking walking simulators. Games like that suck ass!

Have you seen any of the Dangerous Dave games, Monster Bash, Sinistar, Chiller or Crypt Killer? Actually, since you're not playing them, I'd also suggest Isle of the Dead, Escape from Monster Manor and Fright Night. There are a ton of horror games from the '80s and '90s that aren't walking simulators.

Sadly, the Steam version is pretty much unplayable.

If you don't mind me asking, how so? I mean, people should probably be playing the MAME version even if they pay for the legit ones either way...

 

[Arthandas]

If you don't mind me asking, how so? I mean, people should probably be playing the MAME version even if they pay for the legit ones either way...

1. Censored
2. Forced bilinear filtering
3. Inaccurate audio
4. Constant stuttering

Not a single fix since the release.

 

[Machocruz]

Sweet Home may be the best 8-bit RPG, and I think it beats most JRPGs people consider to be the greats. It's Capcom quality all the way, when they are good of course. It's a pretty good adventure game too (a big reason why I consider it to be the best of the best of JRPGs), with puzzles/riddles and tone similar to Shadowgate. Encounter rate, although not as high as some other old JPRGs, can be tedious though when you're just trying to navigate or solve a damn puzzle.

 

[Egosphere]

I don't play games anymore, but I love watching horror games on YouTube being played nowadays. Some great games I've watched.

Silent Hill: 4 looked like it would be a fucking drag to play, but it was extremely enjoyable to watch.

Soma was fucking brilliant and very sad.

Puppet Combo games are extremely atmospheric. Murder House and Stay out of the House were really fucking good.

Call of Cthulu: DCotE was fucking great. Funnier yet, my professor had me watch his son's fishes when he went out of state right after I finished it. His son was ridiculously autistic and had eyes that were wide apart like those Innsmouth citizens .

It's difficult finding games to watch because it seems like 99.9% of horror games are fucking walking simulators. Games like that suck ass!

100% agree on SH4. It was indeed a drag to play, but its still a great entry in that franchise. SOMA's ending was strange in that you'd presume the protagonist would figure out he wouldnt be going to space since they're cloning, not transferring, themselves earlier in the game.

Puppet combo unfortunately seems to be in decline.

 

[Zlaja]

It's difficult finding games to watch because it seems like 99.9% of horror games are fucking walking simulators. Games like that suck ass!

Soma was fucking brilliant and very sad.

 

[Mexi]

It's difficult finding games to watch because it seems like 99.9% of horror games are fucking walking simulators. Games like that suck ass!

Soma was fucking brilliant and very sad.

I probably should explain. Something like Layers of Fear where the object is just to walk around was fucking dire. Soma reminded me of Amnesia back when I played it.

 

[Puukko]

Put a couple hours into Fatal Frame II, and man, this is the stuff. Just nails it in almost all aspects. I'm not used to a PS2 game putting this much effort into the audio, lots of little things to listen out for. Audio logs too, except believable. So far the ghost designs are unfortunately regular looking humans and the basic enemies are very slow and passive. Just point pinatas, really.

Inside locations are way more tense than outside ones and it's there the game makes the most out of the camera angles and unique ghosts. I just reached a location with a locked main door and malfunctioning flashlight, so that'll be fun to return to.

I'm using the undub and unfinished HD texture pack. The game upscales fantastically, no weird blur effects, though I wouldn't mind trading that static flim grain kind of effect for something via reshade. You can also tell the less important ghosts don't get half the polygons the girls do. That flaghlight probably takes up most of the processing power.

 

[agentorange]

I don't play games anymore, but I love watching horror games on YouTube being played nowadays. Some great games I've watched.

youre retarded

 

[Mexi]

I don't play games anymore, but I love watching horror games on YouTube being played nowadays. Some great games I've watched.

youre retarded

You sound like a phaggot bitch with nothing going on in his life. Playing video games is for trannies and fags now. You need to pick one. Which on are you.

 

[gerey]

I imagine someone here already recommended Nightmare of Decay, but I would also like to shill for the game. It's $5 on official stores and like $2 over on key resellers. Looking at Steam I clocked around 10 hours 100% the game and I really can't recommend it enough.

It's basically a scaled down FPS Resident Evil 1 "clone" with minimal storytelling, but which nails the RE loop of exploration, combat, resource management and puzzle solving. The game proper can be finished in around 2-3 hours, depending on how through you are, after which a few extra modes unlock (a randomized dungeon mode, a horde mode etc.).

One criticism I have for the game is that you basically have unlimited inventory, so there is never any reason not to pick something up, and the other is that the game really isn't particularly scary - but on the other hand the game nearly completely avoids jumpscares, so that's a plus.

 

[gerey]

And speaking about Japanese horror a good combo would be Siren and the sequel (the PS2 games, not the remakes).

The games are structured around a mission framework - when you play the game the first time around the various POV characters and their various missions are introduced in a non-linear fashion, and as you complete the missions a flowchart of events/missions in chronological order begins to appear, making it much easier to piece together the narrative and sequence of events.

As for the gameplay proper, the game is largely based around stealth, as the enemies can only be temporarily knocked out, but not killed, and your PCs are relatively frail (and some either too young, weak or old to fight back at all). To even out the playing field all the human characters have a sight "jacking" ability that allows them to look through the eyes of the enemies, which is of vital important to figure out their patrol patterns or location.

Each mission gives the character a number of objectives to complete, and the inventory in each mission does not carry over to the next, so if you are equipped with a firearm you are encouraged to make use of it, keeping in mind that what ammo you have is what is available to you for the duration of the specific mission.

The sequel introduces a few new wrinkles to the gameplay, in that there are now two factions of monsters which sometimes appear on the map, and when they do they will begin fighting amongst themselves, which the player is encouraged to take advantage of.

As for the narrative itself, it's a combination of the usual Japanese wariness towards cults, Lovecraftian cosmic horror and disaster movie.