The horror games I've played in October
October seems like the perfect month to play some scary games, so here are my thoughts on the games I played!
You're part of a team of Scottish workers at an offshore oil rig, and someone has drilled too deep in the ocean floor, awakening something in the progress! The game has some light puzzle, platforming and stealth elements, but otherwise it's mainly a 'walking simulator' with no combat, inventory or resource management.
The graphics look good, the oil rig setting is pretty unique, and all the Scottish voice acting is great. I really enjoyed this game, though I decided to skip the DLC. I played through the game in around 4 hours, which seemed a good length. If it were much longer I think the climbing/swimming parts would've started getting repetitive.
This is considered one of the best games in what is amusingly called the 'boomer shooter' genre, it being a retro style FPS game inspired by the classics such as the original 1993 DOOM. Very fast pace shooter action with some horror themes.
Somewhat related: The shotguns in Boomer Shooters blog post from Brain Baking is a good read!
When the captain of the space freighter Tulpar deliberately crashes the ship and is left severely injured, tension rises amongst the rest of the 5-man crew as they seem to face certain doom.
The game is mainly narrative driven, focusing on the interactions between the crew and the events on the ship. There's a few more 'game-y' horror sections where your character can die, but I found they were pretty frustrating and boring, and easily the weakest part of the game. Luckily, these sections are short and not that common.
The story was well done and the retro graphics give it an interesting look. I liked the game overall, but I wasn't totally blown away. There seem to be a good number of people who really loved it though! With its length of roughly 3 hours, I'd say it's worth a look.
Why is the game called Mouthwashing? If you play it, you'll find out pretty quickly!
You're a Word War 1 soldier who has lost his memory, and worse: you're stuck in an underground bunker with some kind of terrifying monster. Through exploration and crafting you'll gain access to a bunch of different tools to help you survive, while you look for a way out. But if the generator runs out of fuel, all lights in the bunker turn off, and the main light source that can help you through this darkness is a manually cranked flashlight. Which seems handy, until you realize that cranking it makes an awful lot of noise!
I haven't finished the game yet, but I'm curious to see where it goes. Game mechanics wise, it seems to be a bit deeper than the previous Amnesia games, and it seems to encourage experimentation. I read that beating the game unlocks a New Game + mode, that lets you tweak a bunch of gameplay settings to your liking.
My favourite game from developer Frictional Games is still SOMA. That one is less focused on survival horror gameplay, and more on the story and atmosphere. They even introduced an optional 'safe mode', where the monsters can't kill you. MandaloreGaming did a lengthy video review on the game recently. It's been 10 years since I've played SOMA, but I still think about its story sometimes.
The third game in the Devil Came Through Here trilogy. My favourite game in this trilogy is The Cat Lady, which I've played through twice. I was happy to finally finish the trilogy with Lorelai, but I felt it was not as good as the others. I thought the characters in The Cat Lady were more varied and more interesting. In Lorelai, I feel the stepdad character lacks subtlety and depth, and I was also hoping for more from the trilogy's recurring antagonist. There were some really good bits but overall the game didn't leave a big impression me.
I would only recommend Lorelai if you've already played The Cat Lady and Downfall. A cautious recommendation for The Cat Lady then, as I'm not sure how well its depiction of mental health and other sensitive subjects has aged over the years. But judging from recent user reviews it should be alright! If The Cat Lady resonates with you, it'll leave a lasting impression.
The Exit 8 and its sequel Platform 8 are very short games in the 'anomaly detection' horror subgenre. In The Exit 8, you walk through a bright, photorealistic corridor in a Japanese metro station. Your goal is to repeatedly walk through it and see if anything is... off. If something seems wrong, immediately go back!
Platform 8 has a somewhat similar concept where you're looping through train carriages instead. I enjoyed it, but I thought the first game did it better. So I can recommend The Exit 8 at least, it's an interesting experience you can play through in around 45-90 minutes!
That's all for now! I liked the fact that I was able to experience a bunch of different games because many of them were relatively short. After Amnesia, the next horror game l plan to start is Resident Evil Village.
After that I'll probably want something a bit more chill!