Bloody Disgusting
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Sure, Man of Medan has a few rough edges, but it’s a confident first step in a new series of games. It keeps the core of what made people love Until Dawn and breathes fresh life into it by adding more depth to the branching narrative system, and including an excellent multiplayer side. A little more polish and a bit more bite to the game’s finale would be nice, but this is still a hugely entertaining slice of interactive horror that brings the thrilling uncertainty of other people’s decisions to the murder party.
A veritable playground of peerless violent ingenuity, My Friend Pedro is the Matrix, Max Payne and Tony Hawk three-way you never knew you wanted, it’s just a shame that an occasional wandering focus distracts the game from doing what it does best.
The Blackout Club isn’t perfect. As a fan of immersive sims, I want more lore and more tools to play with. But, it is a unique and compelling mash-up of genre horror and systems-driven gameplay. I can’t wait to get back to the maze.
These are still pretty minor grievances because all The Surge 2 really needed to do to be an improvement was to be a bit more interesting, and it's definitely that. Refined combat, an intriguing and varied place to explore, and just more variety, in general, are huge contributors to The Surge 2's success as a hardcore action RPG and as a sequel. It's not ripping up any rulebooks or striking out with all that much fresh ambition, but it is a supremely confident followup to a bang average game.
Trine 4 isn’t a reinvention then, rather a return to that which made the series work in the first place. That alone was absolutely necessary after the misstep of the previous entry. There are times I wished there was a teensy bit more ambition with combat and platforming, but the meat of Trine 4 is the puzzles, and that is some pretty succulent meat.
I enjoyed my time with Daymare. It’s a nice homage to the horror games of yesteryear, I would say however that the game feels a little short, (there’s an achievement for completing the game in under 4 hours which you’re absolutely not going to do on the first playthrough) but any negatives I’ve mentioned don’t affect the overall enjoyment and excitement that the game brings. It’s jumpscare horror done well, for the first release from an independent studio I’d say it was a good effort, and should Invader Studios continue down the horror route they will no doubt be ones to watch out for at some point. If you have ever enjoyed any survival horror games and/or remember the 90’s you should pick this up; don’t expect anything new, but expect to have gory, tense fun navigating an already familiar environment.
I still like to just stand and stare at an abandoned city as the rain drifts down in hazy sheets whilst the pulsing glow of neon and Yanagi’s ethereal soundtrack throb in unison. Moments like that have nothing and everything to do with why I enjoyed Ghostwire: Tokyo.
This is a confident sequel at heart. One that effortlessly switches between precarious leaps of faith from high-rise buildings and nervous crawls through undead-infested interiors. One that finds time to indulge in dread-inducing horror and explosive intensity. Where it perhaps lacks in structural ingenuity, it more than offsets by finely-tuning the things that made the original a success.
Let’s be honest, there simply aren’t enough Christmas horror games out there. This solves that, evoking the holiday spirit of Silent Night, Deadly Night to create a manic, mean-spirited slasher game that doesn’t linger like a badly-cooked Christmas dinner.
I was already fairly sure I’d enjoy Sunshine Manor before playing it. After all, it had authentic horror ingredients I’m very much into, but I still managed to come away from the finished product surprised. It’s elevated by a sturdy gameplay cycle of fetch and return, gentle subversions of expectations, and an engaging cast of characters.
I’ve recently written that with remasters, I truly appreciate them when they don’t try to forget the flaws of the original, but instead just smooth the edges off them in a subtle manner. Alan Wake Remastered is one of those, and while it has its moments of frustration and you can sometimes laugh at the overzealous, but admirable, dedication to having Alan narrate the fuck out of everything, it truly is a part of the package, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.
In Sound Mind manages to be a confident full debut for We Create Stuff that shows its successful time experimenting with the Source engine was of great benefit.
All in all, Bloodwash takes a couple of hours to finish, with a little of that time put aside for finding its rather ace comic books, and chatting to all the locals about the latest scrap of evidence you’ve found. Again, this is just right. A movie-length experience that really nails a lot of the cheap, scuzzy, mean-spirited tone of a certain kind of slasher film, whilst still very much behaving like a video game. When you hear of games trying to be more cinematic or movie-like, the way it’s meant is usually in terms of acting, or blockbuster set pieces. Bloodwash encapsulates the unseemly, dead-of-night accidental discovery of a rude, crude horror flick, and that is, for me at least, a far more appealing way to go about it.
Perhaps my favorite thing about BEESWAX’ GAMES' SPOOKWARE is how it takes the crumb of an idea (Wario Ware but spooky) and runs with it to the point that it becomes something else entirely.
Jupiter Hell will be a refreshing spin on a classic for some, and the best of a bad situation for those mourning the loss of DOOM: The Roguelike. Some technical grumbles aside, its straightforward, no-nonsense approach to turn-based roguelike shoot n’ loot works well, and provides a compelling game to either dip into for an hour here and there, or lose a few days to.
While this remaster is slightly underwhelming, and certain aspects of the game have become a little dog-eared, Shin Megami Tensei 3 is still worth checking out. It's a rather unique experience that stands out even in an age where its spinoff series has diluted many of its more interesting facets.
The negatives are not enough to really affect how I ended up feeling about Wasteland 3. It’s a far superior game to its predecessor, and I really liked that too despite its many issues. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in exploring, fighting, tinkering, and more in this world. It’s not afraid to let you figure things out for yourself and do things your way, but it isn’t impenetrable for newcomers either. Throw in a co-op mode that doesn’t overly dilute what makes playing solo so enjoyable, but actually enhances the experience, and you have a highly engrossing dose of silly, violent RPG goodness.
Carrion did what very few horror games have done for me this year: it exceeded my expectations. It ends up being far more than the sum of its fleshy parts thanks to a solid commitment to its sadistic vision of slimy violence.
Zombie Army 4 isn’t ripping up any trees in terms of originality, but it’s the ultimate version of the franchise’s best features. After all, what’s more satisfying than destroying Nazi zombies in stylish, violent fashion?
It’s easy to forgive Turok‘s shortcomings though because it’s still a pretty fun shooter, and its low-fi graphics are much more palatable in portable form. It’s not exactly an essential purchase for all, but as a playable piece of nostalgia, it’s been dragged into the modern era fairly successfully for fans to enjoy without many of its original frustrations and limitations.