It's come to this; a list article
So it's Halloween, ooooooohh, scary. Being British, spiteful and child fearing doesn't put me in the best place for Halloween spirit, I'm a bit of a mister grumpy in fact. However the show must go on and lots of people and places (America loves their Halloween, just as much - if not more - than their freedom) celebrate it as if it were a real holiday (which it ain't, thanks work!). Scary games are all the rage these days, or should I say 'scary' games, as we all know most of them are gumf and resort to toys or slendy things to jump at your face with all the subtlety of a overweight elephant learning maths in a class room. There are some gems though, ones with actual meat to the bone, that offer atmosphere, chilling stories and nerve racking gameplay - these are the ones I'll list here.
Outlast: Now then, isn't this scarily appropriate - Outlast 2 has just been announced for next year and how else to celebrate then to run and hide and delete any existence of the game from your machine. Unless you want to actually play the game? Oh all right then, but you'll regret it. Outlast is scary in a number of ways; no way to fight back, limited flashlight batteries, being chased, ghosts and naked men (though that last one is the opposite of scary.... Yeah let's move on). What's more is an interesting backstory and mystery to propel you though the mental asylum, with most of your limbs intact. When you finish it, well done, now you can play the DLC- whistleblower, I hope you're not too attached to your private parts.
Amnesia - The Dark Decent: Does anything need to be said for this game, you'd have to be living under a rock not to know about this one. Somewhat lovecraftian in its nature and sanity shattering to boot. Similar to Outlast in that you can't fight off enemies but only hide. It's a bit of a slow burner but the first encounter with a creature requires you to open and hide in a closet, tense isn't the word. Let's not talk about the water monster later on.
 |
| Wonder what Publisher he's talking about. |
Alien Isolation: An alien game that's good! And scary? How can it be, most people gave up the ghost on this happening, especially after the nausea inducing Aliens: Colonial Marines. This one takes hours to get going before the Alien even shows but when it does you'll wish it never had. Superb sound design and the ability for the Alien to show up whenever makes this worth a scare fest. Unfortunately it's also a game that has some issues, the game ends about 5 times before the credits roll making later hours a complete slog and the game is sort of a one trick pony, failing to shake things up over its boated running time. At least in this one you can create tools and weapons to help fight back, the imperative word being 'help'!
Alan Wake: weeeooooh weeeeooohh *bias alert*, ok this is here because Alan Wake is one of my favourite games but hear me out. I'd admit - even though it scares me (perspective: a moment In Jak II scared me... And not as a kid) it's not hugely up on the chills. But it is psychologically effecting and has a truly gripping and addictive story with huge Twin Peaks, X-files and Steven King influences. Plus unlike a lot of others has some decent meat to the gameplay, this is the developers of Max Payne, dodging axe throwers never isn't satisfying (yes, double negative. That's how I roll).
SOMA: You can read my dedicated post about SOMA to find out what makes this one stand out. I'll just say it's biggest accomplishment is its setting, rivalling Bioshock
Honourable mention - Assassins Creed Unity/ Synicate:
There's nothing more scary on this list than playing Assassins Creed with its low framerate, shoddy texture work and face melting glitches. This is one game not to play on a dark and dreary night, you could end up on a slab in the mortuary, anyone would have a heart attack after seeing what Ubisoft charge for all its microtransactions - ba dum tish. (I'm so sorry)
More to come tomorrow
No comments:
Post a Comment