Editorial | My favourite horror games.

 

By Sam Coles:

Ah it is that time of the year where days get shorter and nights get longer, where the weather in England replicates an endless water bucket tipping over but it is also a time to get spooky. Horror in most art mediums has to be my favourite genre, it stimulates the human mind’s curiosity of the unknown plus it is rather fun to have the urine scared out of you. Wet trousers aside, I want to go over some of my favourite horror games. Now this is my own opinion and not in any particular order, so if you don’t see a game you like I have either not played it or not enjoyed it. Are we clear? Good!

Dead Space:

Is Dead Space really a 12 year old game? Good lord I feel old, anyway digressions out of the way Dead Space was a genuine surprise in 2008, because at that point of the games industry developers and publishers were moving away from horror games and were going for the more over the top action of Call of Duty. Dead Space is what would happen if you took Resident Evil 4, put iy in space and sprinkle elements of Event Horizon. The game’s atmosphere relied on audio mostly, where you would then get attacked by the grotesque monstrosities that are the Necromorphs. Combat was unique and fun as a plain old headshot would not put them down, the unique selling point was dismemberment of their limbs which kills them a timely manner. It managed to blend action and horror, which made for a surprising experience.

F.E.A.R:

Now I know what you are going to say “Sam F.E.A.R is not a horror game”, which I will say you are wrong. Yes it is an over the top John Woo inspired first person shooter, but when the game dials back it has a very tense atmosphere as it takes ques from Japanese horror where it relies on what you can’t see and like Dead Spaces uses audio design to its advantage. Throughout the quieter parts after filling a room with buckshot, the game has it thick atmosphere with industrial hums as you traverse the darkness where the you see the silhouettes of Alma stalking you in the shadows. Yes it is a great first person shooter, but the game really capitalises on was an overused trope at the time of a creepy little girl. Great for both first person shooter and horror fans.

Metro 2033:

Again one could argue if this game is really a horror game, but honestly if you examine it at its core it does mostly fall into survival horror. Metro 2033 is based on the book of the same name is a worst case scenario if humanity finally hit the red button, where the world is ravaged by nuclear war and humans revert back to 20^th century factions. Where we see the rise of the Soviets and Nazis again in the titular metros. Political tension are high in this world, but they all have to contend with the mutants in the tunnels and this is where the horror elements come into play, as you hear snarls and growls as you carefully check your shots with the limited ammunition you have. It truly is a tense and scary game when you are traversing the tunnels, with nothing more than a torch, lighter and a Geiger counter as you slowly get closer to radioactive areas where clicking intensifies.  

Resident Evil Remake (2002):

Now how can I do a horror video game list and not include the 2002 GameCube remake of Resident Evil, it is still the gold standard of how remakes are done within the video game industry. This felt like the game that they wanted to make because to be honestly as much as I love the original PlayStation game, it aged quickly and was overshadowed by Resident Evil 2 and 3. They took the foundations of the original and amplified it to 11, it had all the familiar rooms from the original with added visual detail, however it added in new puzzles and areas to keep seasoned veterans on their toes. The visual quality across the board was and still is stunning, it is rare for me to say a game from 2002 still looks incredible. The atmosphere of was really ramped up, with an updated soundtrack, eerie and horrifying sound design and the addition of the new Crimson Head enemies. Truly a game for any horror fanatic should play, and is widely available in HD these days.

So there you have it, some of my favourite horror games for you to play if you haven’t, what are some of your favourites? Let me know in the comments or tweet at me @BristolianGamer.

The Last of Us: Part II Review - The price of revenge. (Spoilers)

 

By Sam Coles:

2020 has been a rather tumultuous year with the thing that shall not be named, coupled with games that had both gamers and critics split down the middle. The Last of Us Part II was a rather baffling game when it released back in the summer, there were some that absolutely loved and others that thought it was the worst thing since measles. How do I feel about it? Honestly I really like it and can’t really wrap my head around why it got so much hate, anyway let’s get into it.

Now let’s start off with the narrative which is the most contentious part of this game, it takes place about 4 years after the original where Ellie has grown up into a young woman. However you start off as a different character called Abby, this is the aspect of the narrative that a lot don’t seem to like as it switches perspective from Ellie and Abby as well jumping around with various flashbacks. However the story works in this regard as it gives context to future actions for both characters and will make you look at them in a different light.

Abby is on the hunt for Joel Ellie’s father figure, as you would know if you have finished the first game killed everyone at the hospital who were trying to make a vaccine for the fungal infection gripping the world. However they would have to sacrifice Ellie to make said vaccine and Joel kills everyone, unfortunately Abby’s father was one of those doctors which leads her on a revenge mission. She eventually catches up with Joel to then blow his knee cap off with buckshot, and then finish him off by savagely beating him to death with a golf club while Ellie screams with both anger and sorrow.

What transpires is a tale of revenge but it will make you look at both characters differently, Ellie as you progress shows her steadily turning into a very nasty person where here endeavours are far worse than Abby’s as she kills more people than Abby does purely to get to her. Abby on the other hand comes across as the more sympathetic character as you get more of an insight into her both in the present and past, where she has a warming community where she is always willing to help her friends. The narrative in my opinion is great with excellent acting from the cast as well as twists you don’t see coming, plus character deaths come out of nowhere there is no ceremonial affair characters get gunned down without hesitation and this caught me off guard a lot.

Gameplay is where this game improves from the first game, the original game’s gameplay loop was good but there was something very clunky about it that didn’t make me comeback to it often. Part II’s gameplay is absolutely savage with how detailed the violence is, coupled with the sickening sound design as Ellie plunges here switch blade into someone’s windpipe.

The game also gives you more options and stealth feels more viable compared to the first, you can kill everyone without anyone seeing you with the dizzyingly amount of tools and weapons they let you utilise. You can craft trip mines, Molotov Cocktails, stun grenades, explosive arrows to unleash your inner Rambo, reinforced melee weapons to my favourite fire rounds for shotguns.

It doesn’t punish your approach for each combat scenario, but instead it leaves it entirely up to you as long as you have the right materials in your inventory. That is also key inventory management, if you are playing on normal you won’t be running out of things too often, but if you get careless you will find yourself in situations where you are basically caught with your trousers around your ankles. The game is not particularly hard on normal difficulty; however the Rat King boss fight really tested me as well as the final hour of the game where enemies are decked out in armour, helmets and automatic weapons.

What can I say about the presentation that hasn’t already been said, they look absolutely stunning. I played this on a bog standard PlayStation 4 and I’m stunned that this game is running on a 7 year old piece of hardware, the amount of detail that Naughty Dog put into this game is amazing. Environments look beautiful, from lush and rich forests, frost laden villages to the warm streets of California. Character models look superb; this is easily the best motion capture performances to date. You see ever subtle detail on a character’s face, from a slight twitch in someone’s cheek when they are angry to a character slowly breaking down into tears, easily the best looking game on the PS4.

The Last of Us Part II is a fantastic game, yes there are plot points that do divide players but honestly I think it was a bold choice to deviate from normal sequel tropes. The gameplay is a huge improvement over the original, with its savage and visceral combat with the open ended design. It’s not going to be for everyone, but I for one think it is one of the best games of 2020.

Crash Banditcoot 4 Review - About time indeed!

By Sam Coles:

After the success of the Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy people wondered if Activision were working on a sequel, fast forward three years later we now have Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time. A wonderful play on words with the fact that it is a true sequel to Crash Bandicoot 3, as well as it being about travelling through time and space. Is Crash 4 a worthy sequel to the original PlayStation trilogy? Let’s find out!

Crash Bandicoot 4 takes place after the events of the first game; Neo Cortex still salty about his defeat by the orange bandicoot keeps imaging scenarios where he defeats him. Meanwhile his band of goons find a way to tear a rift through time and space (hence the title), where they can defeat Crash and his friends in different parallel worlds. So Crash must defeat them once more the only way he knows how, by spinning around and breaking everything like a drunkard in the centre of Bristol on a Friday night. The story is entertaining and well-acted from the cast; it’s over the top and made me laugh in a few places with Clancy Brown once again stealing the show as Cortex.

Gameplay is what you would expect from the first era of Crash Bandicoot, you make your way through linear yet tough levels breaking every single box you find as well as trying to do it in a speedy fashion. So far rather standard which is not  a bad thing as it goes back to what makes the series so good and compelling, but it adds in some new elements with the masks you get to play around with.

These add an extra layer of complexity to the platforming, these can range from making platforms appearing from other dimensions, a spin attack that is continuous which lets you float for a short period, anti-gravity and one that lets you slow down time. Each mask has been catered to the levels they appear in, but they can overdo it in some stages as it gets insanely precise.

Control wise this is in my opinion the best controlling Crash Bandicoot game I have played, the jumps have weight to them but not too heavy like the N. Sane Trilogy you can easily gauge where you are going to land. Crash’s overall movement just feels tight and responsive, which helps with the higher framerate which tries to maintain 60 frames per second but I will get into that later. Plus it still feels so good to smash boxes, which is helped by the excellent sound design. I will never get tired of belly flopping onto a stack of boxes, with that crunchy box breaking noise.

Presentation wise the game looks fantastic, I remember seeing a few who were a bit sceptical due to the game not using realistic fur effects. However the cartoony aesthetic works in the game’s favour, as it looks like a Pixar animation come to live in interactive form. The game is very colourful and varied; you start off in familiar territory at N. Sanity beach and move onto to the more bizarre worlds that are neon lit. Overall presentation is absolutely superb!

Now the only issue I had with the game was the framerate, I played this on a standard PS4 and as Digital Foundry highlighted in their analysis of the game it targets 60 frames per second. However the base machines really struggle to stick to that target and the PS4 floats around 40 frames, and it is worse on a normal Xbox One. What would have been nice if there was a framerate limiter to lock at 30, I’m not a framerate snob but if you going to target a specific number it needs to be consistent.

Overall Crash Bandicoot 4 was a blast from start to finish, these retro revivals of old franchises have been fantastic this year and this game was another excellent addition to the movement. It’s bright, colourful, funny and a joy to play. I highly recommend this platforming adventure!