When I tell people I love horror games, I often get the response "You HAVE to play (game title)!" I'll look it up, and have one of three reactions: "This looks AWESOME!", "Meh, it looks ok." or "NOPE." And since no one really likes hearing about so-so games, I'll be listing the games that provoked the other two reactions. Now, while all of the games I'll never play have been released, only two of the ones I can't wait to play have. I just haven't played them yet because I'm broke right now. -_-u
Games I Can't Wait To Play
#1: Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs
Amnesia: The Dark Descent is one of my favorite games of all time, so when I heard that they were making another game in the series I fangasm'd. In this game, you play as Oswald Mandus. After returning from an expedition to Mexico that failed badly, he falls ill and is plagued by fever dreams of a strange machine. When he wakes up, months have passed-- and he hears a machine somewhere come to life...
Now, I've always found pigs (adult pigs, not piglets) slightly creepy, especially the noise they make (don't ask me why, I have no idea). So the idea of being pursued by some pig-related monstrosity that makes that sound and behaves like the monsters in the first Amnesia freaks me the hell out. The new company that's making this (The Chinese Room) has said that they want it to be like the last game without feeling like a carbon-copy, so it'll be cool to see what they add to the series.
#2: Among the Sleep
Among the Sleep has one of the most unique premises in recent horror games. You are a 2 year-old child. One night, something odd is going on in your house, and you escape your crib to figure out what it is. Unlike other horror games that aim for a visceral kind of horror, this game keeps it simple with dream-like worlds and subtle (yet still frightening) detail. Personally, I find that silhouette with the umbrella (our antagonist, I'd guess) very freaky and threatening-- I can imagine seeing it at the end of a dark road wobbling unnaturally towards me (a mental image I will deeply regret the next time I walk home from the bus stop in the dark). It's nice to find a game with an enemy that's not "zomgclawedmonstrosity/bloodsplatteredzombie/psychoghost".
#3: The Cat Lady
This game seems like a strange dream, though I suppose that's very intentional, and visually it reminds me of the works of Dave McKean and Henry Selick. Susan Ashworth, a 40 year-old cat lady, commits suicide. Her restful death is interrupted by an old woman, the Queen of Maggots, who wants Susan to kill five "Parasites": five psychotic and murderous people. The Cat Lady looks stunning-- and very disturbing.
#4: Daylight
Daylight is a new take on a classic premise: you wake up in an abandoned hospital with no idea how you got there and only your cellphone to help you explore and escape. While it may sound like a "been there, done that" idea, this game looks very cool. It'll be interesting to see what new ideas they bring to it.
Confession time: I adore Slender Man. I was introduced to it by TV Tropes, and I loved seeing how it grew from two fake paranormal images and a quote into this sprawling mythos. However, I was never really interested in the Slender games, until I saw the trailer for this. This is a fully realized, more polished version of the game. It looks gorgeous, and it's really cool to see the proxies in it.
#6: Sound of Silence
This project sounds absolutely awesome. The idea is that it figures out what you're afraid of, and changes based on that to deliver a unique experience (hopefully it does so a hell-of-a-lot better than Silent Hill: Shattered Memories). There's not a lot known about the game because this project is just getting on its feet, but it's already gained a lot of attention through Reddit.
Games I Will Never Play
#1: Ao Oni
The plot is simple enough: four teenagers decide to explore an abandoned, thought-to-be-haunted mansion to look around, and end up having to run around avoiding the Oni. The reason I refuse to play it is simple: THAT FUCKING FACE! I can see why some people find it funny, and I've gotten a little used to it after finding images, but there's something disturbing and just plain wrong about it, and the idea of it popping out of nowhere freaks me out like nothing else.
#2: Harvester
Harvester proclaims itself "the most violent adventure game of all time", and while that's probably no longer true, its absolutely bizarre. The violence is cartoonish, but behind it is deranged and full of mind-screw (and not the good kind). The phrase "batshit insane" works very well.
#3: SCP-087
I hate stairs in large buildings. 9 times out of 10, they have creepy lighting, stained floors, and an atmosphere that promises bad things to come. And while I love the SCP Foundation, this particular SCP always freaked me out. Don't get me wrong, this is probably a really good game, but I'm too chicken to try.
I have no idea why this pushed my "NOPE!" button the way it does. It seems like a decent game. In it, Hui-Min sneaks into the school after class is over to leave a White Day gift for his crush, So-Yeong. He find out that he, So-Yeong, and her friend Ji-Hyeon are all trapped in the school. They need to escape and avoid the Possessed janitors and ghostly entities that want them dead. Like I said, I have no idea why it bothers me, but I have no intention of playing it. That being said, I may end up watching a reaction-walkthrough.
Actually, I might do that for SCP-087 as well.
I had played one of the earlier versions of Aoi Oni, I had revisited it... It seems they had made a few changes and made it a bit darker.
ReplyDeleteI for one love survival horror... It's my drug.
It is kind of addicting, isn't it?
ReplyDelete