Evil Resides Within

In the last few years, I’ve kind of had this tradition with a buddy of mine: if we ever find a survival horror game that interests us, we set aside a weekend or two and we play cooperatively, switching every chapter or if one of us hits a roadblock. We’ve done this for Amnesiaand Outlast, and they were both really fun experiences: There’s something about sharing the horror that makes it all the more fun. So when The Evil Within came out it was a no brainer for us. The game had that freaky aesthetic and for once they gave us weapons, which was definitely a leg up over Outlast and Amnesia where all we could do was run and hide.

The game itself is both fun and terrifying. The controls are a little difficult to pick up, as well as a few of the in-game mechanics. Once you get a handle on everything though the game flows a lot better and starts to feel less clunky. The Evil Within shares a lot of similarities with the Resident Evil franchise which makes sense as Shinji Mikami is the creator of Resident Evil and is now the director for The Evil Within. The game shines through mostly in the combat. It’s practically the same except for one major improvement: You can move while aiming, which is leaps and bounds better than its Resident Evil counterpart.

The Evil Within also follows a similar formula to the Resident Evil style of survival horror. They introduce the main antagonist early on and then subsequently introduce bosses that chase you around and terrify you until you happen upon the perfect environment to kill them. Now this same trope is apparent in a lot of survival horror games. The way they approach it differently in The Evil Within is that the whole time you play, you're questioning your own characters sanity because the more you play, the more surreal and strange the locales become. You find yourself teleporting all over the place and you keep warping through mirrors to this weird upgrade hub, which at time feels familiar but also unnerving. They do a great job of never letting a place feel too comfortable for too long which can be a problem in the genre; if you stay somewhere too long, you start to recognize it for what it is. The areas become less creepy and more mundane, so forcing you to adapt to new areas randomly allows you to never really settle into that comfort zone because you’re always being thrown into new locals.

Now I’d like to talk about the upgrade hub. Every so often you find these doors that lead to rooms containing a cracked mirror, you can then warp into the mirror to enter the upgrade hub (as I'm calling it). Now the hub is one floor of a sanitarium, but it’s never quite the same as when you left it and it’s actually one of the most interesting parts of the game. In most games this zone would feel safe and familiar but in fact it’s the opposite. They constantly throw all these weird and scary events at you when you're in there and it’s not jump scares, it’s just these different combinations of unnerving scenery and music making the one place you might call home in the game far from it. It forces you to always be on edge because you have no idea what’s going to be there when you show up.

I haven't beaten The Evil Within yet, so I can't give you my full opinion but from what I've played so far the game has been really good. I won't say it's the scariest game out there but it's worth looking into and I'd recommend it if you're a fan of the genre. If not though, I'd say hold off and wait for a price drop or try another of the multitude of survival horror games out there.

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Fright Night

Like I had mentioned last week, my experience with the horror genre in general is pretty limited. I've played a few of the Resident Evil games, most notably the 4th one—clocked in around 20 hours if memory serves. I've played, or was at least in the room watching, Fatal Frame back in the day. Silent Hill 2 comes to mind also, Sean and I played it together for a little while, trying to stave off the fear of it all by laughing at the ineptness the enemies displayed. I never beat any of these games and aside from Outlast, the only other horror game I've beaten was the first Dead Space.

I was always hearing from my friends that Dead Space was sick: Filled with cool weapons, having a creepy as hell atmosphere and being a ton of fun. And can I tell you that damn, was it ever! The only reason I actually sat down and played it though was because of my job. At the time I was working at EA and they were in a transition period so there wasn't much to do. The studio was on the verge of collaborating on Dead Space 2, so to get into the game I read a ton of design documents about the lore and I played the entirety of the original Dead Space.

From what I remember of the game—I did play it over 5 years ago after all—it was really fun. I don't remember it being ridiculously scary mind you; but the atmosphere they created in the game was insane. The thing with space is that it’s quiet: There's nothing outside the ship but emptiness. You hear the ship expanding and contracting and the echoes of the enemies just carry on forever throughout the ship. It's the kind of atmosphere I expect to see in that new Alien's games Alien Isolation.

As you may know I'm a huge sci-fi fan and while I'm not big on horror, the alien series did catch my eye after a while. So I got all the movies and watched them... Well at least the first 2, I could never really sit through the 3rd one and never bothered with resurrection. Alien Isolation is supposed to really hit home with the first movie in terms of atmosphere and overall terror the xenomorph is supposed to instill. Depending on how you approach the game, i.e. being slow and methodical or going fast and loose, Alien Isolation is supposed to take about 15 hours to beat, and boy does it look terrifying.

I'll probably pick it up one day, maybe not. I've heard it's more of a stealth game than it is horror, so that definitely bodes well for me, but do I really want to risk shitting bricks? Who knows! The self-loathing is strong in me some days.

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Walking Dead: Season 1

Since Halloween is around the corner, I’d like to say that if you haven’t played The Walking Dead: Season 1, you should stop what you’re doing now and play it immediately. Seriously, don’t read past this sentence.

I never played said game until last week since it just got released on PS4. And boy do I feel like an idiot for waiting this long. Regardless, I’m nearly done Episode 4 and I can safely say that the game gets better and better the more you play through it.

The driving force is the dialogue, and I treat The Walking Dead: Season 1 more like an interactive graphic novel than a game. It’s basically a point and click adventure game. Besides this, you’re also forced to answer questions with limited time, and this affects other characters’ responses. I believe the end result in the story is the same, but the dialogue itself makes the journey with the cast worth it.

In the end, you make choices and I often found myself thinking if I truly made the right choice. I don’t think I can name another game that had me stop and think about my actions. Maybe BioShock? Even then, BioShock gave more of a “Good vs. Evil” vibe; The Walking Dead on the other hand isn’t as black and white. You often think you made the right choice, but the reactions from other characters aren’t what you expect. Some characters like getting sort of lied to, while others like a direct or brash approach.

In the end, you learn how to speak to these characters. I know many gamers that feel like they made mistakes with their decisions and restart at the previous checkpoint. I’ve been very tempted to do the same several times already, but so far I’ve avoided second guessing myself. What’s great is talking to other gamers about their decisions and their logic behind it.

If you haven’t played The Walking Dead: Season 1, I urge you to spend the couple of dollars for a truly great experience. It’s more than a game and that’s for sure.

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Play Outlast This Halloween

Campeau had it right last weekwhen we talked about Killing Floor: It is Halloween week pretty much. All the stores are filled with candy and decorations that will all go on sale November 1st, so why not talk about something scary? Before we started this blog, the PS4 had come out and I had gotten into a habit of streaming pretty much anything I played. I didn't have a huge following, but it was growing. One of the games that helped me the most in this cause was Outlast; for some reason, people like to laugh at people shitting their pants on a live stream.

When I was a kid I couldn't handle anything scary; not movies, nor TV shows, and especially not games. I would avoid that stuff at all costs. Nowadays I'm not so bad. Inherently I'm a fairly jumpy person with this sort of thing, so jump scares are the bane of my existence, but I can get through a scary movie or game no problem.

I still do have reservations with scary games over movies though. Games are just so much worse, with the entire ambiance the developers put in. You're usually more scared when nothing is happening then when some crazy naked asylum freaks are hunting you down. That part is scary too, but only for so long.

Outlast was a fun game and it was pretty scary too. It's not overly long (you can beat it within 2-4 hours if you know what you are doing) but the first time I beat it, it probably took around 6-8 hours. It has a problem with repetition after a while though. Basically you explore, get a bit of story and then get stuck in an area. The only way continue is by finding 3-4 objects around the area (usually filled with crazed lunatics) and then using these objects to fix or move whatever is blocking your progression. Rinse and repeat. It doesn't take too much away from the game since the formula does work, but a little variety never hurt anyone if you know what I mean.

The thing with scary games is that they aren't really scary forever. Sure the jump scares might get you every time, but after a while (normally after you die at least a few times) you start just getting used to it, because there just isn't a severe penalty for dying. You run and run and run away from an enemy with no way to defend yourself, get stuck in a corner and die...then you just reappear at the check point and try it again, while making sure you don't get stuck in the same corner this time. After that happens a few times, all the anxiety and fear the game has instilled in you at this point starts to dissipate.

I'm not exactly sure what the fix would be. Outlast has a mode in it where if you die, you have to restart from the very beginning. If you were to play this mode on your first play through, I'm sure the anxiety would stay with you the entire time, but it wouldn't be the right kind of anxiety. I feel as though you would be more frustrated than scared if you kept dying and having to restart. The mode is cool, but only if you've beaten the game before and know what you are doing.

In any case, if you are looking for something to play over Halloween, look no further than Outlast. It is a fun, scary-ass game that will get you to jump out of your seat no problem. I beat it three times but have yet to try the expansion. I hear good things though. Also it's from a Canadian developer, so win for the Canucks!

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The Killing Floor

The zombies are back only this time they're not zombies, they're more like creepy lab experiments with zombie-like tendencies. Lately I’ve been playing a lot of Killing Floor which I picked up last year during the steam sale and hadn’t really gotten into playing it until lately. A friend of mine and I were looking for a co-op shooter to play and the horror theme of Killing Floor seemed right up our alley.

The game has an interesting story but it’s not at the forefront; it’s more hidden through dialogue in the objective gametype maps. From what I understand, you and your friends play as the military dropped into hostile areas around England and its countryside, with the sole task of cleaning up failed military cloning experiments, and you can't leave until they’ve all been dealt with.

There’s a ton of maps to play on—either in-game or community created—and they're all fairly open allowing you to adapt to situations and waves differently. For example: bottlenecking weak enemies that can swarm you at a choke point or using large open areas to more easily kite and kill the larger and stronger “Zeds” safely.

When you start the game it comes off as being a lot harder than it really is and it’s because the game has a slight learning curve. Most times when you play a horde-mode game they're slightly more forgiving with the early waves and Killing Floor is no different. But for a new player you won't realize how much damage and how easily the zeds can kill you. Add in the fact that their attacks slow you down, so getting caught in a crowd of even the weakest enemies can mean a quick death. Once you get a hang of the game and its controls, you learn how to kite and kill your enemies while at least attempting to keep them at arm's reach.

Killing Floor also has a class system with perks. They all have their own strengths and weapons, but that doesn't mean if you were playing as a commando you couldn't use a weapon that's good for a demolitionist. The only sideeffect to doing so is that it would just deal less damage because class perks increase damage and capacity while reducing overall weapon costs. Speaking of costs, the game rewards you for kills with cash and a bounty at the end of each round, which you then spend on better weapons, ammo, and body armor, all of which are pretty much necessary if you want to survive till the end.

Now the game has a wide variety of enemies. There’s clots, which are basically cannon fodder and only dangerous if there's a whole lot of them. Then there's gorefast which are a little bigger and angrier than a clot, and also weild a massive sword for an arm. There's also bloats which are massive bloated corpses that puke acid on you; stalkers which are invisible naked women; crawler's,a man spider hybrid that’s straight out of my nightmares; and husks, giant men with a rocket launchers for a hand. There's also sirens which are horrifying women in straitjackets who do a giant AOE scream attack; scrakes which are psychotic men who run at you with a chainsaw and lastly the two toughest enemies: Fleshpounds and Patriarchs.

Now Fleshpounds are these walking behemoths with metal fused to their bodies and giant spiked clubs at the end of each arm. They also have these massive glowing lights in their chest which lets you know there mood. Yellow means all good and red means I am to murder you and everything you love. Once the light turns red, they get increased movement and attack speed and if you don't kill them quick enough they can easily kill a group. Last but definitely not least is the Patriarch. Now the patriarch is the final boss who you fight in a bonus wave after you’ve been to each level. He’s definitely nothing to laugh at; you have to work as a team if you want even a hope of taking him down. He has a massive health bar and invisibility. He's also equipped with a chain gun and a rocket launcher that can kill you in one shot. He’s also the smartest of the enemies. Once you’ve weakened him he'll run away and hide to regain his health and come after you again, so you have to actively hunt him down or else he is nearly impossible to kill. He’ll pick you off one by one making it even harder to kill him in the end.

Killing Floor has seen a lot of love from the community over the years and has a cult following. I was surprised when I logged into it to see how many servers and active players there were. I’ve never started a game and had it just be me and my friend till the end, which surprised me considering the game is fairly old. Another cool note is that they do holiday updates, like for example: as of Yesterday (October 16th, 2014) and on until the 3rd of November, there’s a Halloween event where they reskin the enemies in festive and horrifying outfits. The same goes for Christmas and honestly it’s worth checking out around the holidays because nothing says Christmas cheer like blowing Santa's head clean off. If you’re looking for a shooter to play with a bunch of friends and battle back hordes of mutated freaks, look no further than Killing Floor! It’s on sale on steam now all the way to the 30th of October. There’s also a sequel on the way but there isn’t much info on it just yet, just a couple screen shots and some teaser footage.

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Bring Me Home

After playing Fright Night at Freddy’s I was still in the mood for another horror game and it reminded me of Home, a game that I loved when it was released two years ago, so I decided to play it again. To give you a little context, I got this game upon its release on a whim and shortly after beating it, I was recommending it to everyone I knew because the game was so interesting and intricate, it blew me away.

Home is a kind of a Choose Your Own Adventure-style horror game and the atmosphere is insane; the game itself is an experience. You play as a man who wakes up on a stormy night in a home that's not his and, as far as you can tell, no one is around. Your goal is to make your way home and figure out what the hell has happened along the way. But the real meat and bones of the game is the journey: all the decisions you make along the way affect the outcome and arch of the story and if there's one thing this game has, its tons of replay value.

The controls are super simple and as you progress through the different areas all you can do is interact with different objects and landmarks—it’s almost like a point and click adventure game, but without the point and click.The fun part is using different items to solve different puzzles. You rarely get stuck and have to needlessly backtrack, but you do have to use problem solving and think about what you have to get past any roadblocks you might encounter.

Now if there's one recommendation I can make for your play-through it's this: play it in the dark, but mostly, you need to use headphones. It’s pretty much a requirement. The music and atmosphere really set the tone for the game and without it the game loses its eerie / unnerving qualities and it takes away from the overall experience.

Home is driven primarily by its story and how you choose to interact with the world around you. Using different objects drives the story in different directions. The game itself is worth visiting a few times to see how you react to situations and problems differently and trying to achieve the various outcomes. Now the game is fairly spoiler intensive so I can’t get too far into detail but it’s definitely a game I’d recommend trying out and at $2.99 there's almost no reason not to. Factoring in the replay value alone and you’re guaranteed your money’s worth. So if you’re looking for something to sink a few hours into and have a unique experience with, Home is the game for you.

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Freddy Is Freaky

Have you ever wanted to be a Chucky Cheese night time security guard? Well with Five Nights at Freddy’s you can realize that dream while also being horribly murdered by animatronic animals. The point of the game is survival and it’s not easy.

You play as the new night time security guard and you sit in your office monitoring the security cameras,  keeping an eye on Freddy and his friends as they walk around the restaurant at night—which seems simple enough, except if they do find you, you die a horrible, awful death. As you flip from camera to camera you use electricity and because the Freddy Corporation is cheap, you only have a finite amount of electricity each night. You have to make sure to manage your power efficiently because the only way to protect yourself is to seal the doors of your office, which is a major drain on the power and only should be used when they're about to kill you, so most of your power should really be invested into the cameras. The gameplay itself is fairly simple: between monitoring the cameras and shutting the doors there aren't many intricacies but the game is still very difficult, for one reason, and that's fear.

This game is probably one of the scariest games I've played and it’s all thanks to the characters and atmosphere. It preys on innate fears we have with the way the enemies are designed as well as the overall look and feel of the environments, which brings back creepy childhood memories of weird people in animal suits and jerky animatronics. The music is also really well done; it's really subdued and almost hidden in the background but it does a good job of scoring and setting the overall mood and feel of the game and really adds an ominous creepy feeling throughout.

Now as I was saying before, the gameplay itself is fairly simple but the difficulty increase from night to night but that's not what makes the game hard. The difficulty really comes from how scared you are and the game can really use your own fears against you. The more and more you play the more and more jumpy, anxious and generally scared you become and that's what makes you more likely to waste power from either over checking the cameras, closing doors when you don't need to or just generally being panicky. The game itself is a lot simpler if you can keep a clear and level head but the game puts you in these situations where you really can’t keep a level head and that's one of the challenges you need to deal with if you plan on beating this game.

In my opinion this is definitely a solid horror game that was really well put together. The gameplay and scare elements are well made and implemented and there's not really any jump scares so it's not like the game is using cheap tricks to freak you out. Now like most horror games there's really not a ton of replay value unless you just want to try and beat the nights more efficiently but other than that it's pretty much one and done. That being said, it's not an expensive game at a five dollar price tag, it's definitely worth it and if you still think it's too expensive, just throw it on your steam wishlist and wait for the next steam sale and pick it up.

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F3AR: Sibling Rivalry And One Scary Pregnant Woman

Horror games have always been a popular gaming genre but always had a smaller pool of titles than most other choices. In the last few years, the horror genre has exploded with the consistently popular viewing of internet "let's play" videos. I was always really attracted to titles such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill, but never went out of my way to play anything else of the sort. Insert Fear 3 here. I picked this title up at a magical and spectacular place known as Wal-Mart for the fantastic price of ten dollars. I must say, a creepy grudge rip-off emblazoned upon the cover and the promise of couch co-op enticed me quicker than a beer fountain made entirely of gold and glory. That being said, I popped the disc into my Playstation 3; my lil' lady and I ventured off upon an adventure of morbid proportions. It was time to slay a howling, pregnant woman and deal with brotherly issues.

I must admit, I have not played the first two Fears, but the game does a great job at retelling you prior events. Pointman, our protagonist, was birthed alongside his brother Fettel by some evil little child-woman. Although both brothers were tested on for a super soldier project of sorts, Fettel gave into his rage and lust for power and sought vengeance. In other words, he's the evil brother, while the quiet Pointman is trying to be a pseudo-hero. Fear 2 seems to have ended with our hero putting a bullet in his brother's head and is now constantly haunted by their neurological link. In Fear 3, the brothers team up to seek out their mother who has raped a soldier and is about to give birth to some evil offspring. The brothers bicker about whether they should consume the child and "become like gods" or simply save the world. It's a strange story and somewhat clichéd, but Fettel's banter was entertaining enough to finish it.

In any case, the story isn't what you're playing the game for, especially if you make a dim-wit move as I did and picked the series up in its third installment. You play this game for the ridiculousness that is offered to you. Similarly to Resident Evil 5, the game allows you to play a horror with the splendour of two-player split-screen. You and your best bud will enjoy eight levels of a bullet-time slow motion skill and self-exploding body possessions. You'll tackle some demonic hordes and a serious number of S.W.A.T like forces. These elements coupled with an excellent ambiance that will have you fill your pants with fecal matter is an equation for success. Despite the graphics not being up to par with most games of the current-gen systems, it really presents you with a stressful mood when playing. You spend most of the game devastating teams of angry men with guns; however, every once in a while, you come across a decapitated corpse and demonic shadows. Toss in a few zombie creatures towards the end-game and you've got chills running down your spine. It definitely beckons you to experience more and more of it.

Incidentally, the game has an interesting system that allows your characters to gain points and rank up. This is applied to your profile through all the game modes. You will also notice that there is a form of competition amongst the campaign that rates both brothers via points acquired by the end of the levels. The ending is determined by which of the brothers is the "favorite son". The title is given at the end of each level and the number of times this has happened is calculated at the end. Both endings are fun and it offers some replay  value or at the very least a second run through the game. Fear 3 also offers an online multiplayer mode, however we couldn't access it due to a lack of a player base. Okay well, maybe we didn't try to hard 'cause the offline co-op was so much fun. Expect yelling and jumping and rude comments. It can get intense and you may need your favorite Michael Bolton tune and a box of tissues after a rage filled fit when you died three times in a row. If you game with your significant other, expect to take all the blame and to present them a box of chocolates with the words "you were right honey" inscribed into each chocolaty morsel.

All in all, the game is pretty decent. Far better than I expected but I'd be lying if I said it was extraordinary. It does have lackluster graphics and it's got the standard FPS controls. A campaign on the short side doesn't work in its favor either. Nevertheless, it's an enjoyable experience and another option for a good time with a friend. A terrifying atmosphere and fun character interactions provide for a decent time-killer. Besides, what other game pits you against an evil pregnant woman who's constantly howling from pain due to contractions. Morbid right? A success in my book, just don't run people over on your way to Wal-Mart. This is Charlie signing-off and thinking that a golden beer fountain ain't a bad idea.

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Surviving The Forest

Have you ever wanted to play Minecraft but found it wasn't terrifying enough? Well look no further because The Forest is just that! Now as I said last week, because of the glory that is the Steam sale I've recently acquired a lot of early access games I've had my eye on, one of which was The Forest.

The Forest is an open world survival horror game where the main baddies are a tribe of savage albino cannibals who would like nothing more than to eat a delicious slice of Long Pig—which while we're on the topic is the nickname I gave the main character. Now the game's story is pretty simple: you're traveling on a plane with what appears to be your son, but due to some unknown circumstances, it rips in half and crashes in the middle of a forest. You wake up in the flaming tail end long enough to see your "son" getting carted off by this weird albino native before you slip back into unconsciousness, you wake up again shortly after and that's where the game begins.

The game itself is a lot of fun and it has a ton of cool mechanics that help your overall survival while not being tedious or boring and without dulling down the gameplay. The Forest has a lot in common with Minecraft and Don't Starve; you spend a lot of your time foraging and collecting supplies to eat, make weapons, and to build your shelter. A lot of the early game is spent collecting things and exploring, while also trying to stay hidden from the packs of albinos who patrol the forest looking for food, which is you. The stealth aspect of the game is really fun too and reminiscent of the Amnesia titles.

In the same vein as Don't Starve and Minecraft, your goal is survival and the game doesn't make it easy on you. Between the weather affecting your stamina and well-being, the constant need to forage and hunt for food while balancing out the creation of your shelter and eventual base, then throw in the occasional cannibal pack attacking you, the game becomes pretty difficult. It also has a similar crafting system to the aforementioned games, utilizing whatever you can find to create makeshift weapons and even explosives.

The natives themselves are really well-designed; they're this perfect mix of creepy and unsettling but at the same time, you're always in such close proximity you learn a lot about them, like how to avoid them, their routines and once you find the village you can see their goings-on. The weird part is once you've fought enough of them you can take their bodies and create these weird burning effigies to ward off others. The reason I find it weird is that you have to chop up the corpses to do so, so do they find you frightening or are they just accepting you as one of their own?

Now as I said before this is an early access game and it's still in its alpha phase, so it's nowhere near the finished product but all that said, the game is still a lot of fun. I find myself constantly establishing goals like building a base and then creating gardens for renewable food, going and setting up traps to catch even more food and so on and so forth and it really instills a sense of accomplishment as you fulfill them.

I'll be the first to admit I'm a little biased when it comes to most survival games as when I was a kid I loved the genre of survival books like Hatchet and Brian's Winter along with shows like Survivorman, so this game was right in my wheelhouse. Saying that, I think this is gonna be a game that's definitely worth looking into but with that being said the game itself in its current state is pretty glitchy. On the other hand, it's being regularly updated and through an interesting ticker on the main screen you'll always be aware of when the newest patch will be ready. If you like the survival horror or just a good open world game, The Forest is worth a look and at the current price, there's no reason not to.

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