Stifled - Preview

In case you haven't been listening to the eerie echoes of the indie horror scene, Stifled is the first commercial game in the works from Gattai Games, a Singapore-based studio already on many radars after their student project, Lurking, won 'Best Student Game' (among other awards) at China's Independent Games Festival in 2014. Stifled is considered the spiritual successor to this award-winning game, which had players using echo-location to explore and survive in a world of blackness, and so I was understandably excited when I was offered the chance to preview the game. Here's what I thought.

The demo opens on a car crash — your own, in fact. You take control inside a flipped car and crawl your way out into a pitch-black forest. The only reason the darkness hasn't consumed you already is that your car is on fire. Silver linings, eh? Without any other option, you head off into the true darkness of the forest.

Once inside the blackness, the game's most important feature comes into play; echo-location. After making a noise — by throwing an object, holding down space, or even speaking into the mic — the environment around you is reflected back at you in clean, white lines. It's still pretty easy to see what everything is, and it works well enough for bats, right?

Soon enough you stumble across a metal door leading down into some sort of sewage system. It's the only option. Of course, that's also where horrors await you... After sending out one of many echo-location scans, which has become second nature by this point, something answers your call. Something in the darkness screams out and the black is splashed with angry red. It sounds pained and almost child-like.

Exploring becomes tense from this point onwards. There's a constant balance of wanting to be hidden from the unknown creature, yet wanting, and needing, to see the world around you.

In this respect, Stifled feels almost like a spiritual successor to Dark Echo, which uses a similar method of echo-location (from a top-down perspective) and has entertained and terrified me on many a train journey. However, you don't to actually see the reason for your fear in Dark Echo, and this adds an entirely new layer to Stifled.

Seeing the creature — a writhing, disturbed, humanoid being — evokes memories of The Last of Us and SOMA, which is a massive compliment, if you ask me. In both, you are in danger of being killed by a creature, yet you also wish you could get just a little closer to understand exactly what it is. In both cases, it is not something that was born to kill. It began as human, and was infected. Perhaps this creature is the same. It didn't seem like it wanted to kill, exactly. Maybe it's own human instincts are just "stifled" by some overriding need to murder. That's not just a great pun, I swear. There's something deeper within this creature's aggression and anguish, which I hope to uncover later in the game.

In order to get far enough to uncover this, though, you'll need to make sure that you're playing in a quiet room. With the mic feature on — a great, unique feature — any noise can give away your position and get you killed. All it takes is a friendly "How was your day?" and... dead. If you're expecting other people to be in the same room while playing, I'd highly recommend turning this feature off. You can always switch it on later for the full Stifled experience. What an experience it can be, too. 

At its core are extremely tense cat and mouse scenarios with the creature, throwing rocks and cans as far away as possible to distract it from finding you in the corner you accidentally backed yourself into. This sends it screeching after whatever made the sound. It's an awful, bone-chilling scream, but it's fine as long as it's heading in the opposite direction. 

I had an unbearably tense few minutes of this exact cat and mouse gameplay towards the end of the demo, but then, in the darkness, a light. A welcome one. "Exit." It took a lot of willpower not to go into a full-on sprint to escape, but I managed it... 

A door came into sight, and as it grew nearer, it opened. Inside it, some kind of office. Small, well-kept, full of dark wooden furniture and books. On the desk, a map and a leaflet. My inferior knowledge of geography meant that the map was useless, but the leaflet offered a little more in the way of information. The leaflet was for an orphanage. What could this mean for the full game? Based on previous trailers for Stifled, I think we'll get to explore this orphanage upon release, no doubt long abandoned by everything but creep factors.

Admittedly, within all of this silhouetted tension, there are still a few outlined bugs to squash. The main issue I found, and the only one to actually affect gameplay, was that I would occasionally get stuck in objects or walls. Though I was able to free myself every time, the problem came with the fact that getting stuck caused the protagonist to bounce up and down on the spot. It was as if I'd picked up a megaphone and started broadcasting my location to anything that might have been listening. Uhoh.

My only other feedback was entirely subjective and had no influence on the rest of the demo. Firstly, I thought that the opening scene - as one of the only areas to be shown in the light - could have been been more visually pleasing. Everything looked notably average with muddy textures, and I was glad to head into the clean lines of the darkness. This wasn't reflected in the office, though, which looked much more polished.

Also, there are times when you'll occasionally hear static throughout the demo, and while it's jarring as desired, it sometimes reached volumes that made me feel as if I was being plunged underwater. Too much more and I'd have wanted to switch to speakers for a while, thereby stepping back slightly from the immersive sound design that comes with good horror.

Sure, there's still a little work to do, most notably around getting stuck in objects in the loudest way possible, but there's a lot of potential here for something special. In just a short demo, Stifled combined things I love about a few different games, and created something new of its own. The echo-location I loved from Dark Echo is here, as is the stealth from The Last of Us and SOMA, in addition to the unshakeable feeling that the creature hunting me down is unmistakably human and in pain. That won't stop it from tearing me limb from limb, I'm sure, but it adds another level to the fear. That's what good horror is able to do, and it just may be something that Stifled does extremely well. 

If you have been listening, you may have heard that Stifled was recently Greenlit. Not only that, but the game will be coming to Playstation 4 as a Playstation VR game. It seems like a horrifying match made in heaven, so that only adds to my excitement. While I await Stifled's full release, I'll be bouncing off the walls in more ways than one, hoping that nothing else is listening in. 

Resident Evil 7 [Beginning Hour Demo] - Preview

It was a Tuesday morning (in the UK). The E3 2016 Sony conference was well underway. Then, out of nowhere, a game that many had forsaken fought its way back up to the surface by tooth and nail. This re-animated corpse was, of course, Resident Evil 7. 

With a much darker, P.T.-esque reveal trailer, Capcom had gamers feeling optimistic for a series that has been hard to root for since Resident Evil 4, all the way back in 2005. Here is the trailer that showed us all that Resident Evil 7 might finally be shambling along a different, but ultimately much-needed path:

What's more is that Capcom revealed there was going to be a Resident Evil 7 demo called 'Beginning Hour' made available on the PlayStation Store immediately. Resident Evil was well and truly back to its rightful place at the forefront of horror-loving minds. But, does it deserve to be there? 

Well, I played the demo and here's what I thought...

Resident Evil 7 - Preview

The first thing that's impossible not to mention is that fact that the series, which has always been third-person – with the exception of the Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, an FPS game for the Wii – could now be an entirely first-person affair. This is likely to divide long-time fans of the series. Some will see it as yet another step away from what made the classics so great, whereas others – like myself – feel that this makes horror feel incredibly immediate, and that a change, even such a drastic departure as this, was needed in order for the franchise to remain relevant. 

Some of the most terrifying games (and demos) of recent years have been first-person, such as Outlast or P.T., and it's nice to see Capcom taking inspiration from acclaimed horror games rather than acclaimed action games. Anyway, there's more to the demo than how you view the horror, and for once, there actually is some to view.

When the demo started, I found myself lying on old wooden floorboards. As I clambered up, I was greeted by one message:

"Get out of the house."

Then nothing. No tutorial. No hints. Just an unlit room, two old sofas, a dirty table, a fuse box, a dusty stone fireplace, and a TV on a table in the corner, playing static. On the table in-between the two sofas there was a note, which said "I will dash them against the stones." Curiosity and the thought of freedom drove me forward into the darkness.

The TV needed a video tape, and the fuse box was missing a fuse. Of course, I had neither. What I did have, however, was an inventory. Though I had nothing to fill it with, the inventory seemed limited in space, and items could be mapped to the four directions on the d-pad. Good to know.

I found a door, and was prompted to press X to open. As in all RE games, I expected a door animation to take over. It didn't. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the game actually has you manually open a door by pushing the analogue stick forward. It's a small feature, but one that keeps you firmly in control, making something as simple as opening a door more tense than the entirety of RE5 or RE6 combined. 

Through the door was a hallway. It was still extremely dark, and the house itself looked worn and abandoned. I crept along the hallway, only able to see a few feet in front of the unknown protagonist I was controlling. What I found in a small room to my left unnerved me further: a locked door that had been barricaded haphazardly from the outside, and a ceiling of doll babies, swinging from rope tied around their necks. I can never keep up with the latest trends in home design...

With nothing much else to see, I moved on. To my right there was a cabinet. I opened a drawer and found what appeared to be a dummy's finger. It seemed useless to me at this point in time so I placed it into my inventory and continued. In front of me, a crossroads. I could either go upstairs, where a dark room and a flashing light beckoned me, or I could go into the kitchen, looking a little worse for wear, but much more open and lighter. I chose the kitchen (obviously).

I opened the fridge and found nothing but mouldy food, followed by the microwave, which contained a long-dead crow. I'll probably never know why it was there, and I'm okay with that. Next, I opened a large pot sitting on the kitchen table, only to find more rotten food and a few cockroaches. There was little else to explore in the kitchen, except for a drawer with nothing in and another that was locked.

Thinking the key wouldn't be anywhere nearby, I headed through a door on the other side of the kitchen. It led down yet another worn corridor, but it was the small room at the end that caught my eye. Flesh. Covering the floor. Just, flesh. It may have been animal carcasses, though it was hard to tell, and I wasn't about to get any closer. 

Stabbed into one of these piles of flesh was a pair of bolt cutters, which I yanked free before trying the door. Through it I could see the bright light of day, and the door itself seemed in better condition than the rest of the house. Was this the way out? I tried the handle. Locked. I headed back.

At the end of the corridor was a wardrobe that I hadn't seen on the way past, and its doors were locked by a thick chain. I selected the bolt cutters from my inventory and cut through. Inside the wardrobe was a video tape, and I had just the place for it. I made my way back, expecting something to jump out at me at any moment. It didn't, but that didn't change the fact that I was internally cheering for the level of tension the demo was delivering. Instead of punching a massive boulder, it was like Chris Redfield was punching my heart. Much better. 

Back in the room I had woken in, I played the video - as it turned out, quite literally.

As the video began to play, I realised that I was in control of the person with the camera, filming some sort of haunted house show called 'Sewer Gators'. This feature shows some real growth in Capcom's mindset towards horror, as they're leaving the control, and therefore the fear, in the hands of the player. As they (I) continued filming the show, I realised that they were actually walking through the very house I was now watching the tape in. Naturally, before long, a member of the team went missing. 

During the search, we ended up in the same room that I was watching the tape inside, and the egotistical presenter of the show found a hidden switch in the fireplace. When activated, it opened a small square door in the wall, which led to a space under the house - maybe a second basement used in Prohibition times. 

For a while I was pointing the camera up at the ladder I had just climbed down for a "hero shot" that the presenter wanted. After he didn't follow me down, I started to look around. I quickly stepped back and my breath caught in my throat. Directly behind me was the missing member of the team. 

He was facing the wall, not moving. After building the courage, I grabbed his shoulder. In doing so, I pulled him from a hook that was lodged into his jaw and we both fell to the floor. Blood seeped from his eyes and his head lolled backwards in my lap. He was almost certainly dead. There wasn't much time to think before someone else stepped out from the darkness, into the basement with me, and the video cut out.

On the table in front of me... the note from before, but changed. It now said "I will dash YOU against the stones," with the "YOU" written in blood. Great. I needed to get out of this house.

The first thing I had to do was trying the fireplace switch from the video. Yes, it was there alright, and it opened the same hole in the wall. Before going through, though, I had to check upstairs. If I were going to find something in this basement that ended the demo, I wanted to have explored the entire house. I cautiously made my back to the bottom of the stairs and tiptoed up. At the top was a flashing button marked 'Stairs' which didn't seem to do anything when I pushed it. 

Aware that there was a missing fuse, I gave up hoping that this would do anything and instead kept a watchful eye on three mannequins that stood by the wall to my left. I hate mannequins so much. I found the courage to try and use the dummy's finger, but it didn't seem to work. Happy to leave the plastic nightmares behind, I headed back to the hole in the wall in search of the door key.

As luck would have it, the key to the back door awaited me at the opening to the basement. The ladder was missing, which was fine by me, and it was definitely time to go. I headed back into the room, but something had changed again. The door leading back into the corridor was wide open. I crept towards it and the soundtrack spiked as something tall and deformed walked past. I backed into the room and waited, hoping it hadn't seen me. 

Silence. 

Whatever it was, it didn't appear again, though the thought of seeing it up close and personal made the walk to the back door seem much longer than it had before.

By the time I reached the room of rotting flesh, I was squinting, convinced that the thing was hiding within the corpses. Again, nothing but my own fears. I walked up to the back door without any issues, used the key I'd found to unlock it, and pushed the door open. Outside I could bright blue skies and a lush green garden. Freedom. 

Then a voice: 

"Hehehe... Welcome to the family, son." 

I turned and an old man in a yellow jacket knocked me out with a punch to the face. The demo was over. Or at least, that's how it ended for me.

Similarly to the P.T. demo, there are actually multiple items and secrets hidden throughout, many of which can actually lead to different endings. It's possible to find the missing fuse, go into the attic, answer a phone call (with at least three different conversations), see the mannequins come to life, find an axe, and even to spot a ghostly apparition of an unexplained woman (whom I didn't see even once). However, no-one is yet to figure out what the dummy finger does... if anything at all. 

Was the demo on the same level of fear that games like Outlast or P.T. produced? Not quite. Did I, for the first time in years, actually experience fear in a Resident Evil game? YES. Hell, I even jumped a couple of times. For me, that's a step in the right direction, and it means that I can finally be excited for a Resident Evil game without the feelings of shame that came with my blind excitement for Resident Evil 6.

If you have a PS4, you can now download the demo and try for yourself. I'm hoping that you'll find the same sense of fear and excitement that I found. In fact, I'm hoping the demo sinks its rediscovered, infectious bite just as far into you.

Dark Fear - Preview

Speaking to developers on Twitter is great. I learn about new games from people that are genuinely passionate about what they do, and really talented at doing it. Then, occasionally, a generous studio will send over a free copy of their game for little ol' me. In this case, the generous studio was Arif Games, and the game was Dark Fear, a pixel horror RPG adventure that's pretty damn addictive.

Worried that I might not have time to play much of Dark Fear before writing about it, I let the studio know that I wouldn't be able to guarantee a full review. Little did I know that only two days later I'd get 29% through the game in one sitting... Granted, I only played for about an hour, but I'd still say that's an impressive feat for playing on my mobile. Unless I'm travelling, a mobile game has to be good to keep my attention. Dark Fear is. 

Yes, some mobile games are incredibly simple, aiming to latch onto the success of games like Angry Birds or Candy Crush, but Dark Fear is an adventure of variety and tension. It just so happens to be squeezed into a portable device.

It is the variety of Dark Fear that I believe captivated me so during my hour of gaming. One moment the game was a point-and-click puzzle solver, and the next it was a turn-based RPG where I was fighting off wolves, tree demons and a possessed child (with the added bonus of NPCs, shops, weapons, armour, potions and even a little bit of grinding for money). If you hadn't guessed from "possessed child", the game is also sometimes tense and downright scary. I'm not just talking about when a little girl scuttles across a wall, or runs towards the player shrieking like a banshee, because even the title screen made me jump. It uses a painful screech to announce itself, similar to the opening of the Insidious films, and it really sets the tone of the game.

The game is also quite open, especially after making a little progress, and the player is able to choose between a few different locations at their own leisure. Sometimes they'll want to progress by using something they've found to solve a puzzle, or by talking to an NPC about something they’ve done, but other times they might just go hunting in the woods, catching rabbits, deer and badgers for their fur, and then sell that fur to afford new gear. Carrying out these tasks to upgrade your character is fun, addictive and also makes the moments of tension and horror that much more effective.

If you ask me, that should be enough for you to want to look into Dark Fear. What I have played so far was fun enough for me to ignore everything else in my life and home for an hour, playing on my phone in the darkness, and I’m looking forward to playing more. Since you don’t even need to be online to play it (hallelujah!), this could become your new piece of travelling horror. From what I’ve played so far, Dark Fear definitely deserves a place on your phone.

Find out more on iTunes or GooglePlay, and get in touch with Arif Games on Facebook or Twitter, even if it is just to tell them that they are awesome.

Song of Horror - Preview

I'm excited. I'm not just on board the hype train for Protocol Games' Song of Horror, I'm eating snacks from the first-class carriage. In this third-person horror, described as a return to the classic horror of Resident Evil and Silent Hill, with 16 playable characters and permadeath, it is hard not to be. Even more so when it delivers on everything it promises in its Kickstarter campaign.

In the press demo I played, Daniel Noyer, the game’s main character, has travelled to Husher Mansion, where renowned writer Sebastian P. Husher lives. Daniel works as the Assistant to the Sales Director at Wake Publishing, responsible for publishing Husher’s writing. The only problem is that Husher hasn't answered the phone in weeks. Daniel was sent to find out why. Finding the front door ajar, he heads inside, and promptly regrets the whole thing. 

Standing in the hallway, I couldn't help but notice that the game was visually impressive, and the unnerving ambient music emphasised what was to come. The shadows played their part, too. Protocol Games has perfected the game's lighting, and shadows lie in wait everywhere you look, potentially hiding things you won't want to find. Torch shining into the darkness, I already didn't want to take a step forward. 

The camera angles used are pulled straight from classic horror games, and always have you wondering what is waiting just out of the screen. These camera angles are also used to great effect when listening through a door, which Daniel can do before going through, if you so desire. Not only is the feature quite powerful in its own right (what might you hear?), but the camera closes in on the player. As they listen, the half of the screen behind them is empty, and they're left wondering if something is on its way to fill it. This is how classic horror works, both in games and movies, and it's refreshing to see it done so well in a modern game.

Adding to this sense of unease, and to the game's narrative, are notes and drawings found around the mansion. These include disturbing children's drawings, creepy haikus, and letters between people, giving the player an idea of what took place before they arrived. In addition, little references show the studio's love for horror. For example, a piano is branded with "Himuro," which is clearly a reference to Himuro Mansion, a real-life location just outside of Tokyo, said to be haunted, and then made famous as the setting of Fatal Frame.

That isn't to say that Song of Horror borrows everything from the old classics; far from it. 

The game will have 16 playable characters upon release, and with permadeath in place, any of these 16 characters could die, taking the narrative along a different path. I didn't get to experience this in the early build, but I still discovered something new. 

In some horror games, once you've been scared by something once, you won't be scared by it again, should you revisit or replay an area. Not so in Song of Horror. Even if you revisit an area, the scares may change. One small room had already scared me once, when a ghostly hand reached through the door behind me. Having already seen this, I was ready for it. Nothing happened. Thinking I'd bested the room, I went to leave, only to be startled out of my arrogance by two booming knocks on the door. It was plain cruel. Fortunately, that's exactly what I want from horror.

I was sent into yet another unexpected panic when the walls began to ooze and rot, and I was told to "run or hide." The soundtrack ramped up and added to my blind terror. I ran through the house, found a table, and crouched beneath it until the house turned to normal. Well, as normal as Song of Horror gets. Not even a minute later I walked through a kitchen and listened at a door. I heard scratching. Curious, I opened the door and was enveloped by "The Presence," a dark entity that swallowed Daniel into its blackness and left me with a message: “Daniel did not make it...” I hadn’t survived. With 16 characters, this might not have been too much of an issue, but as Daniel is the main character, and the only character in the early build, dying meant failure.

Though I may have failed, I am struggling to think of an area where Song of Horror did. My laptop struggled with it, and there were a lot of keys to remember, but that all comes down to the fact that I’m not a natural PC gamer, and neither my laptop nor my key memory is up to scratch. Controller support is available, though, and I’d be using my Steam AlphaWare to play the final game. Problem solved.

It may be early in development, but I'm really excited by Song of Horror. I mean, I already was, but having played it, I can see that Protocol Games is really onto something. If you haven't already, I recommend - nay, beg - that you check out the game's Kickstarter campaign. If you've been wanting to return to the days of suspenseful camera angles, an interesting narrative and clever scares, Song of Horror is how you get there. In my opinion, this game needs to happen. It will be good for horror gamers, and potentially even good for the genre as a whole. Keep up to date with everything you need to know by heading to the website, Facebook or Twitter. Just do it.

The Walking Dead: Road to Survival

I seem to have been bitten by the zombie bug after writing about Overkill’s The Walking Dead, because lately I’ve been playing The Walking Dead: Road to Survival, a mobile game set in the same gritty universe. I’ve actually had the game on my phone for a few weeks, but considering you need internet access to even play the game (which I hate in a mobile game), I was waiting until I had a bit of spare time at home before trying it out. I shouldn’t have waited so long.

Road to Survival bleeds The Walking Dead from its comic book style visuals, to its gripping soundtrack, and even contains a few beloved characters from the series. Just like most mobile RPGs, you build a settlement from the ground up, creating and upgrading buildings, complete story and limited time only missions, and can join factions to work together. And, exactly like most mobile RPGs of this calibre, it is insanely addictive. I haven’t yet reached the point where I have to wait hours for buildings and upgrades to be ready, though, which, if I’m honest, is normally where I get bored.

Until then, I’ve been absolutely loving building my own little settlement in Robert Kirkman’s unforgiving world, and fighting the battles that take place in it, both against the undead and hostile survivors. In that respect, the narrative feels very much like the comic books or the television series; no-one can be trusted. Between fights, which use a similar strength and weakness system to that of Pokemon (e.g. fast characters are effective against tough characters, but weak against strong characters), players get to make choices. Just as you’d expect, these choices make you question the world around you, and the line between survival and humanity.

I made the choice to trust someone, and they sliced a young boy’s throat open in front of me. The next time I have to make a choice, I’ll have to weigh up the options. Do I let the world harden my humanity until I’ll stop at nothing to protect the few people I know I can trust? Or do I try to remain as the person I was before, and take a chance on the morality of survivors I meet? Either way, people could die. That’s on me.

It is these kind of choices, supported by the fitting visuals and soundtrack, which elevate Road to Survival from a simply mobile cash cow, to a game that is very much deserving to be part of The Walking Dead. Though I may not be in it for the long haul, mainly because I don’t always have time to be playing on my phone in a place where I have access to the internet, I have really enjoyed what I’ve played so far.

If you’re a fan of The Walking Dead, I’d definitely recommend this free iOS and Android game. Step into the undead-filled universe, build a settlement, make tough choices, and see if you can bring down The Governor in your own way.

Slender: The Arrival

The Slender man games kind of took the horror community by storm. They may not have the highest production values, or the deepest narrative, but what they do have is stellar sound design and a terrifying antagonist that crawled from the darkest corners of creepypasta. I've played the original Eight Pages, and had a few recommendations to try Slender: The Arrival, the game where Blue Isle Studios brought the nightmarish myth to PC and consoles.

I’m not very far into the game yet, mainly because it’s so tense that I can’t play it for too long before needing a break. From what I’ve played, though, you control someone that is attempting to visit a friend. This friend is trying to sell their house for a fresh start, because things have been getting a little too strange for their liking lately. You’ve been sharing the same visions. Visions of a tall, thin man with no face. Of course, when you arrive, in complete darkness, their house is empty.

The only thing to greet you as you walk into the house is a scribbled picture on the wall. A picture of a man, standing in some trees. It is extremely unnerving, and you explore the house knowing that Slenderman may do what he does best and show up at any moment. Did I mention that it is also really dark? Without a torch, you really can’t see anything, and with it, every time you aim the beam of light, you’re scared that this will be the time in falls on a smooth, well-dressed face.

Essentially, that’s all you could ever need to know about a Slenderman game. It extremely simple, with no real need for narrative, but it is terrifying knowing the simple fact that Slenderman could show up anywhere. He’s an evil, teleporting bastard. Apparently he also comes with a little hooded companion in The Arrival, though I’m yet to meet them. Part of me hopes that they both decide to leave me alone soon, because Slenderman makes me shake in my damn boots.

Think you can do better? You probably can… Check out Slender: The Arrival on the website, or by following on Facebook or Twitter. While you do that, I’ll be doing my best to avoid the Slenderman, who fits into horror as well as he fits into designer suits.

Dead Realm - Preview

Horror hide-and-seek? Yes please. This is the premise that pulled me towards Dead Realm, the online multiplayer from 3BLACKDOT. Then I saw it in the Steam sale, and it was just meant to be. Sadly, I’m not entirely won over by what I’ve seen so far.

While the modes in the game are quite fun, mostly revolving around the idea of hiding and running from creepy spiritual beings – in the form of a possessed puppet, a deadly butcher, a blood-thirsty werewolf, and a few others – I found myself a little bored. In my first few games I found a hiding spot, and didn’t move for the entire time and still survived. 

Then, in the games where I was found – which genuinely did make me jump if I wasn’t expecting it – I found that running away, though adrenaline-inducing, was quite awkward using the keyboard. In full sprint from an unnatural beastie, I just couldn’t find the keys in time to crouch inside a vent or under a desk, and was soon caught. Dead Realm is the kind of game that needs controller support.

Human players do have a couple of skills to even the odds, which I think work well. One is a decoy, which stays on the map for one minute and hopefully distracts the ghoulish player long enough for escape, and the other is a force field. The latter only lasts for a few seconds, but if timed and placed correctly, it can block off a doorway or corridor to allow enough time to find a new hiding spot. These are a nice touch, and definitely give the humans more of a chance of staying human, rather than being turned into a spirit henchman of the initial ghost, doomed to hunt down the players still among the living.

Honestly, I really like the idea of Dead Realm, as I keep saying, but it is just lacking the polish and refinement that such a fast-paced game, where every wrong move could be your last, requires. That is the curse of Early Access, I guess.

Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t played too much of Dead Realm yet. Unlike Layers of Fear, which I reviewed on Saturday, this game just hasn’t gotten its hook into me yet. Sure, it is quite fun, and the concept is exactly what I’m looking for, but it just doesn’t seem to be working its magic on me like I thought it would. I’m not giving up on it just yet, though. 3BLACKDOT has clearly added and updated quite a bit since releasing Dead Realm on Early Access, so I’m sure there is still a lot to come, and maybe a few more games of hide-and-seek scares will reveal the game I’d been expecting. I’m always happy to go in search of my next horror love.

A Wolf In Autumn

Here comes a preview of another horror game I bought in the Halloween sale (I’m playing them! They’re escaping the backlog!). A Wolf in Autumn, by David Szymanski, known for his short first-person, puzzle-solving, story-driven games that always have an underlying sense that something just isn’t right.

Though A Wolf in Autumn is an experience meant to be enjoyed in one sitting, it was late and I became stuck on a puzzle without enough caffeine to get me through. Nevertheless, here is a preview of my experience so far, having played about 30-45 minutes of the game.

It began slowly, as I got to grips with the beautifully auburn world around me, trying to figure out what each object meant in relation to the puzzles that I found. It wasn’t always the easiest thing to do, but that would kind of defeat the purpose of a puzzle, wouldn’t it? The entire time I was doing this, I felt like I was being watched through the gaps in the wooden fence of the enclosure where I found myself. This wasn’t helped by the messages from someone that went from motherly to murder-y as I continued to betray her orders to “stay in my shed”, or the occasional wolf howl from somewhere too close for comfort when I was solving puzzles.

Just like all of the Szymanski games I have played, A Wolf In Autumn excels at keeping a steady level of tension throughout. You’re never going to be frantically running away from something trying to flay you, or anything quite so over-the-top, but you will always be looking behind you, sure that this is the time you’ll see something waiting for you. This is further emphasised by the fact that the protagonist only has one hand, meaning that interacting with objects normally means putting something down. In my case, this was often a torch, which left me in almost complete darkness in the bunker underneath the autumn woods. That’s never fun.

As A Wolf in Autumn isn’t that long, I’d hate to tell you too much more, and ruin the entire experience crafted by Szymanski, but I will say this: you want this game. The narrative slowly reveals itself, the puzzles are challenging, and there’s an ever-present sense of dread that this developer does so well. At only £1.59 on Steam, the game is a steal, and is money well spent if you’re looking for a short, tense and immersive game one afternoon. Why not make it this afternoon?

5 Indie Horrors You Should Be Playing

Happy Halloween! Or, if it's the kind of Halloween I hope you're having: Happy candy-eating, slasher-watching, horror-gaming Halloween. You may already have plans for this weekend, but I’m here to make sure they involve many an indie horror. I'm going to run through a few of my favourite indie horror games of 2015; games that you should really be playing to celebrate Halloween in style (and tears). Ready? Are you sure? Okay, here goes.




Fran Bow

A delightfully disturbing little point-and-click game from Killmonday Games, where you take control of Fran Bow, a little girl who is sent off to a mental hospital after her parents are murdered. By taking some dodgy medication, she can choose to see another side to the world; a darker, gory side that truly shows off the terrifying manifestations of mental illnesses. Only by blurring the line between these two worlds will she be able to find her missing cat and escape the confinement of the hospital. IGM's full review can be found here, and Fran Bow is available on Steam for $14.99 USD.




Albino Lullaby

As surreal as it is colorful, Albino Lullaby really stuck with us. Whether that was because it was tense and atmospheric from the beginning, or because it featured giant worm-like creatures called The Grandchildren, I couldn't tell you. What I can tell you is that both myself and Bonnie (IGM's Site Editor, of course!) rave about it. IGM's full review of Albino Lullaby: Episode 1 can be found here, and can be purchased on Steam for $9.99 USD.




Masochisia

A short, but highly disturbing point-and-click adventure that takes you deep into the psyche of Hamilton, a homocidal young man. Meet many strange characters during Hamilton's journey, and follow the wishes of the voices inside his head. As it features themes of neglect and abuse, it is one that maybe only the most hardcore of horror gamers will be able to handle. That includes you though, right? My full review can be found here, and Masochisia is currently on Steam for $6.79 USD.




Nevermind

An interesting look into the depths of what actually scares gamers, Nevermind uses biofeedback devices to determine when a gamer is becoming afraid, and what is causing it. Then, naturally, the game makes it scarier. Depending on the personality and fears of the player, the game could be completely different. Nevermind is available for $19.99 USD on Steam, and the devices to create a much more personal nightmare can be purchased from the website. It is worth nothing that these are not necessary to play the game, but are highly recommended. Our full review can be found here.


  

SOMA

Only a fool would miss out on SOMA, the latest from Frictional Games, the studio behind the beloved Amnesia series. While I was busy drowning in real life nonsense, I didn't have time to finish and review SOMA for IGM (why, life?), but having just finished the game last weekend, let me assure you that it should be played this Halloween. It will feel familiar to those that have played Amnesia, and first-person exploration and puzzle solving are still the order of the day. What sets SOMA apart from its spiritual predecessor is its underwater Bioshock-esque setting, and themes that will have you questioning where the lines of humanity and conscience have to be drawn. Experience it for yourself on Steam or PSN for $25.49 USD.


Just a few more...

In case you want a few more horrors to get onto your radar, here are a few honorable mentions:

DISTRAINT – A surreal 2D horror adventure developed solely by Jesse Makkonen and released only 10 days ago, in time for Halloween. Read about it here.

The Intruder – A first-person survival horror where you scavenge for supplies in a lonely, monochrome world, hoping to prepare yourself for the return of an unknown entity. It’s still early in development, but is already looking quite promising. Read our extended Halloween preview here. 

Friday the 13th – An anticipated asymmetric multiplayer that pits seven counsellors against one player-controlled Jason Voorhees. It is currently halfway through a Kickstarter campaign to “Unleash Jason”, and is aiming to reach $700,000 USD. The game was once known as Summer Camp, and has since merged with the machete-wielding franchise, which you can read all about in our news article, or on the Kickstarter campaign.

Allison Road – An ultra-realistic first-person horror title that is seen by many as the spiritual successor to PT, the teaser for Silent Hills (since cancelled, but never forgotten). The studio, in a surprise twist, cancelled the game’s Kickstarter campaign and joined publisher Team17 to bring the game to life. Everything you need to know can found here.

P.A.M.E.L.A – You wake up in Eden, utopia gone wrong, where humanity may have taken things too far in the bio-augmentation research department. Of course, you now have to face the consequences by augmenting your own bodies with futuristic tech and weapons. Find out more here.

Tempted to play or find out more about any of these recommendations tonight? Feel that some great indie horror is missing from this list? Just want someone to hold your hand while you play through Outlast again? Let me know in the comments below, or get in touch with me on Twitter, as I’m sure to be indulging myself with all of the horror I can get my hands on this weekend.

Getting déjà vu right now? That may be because you read this on IGM, where my article was first featured! Check IGM out for all the latest on indie games.