Review by Matt S. Just about every developer and publisher has a pathological need to release a horror game around Halloween. The problem is that not every horror game actually fits with Halloween. Halloween is a day for ghosts and ghouls and b-grade horror hijinks, sure, but blockbuster zombie things…
Read MoreNews by Lindsay M. Give me a game that involves exploring a creepy old house, and I’m instantly personally invested due to my love of old architecture (both my parents studied architecture so I come by it honestly). Since I love games in this setting, you can bet I’ve played…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. We Happy Few is a little like No Man’s Sky. I don’t mean in terms of the kind of game it is, of course, but it seems to have become another example of something that failed to deliver what players expected, and that failure has become…
Read MoreNews by Matt S. The best way to catch my attention is to promise “cosmic horror inspired by H.P. Lovecraft and Junji Ito.” It’s the reference to Ito that gets it over the line. Everyone knows who Lovecraft is. That’s an easy reference to claim. To also be inspired by…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. I never thought that games that looked like they were built in RPG Maker could work as horror, but then I played Corpse Party. Despite looking so very primitive, the game told an absolutely cracking horror story, and became the perfect proof that sometimes all a…
Read MoreNews by Matt S. The Taiwanese developer behind the rather excellent Detention are back with Devotion, which is being billed as an “atmospheric first-person horror game set in 1980’s Taiwan”. In other words, much as Detention was both a love letter to their homeland and culture and expose on the…
Read MoreNews by Matt S. Back in 2015, a game called Monstrum was released on PC. A survival horror game that sets players the goal of escaping an abandoned cargo ship, this one’s point of difference was that it was procedurally generated, with randomised level design that meant no two playthroughs…
Read MoreReview by Ginny W. Horror games are a dime a dozen on Steam, and the ecosystem is positively flooded by studios that think jump-scares and unsettling music are the pinnacle of the genre. I’ve played my share of them over the years, and I’ve always preferred titles that instill fear…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. One of the most common thematic features in the horror genre, in literature and film, is sex. There are several reasons for this. Horror generally taps into the dominant socio-cultural features of society at the time on either a literal or metaphoric level, and certainly the…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Dontnod’s modus operandi is to put players through difficult moral choices. It was brilliantly executed in the masterful Life is Strange, but then that game was effectively a choose your own adventure. And as we all know, games without “gameplay” are immediately relegated to the hyper-niche.…
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