october means a month of horror games

[Ack]

Still Life



Ok, so this is technically the second in the series, serving as the sequel to Post Mortem, which released in 2003. The third game, Still Life 2, released in 2009 Here's the plot:

"Two separate murder cases, in two separate lifetimes -- so alike .. so similar in the smallest of details that one could believe they were performed by the same person. Impossible! One of the crimes took place 75 years ago, while the other just happened! Is someone copying an old serial killer .. or is it remotely possible that the same murderer is still alive and committing more crimes?

Victoria McPherson is an FBI agent investigator based in Chicago. While visiting her father and talking about their family, they discuss her grandfather, former P.I. Gustav McPherson (from Post Mortem). Finding Gus' diary in an old attic trunk, she picks it up and begins to read ..."



Still Life is a point-and-click adventure, where you play two characters in different time periods investigating similar murders. Gameplay is done in the third person(as opposed to Post Mortem, which was done in first person). If you haven't guessed yet, art does play an important role in the game, though you'll have to play it to find out how much of an influence it is.

The game's also got a reputation because of its ending, or lack thereof. While it does come to a climax, new information is presented at the end for Agent McPherson to investigate, so the game feels unfinished(this was due to massive budget cuts at Microids, the game's developer, while working on this project). Thankfully a third game was finally produced, which closes the story.



If you enjoy more adult-oriented adventure titles(and have a thing for Jack the Ripper-esque villains), you'll probably enjoy Still Life. You also don't have to play Post Mortem beforehand, though it will certainly help set up certain characters.

Here's the game intro:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yJuOYBffGY

[Ack]

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth



"The game's protagonist is Jack Walters, formerly a police detective with a talent for solving cases with apparently insufficient evidence (it is implied that he might be a psychic), who was committed to a mental institution after a disturbing encounter during a raid in Boston left him apparently insane and with a split personality. A few years later the secondary personality disappears and he is released, although still suffering from amnesia and schizophrenia.

Now earning a living as a private detective, whilst also attempting to trace his own actions during the period of mental disturbance that he now cannot remember, Jack is contacted to take up a missing person case in the town of Innsmouth. He is sent to Innsmouth by Arthur Anderson, owner of the First National grocery store chain, to find Brian Burnham, the missing clerk who has been running the Innsmouth location. Jack takes the case only to find Innsmouth unfriendly, and that the town does not welcome First National or Brian for being "outsiders", an attitude which quickly wins Jack enemies in the town."



This is a first-person survival horror, and a first-person shooter, though gunplay doesn't occur very often. In fact, most of the weapons to be available were kept out due to budgeting problems, and the development studio went bankrupt and folded less than a year later. There's a lot of puzzle-solving, some of which can get quite hard, and then there's the story. It's...well, it's got "Call of Cthulhu" in the title, so don't expect it to be particularly nice. There's a lot of running, and some freaky critters that you don't want to have to come face to face with, but inevitably...you get the idea.

There's also the health system, where locational damage will effect how you move and fight, and there's a system of healing items to use for different attacks. Broken bones get splinted, slashes get sutured, you get the idea. There's no HUD to tell you about this however, so you'll have to rely on audio and visual cues, such as an increased heartbeat or the color draining from the world. There's also the sanity system, where looking directly at disturbing material will cause sound distortions, changes in control sensitivity, graphical issues, voices, so on and so forth. And if you go crazy, the game ends. Come on, it's Lovecraft, you know this would be in the game.



It's unfortunate that Headfirst Productions folded, as there are multiple bugs and glitches in the game, some which will break the game and make certain sections impassable. There are no patches to fix these problems either, though usually just reloading an old save is enough to do it(and it works, I had to do it when I played through the game). There are some mods for the Windows version which will fix these thankfully, but the Xbox version is just out of luck.

Beyond issues like that, I enjoyed the game, though it wasn't an easy experience. It's creepy, weird, and not very forgiving, but that's what I expect from something that has Cthulhu in the title. If you're a fan of HP Lovecraft's work, then you'll recognize some of the nasty things you'll see. If you're not, well, now's always a good time to start.

Here's the intro:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FmJRmNQikE

[Ack]

Condemned: Criminal Origins



"In Condemned: Criminal Origins, players take the role of Ethan Thomas, a SCU agent (Serial Crime Unit investigator that uses forensic tools) framed for a double cop murder who becomes trapped in the condemned sections of a fictional American city named "Metro City" while hunting a serial killer. Thomas' investigation is further complicated by a mysterious phenomenon that is transforming the transient population of these areas into insane, violent psychotics. As Thomas, the player investigates crime scenes using forensic tools and techniques, while fighting off the constant assaults by "the condemned" in the hopes of catching the serial killer and escaping alive, and prove that he is innocent to the police."

Ok, so it does emphasize the use of forensics tools, though I really didn't consider that the big thing in the game. The big thing about Condemned is the view(it's entirely first-person), and the combat and weapons system. This game has weapons everywhere, from pistols and shotguns to fire axes, electrical conduits, metal bars, locker doors, street signs, mannequin body parts, paper cutters, etc.



And to fend off the hordes of oncoming bums, derelicts, raving mad homeless, and God knows what else hiding in the dark and abandoned underbelly of Metro City, you'll have to be as brutal as possible. This means shooting them, stunning them with your tazer, kicking them, bringing them to their knees, and finishing them off with various moves(such as snapping their necks or headbutting them). Guns will generally kill in one or two shots, though they are limited to whatever ammunition they have, and enemies that fire them will spend that ammo.

Unfortunately, enemies are also smart enough to circle around you, feint, and hide in the darkness. And this game is definitely dark. You'll be fighting through condemned schools, shopping malls, subway systems, and office buildings. There's even one level where you'll have to fend off a mob of berserk homeless guys in a back alley.



In the meantime, you'll be collecting bird corpses and strips of metal(they're always surrounded by charcoal drawings of eyes on the walls) found throughout the levels for unlockable content.

Check out this 5 minute clip of gameplay:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26gfjNBjX_k

Condemned was the first title I grabbed when I bought an Xbox 360. I figured "Yeah, sure, it's just something to tide me over until Dead Rising(that was the reason why I bought a 360) comes out. I'll play it for a bit and then never bother with it again." Oh man, was I wrong. I love this game. Seriously.

And on the first play through, I don't know how or why it happened, but the game defaulted to the darkest setting possible. I couldn't see more than five feet in front of me. It was nerve racking. You guys gotta try it.

[(-_-)]

I love the first half of the Condemned 2. I thought the forensics and "detective" elements were actually really fun. I wish the game used them a lot more. And that the story didn't go sour halfway through. It was definitely a very brutal and disturbing game and the first person gameplay was enjoyable. I'm going to play this one on my friends xbox to complete the experience.

[jfe2]

BEAR! BIG BEAR! BIG BEAR CHASE ME!

[AwesomeMonstar]

Honestly, this has probably been one of my favorite threads on the site of all time, I wish there was a goldmine of some sort just so I could stick this in there. Great work thus far Ack, from the synopsis to the brief reviews to the samples, this has been an excellent thread.

Hell, I'm probably going to go hunt down a copy of I Have no Mouth now.

[nickfil]

Honestly, this has probably been one of my favorite threads on the site of all time, I wish there was a goldmine of some sort just so I could stick this in there. Great work thus far Ack, from the synopsis to the brief reviews to the samples, this has been an excellent thread.

agreed. I've been lagging behind on my game playing due to work piling up but i'm looking forward to tackling these guys soon.

[J T]

If you are looking to get your October survival horror fix for cheap, Direct2Drive is having a sale on a lot spooky titles this week:
http://www.direct2drive.com/staticpage. ... =halloween

Also, Steam has S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl for $5 and the Witcher for $20.
http://store.steampowered.com

[Ack]

Well shoot, I'm glad you guys are enjoying this. With only a couple of folks responding here and there, I was wondering if anybody was still reading this! I'll keep it up until the end, and then I might just throw up a list of further titles to check out if you're interested in seeing other horror games.

Anyway, on to the next post.

[Ack]

Siren: Blood Curse



Ok, you'll notice that I was originally going to post a game called Siren: New Translation. Well, I have, Siren: New Translation and Siren: Blood Curse are the same game, though New Translation is the Japanese title while Blood Curse gets used everywhere else. New Translation is also how I was first introduced to this game, so that tends to be how I think of it. Sorry for any confusion that might occur.

Either way, this is a remake/reinvention of the first Siren game which I talked about a few days ago, though with some important changes that will make both worth checking out separately. First off, the weird system for tracking time(ie. levels) has been removed. Also removed are the alternate scenarios, instead being replaced by a group of 12 scenarios the player must make it through. And all secondary objectives have been taken out.

Oh, and there's been a graphical improvement. To this:



Sightjacking has also been reworked, so that it now brings up a splitscreen, so you can use it while still playing. In general, the camera has become an over-the-shoulder affair and you can move while you have a weapon raised and perform finishing moves, but don't despair, this is still survival horror. The objective is still to sneak around, though this is harder now due to randomly generated objects being strewn about each level for you to bump into, attracting the shibito.



Sure, you can fight the shibito a little better, but you're still not that good at it, so I suggest running. And hey, now you can brace doors so that shibito will have a harder time of getting to you! They're still gonna get you, but now you get to cower in fear longer.

There's also been some changes to the plot. Yes, the water is still blood red. Yes, it's still in a small Japanese city. Yes, there are obviously still shibito armed with whatever they can carry. But now thrown into the mix is an American camera crew, there to film a documentary about the legend of Hanuda, a village that vanished years before after committing human sacrifices. The game now takes place in August, 2007.



There's only one thing that I dislike from what I've seen about the remake, and that is that the Americans get screwed. No, not in the game, I mean those of us paying for and playing it. In the US, Siren: Blood Curse is only available through the PlayStation Network. And it's censored. Several scenes have been either edited to show less violence or removed entirely. Also, many of the character models have been edited to be covered in less blood.

That said, all Japanese, Asian, and American PSN users can visit the Siren area on PlayStation Home, where a mini-game called Ward of Despair can be played, with various rewards if sections get completed. In Ward of Despair, you have to find items in a hospital while avoiding shibito wandering the halls. On an interesting note, if you're playing at 12:00 am, Central Time, an alarm goes off that will cause more shibito to wander around the area for several minutes.

But don't despair, Euro gamers! The mini-game has been out for less than a year, and a European release is still in the works. Plus, you guys actually get extra content in your game. There's a making-of documentary included on the European Blood Curse BD-ROM that can be accessed by checking the video category in the XrossMediaBar. The footage is only compatible with an HDTV(and completely incompatible with NTSC SDTV) however, so keep that in mind.