They Bleed Pixels
They Bleed Pixels - Satisfaction that comes at a price
If you check on Steam it actually comes at pretty low price. But obviously I was not talking about money. I was talking about time (which equals money) but let talk more about why I came to such a conclusion.
So if you have read my previous review you probably guessed that I like this game because it is a 2D platformer. And yes I like platformers and I was collecting them in the past when I had time to play any games. Naturally I came across this game and loved it at first sight. And why not? I watched the trailer and I saw fast paced action, lots of different moves and attacks. I loved this simplistic but beautiful art style. It also said it was inspired H.P Lovecraft which told me absolutely nothing at first but after searching online I know all I needed. Another thing that got me really excited was the number of achievements to unlock. And my friends know that I’m a achievement-junkie. But I should have read what those achievements are about. From the tags I new it wasn’t going to be easy and I was quite ready for that. So I grabbed my controller, fired up the game and focused on my TV screen…
– Real player with 43.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Lovecraftian Difficult Games.
They Bleed Pixels is a challenging wall jump platformer, with a satisfying unique premise, quality combat and engaging mechanics.
You control a presumably troubled student at the Lafcadio Academy for troubled girls. She stumbles across a magical book that makes you have wild dreams involving a few strangely horrific creatures, several bloody spikes, and an ever present number of saws. The book also has glowing bits and pages that not only are missing, but found inside said dreams. Take heed of any such events that occur in reality, as these are not normal behaviors for books or their pages.
– Real player with 34.0 hrs in game
eversion
“not suitable for children or those of a nervous disposition”
Take heed of this screen opener. Do not let the kids near this despite Zee Tee’s cuteness and happy flowers on the store page. The simple premise in this short platform puzzler is about our brave adventurer Zee Tee rescuing the lovely Princess. It has easy controls with arrow keys and up or Z for jump which can be configured to your preference and full screen mode.
Now if this was the sum of its parts I would not be recommending this game. It is not really a spoiler to say that this is not the whole story. The strength of this title is drawing on the music and nightmarish imagery to invoke a feeling of disturbing unsettlement and confusion. This is down to the juxtaposition of cute 16 bit style and the more darker images as the game progresses .It does not hold your hand in explaining anything.
– Real player with 19.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Lovecraftian Horror Games.
Let’s get this out of the way right now: I’m not that great at platformers, but I’m very patient. If I do something enough, I’ll eventually get it. With that being said, that is exactly how this game went for me. I had to be very patient, because I died A LOT.
I’ve owned this game for quite a long time, but just got around to finishing it today and getting 100% acheivements on it. The reason I put it off so long? Couldn’t quite get one of the jumps in the 4th world, and subsequently lost interest. This game is very specific, and punishes even the smallest errors once you’ve made it to world two or three. I would advise against playing this game if you’re frustrated easily, or if you think it’ll be a walk in the park. That being said, I’m sure there’s a lot of people out there better at this kind of thing than me.
– Real player with 5.3 hrs in game
Eldritch Hunter
As far as $5 games go, Eldritch Hunter is everything I could ask for; a game that takes some very fundamental mechanics and executes them excellently, steadily introducing more and more challenging maps in the process that steadily test your approach to the game. It’s not a game that I’d ever consider “difficult” in the way that games that you have to work at for hours to master are difficult, but its level design is constantly requiring new approaches and exploration of the tools you have. It’s a few hours of solid action platforming delivered in bite-sized tactical chunks that play out perfectly for what they’re meant to be. At its price point, Eldritch Hunter one of the more engaging and slickly put together games I’ve played in a while.
– Real player with 7.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Lovecraftian Female Protagonist Games.
A clever little action-puzzle platformer about a little girl shooting at tenacles and slimy things with dungeon punk style guns. I’ve been really looking forward to this one, and I was thankfully not let down.
Add this one to my cute but devious category, This game has a cute, cupcakey hand-painted character look, but has some very tricky gameplay segments that test your tactical planning as much as your reflexes.
In this game, you go room by room, level by level, clearing out enemies and making your way to shoot the evil priest, which is the target of every stage. However, this game is not a Contra-esque action shooter, but more of an action puzzle. Many enemies are traps that leave behind obstacles or fire hard to avoid missiles when killed, and if you go in guns blazing you can end up boxing yourself in. The game also makes copious use of pest-spawning flesh creatures that make being accurate and choosing good footing to advance with important to not getting bowled over by an endless steam of worms.
– Real player with 4.1 hrs in game
Lore Finder
Become K.C. Morgan, paranormal investigator, and search a New England mansion for your missing father. Battle the forces of corruption infesting the mansion armed only with your wits and an old .38 revolver, and gather scrolls of forbidden lore. But the more you discover, the more warped and twisted the world – and you – become.
Uncover the story of Lore Finder, a 2D metroidvania and a modern queer reimagining of the cosmic horror genre.
Features
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Traverse a changing world: Individual rooms will transform and hold new surprises as you accumulate powers.
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Find your own path: Non-linear design encourages freeform, exploration-based, and self-directed progression. Complete sections of the game in what order you like.
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Experience atmosphere: From the dark and oppressive living areas, to the impersonal basement with its cold steel and mortar, to the dank caverns that lie even further below.
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Accumulate forbidden powers: Embrace your own corruption, fight fire with fire, and wield dark powers against their own progenitors.
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Face climactic terrors: Within the mansion dwell dangers of elevated strength and influence, often guarding crucial ways and powers.
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Uncover a family’s corruption: Experience the result of the restless emotions of the mansion’s formerly human inhabitants expressed through an eldritch power, from the anxiety of a frustrated would-be scientist to the isolation and anguish of a child unloved.
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Piece together past events: Explore and find scattered evidence of the inhabitants' otherworldly transformation through journal entries and memory-stained objects.
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Girlfriend mode: Beat the game to unlock this mode, allowing you to play as K.C.’s girlfriend, with all new powers and story.
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Speedrun mode: The speedrun mode offers a built-in timer and will streamline play experience for speedrunners.
Background
Lore Finder is a modern queer reimagining of the cosmic horror genre, taking influences from the various games and literary works in the genre first inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, set in the latter half of the 20th century. It is the story of K.C. Morgan (a non-binary character) who is a Private Investigator turned Paranormal Investigator after the disappearance of their father, Richard Morgan, a professor and researcher at Boston University. Eventually, their search takes them to a mansion owned by the Wright family on an island off the New England Coast.
Once there K.C. discovers that the residents and staff have been horribly corrupted by some twisted occult influence, the only clues as to their fate, and the fate of their father seems to be found within scrolls, written on human skin, filled with dark forbidden lore so terrible that it may rend the very fabric of reality itself.
Matters become even more disturbing once K.C. begins to explore the basement. Evidence of terrible, inhuman experiments lie discarded next to twisted bodies and implements of torture.
Alone, and facing terror, madness, and corruption, not only all around them, but also within their very soul, K.C. must work their way through the mansion, risking death, madness or worse in an attempt to uncover what happened to the inhabitants of the mansion, and their father.
Sundered®: Eldritch Edition
After a few day’s worth of playtime on this game, I feel like I’d like to toss in my two cents on it. By two cents, I should clarify that I mean many paragraphs. this review will not be short, and I apologise. Sundered, on the whole, is a good game. There are several elements that merit critique in my eyes, though they didn’t detract from the game so much as to merit a negative review. With that out of the way, let’s dive in to some thoughts and ramblings.
Firstly, I should say also that this game has quickly become one of my all time favorites. The atmosphere, the artwork, the enemy design and storytelling all are favorites of mine, and I think they’re exceedingly clever and engaging. However, even when you take away my biased opinions, the game stands up to scrutiny, with well designed gameplay and mechanics (as well as story and the other previously mentioned aspects).
– Real player with 82.7 hrs in game
Well, you can tell by my hours of gameplay that I really enjoyed this game and got the most out of it, even the bad out of it.
The harshness of the reviews left me really unsure, in the first few minutes, no matter how much I was enjoying, the game design made me fear for what people have said, so let me clarify a few things.
TL:DR
Great game, very challenging, beautiful animation, exploration is rewarded, so is proper strategy (Change your routes and upgrade luck early, please). The randomness is not unfair, it is not unfair, your skills matter. Bosses are great, minibosses often suck. The major flaw is making the “good” path so poor, but the rest is brillant. If you want to have 1 run and the best experience, I’d say “Put the hardest difficulty and fully embrace”
– Real player with 58.2 hrs in game
“Project Whateley”
The game comes out as a Lovecraftian horror game with stealth and platforming game.
It is in early developlent stages but It has huge potential to evolve into an amazing game. It has a noir taste all around but with Lovecraftian touches
Developers seem to care for the opinion of the players too so it feels like we could have a great Lovecraftian game if they managed to pull it .
– Real player with 1.9 hrs in game
For Early Access this game is the worst ive played so far, you dont really know the plot, theres no thought behind it. The game dont tell you what controls are, and you really dont know where to go.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
Skautfold: Usurper
9/10 Game for decent price, must love Metroidvania’s with a mix of Dark Souls though. It is definitely one of my favourite games this year so far (more than Farcry 5 by a long way BTW.
First, this game wont be for everyone, it doesnt play exactly like most games but if you obey the mechanics, you’ll be fine.
GRAPHICS:
It’s pixel art, the resolution isnt great but it is intentionally pixels, it will never be photoreal, and where it isnt as slick as some other games that are 2D titles, the graphics are perfectly great for the game. Some of the art is a bit weird or kind of simplistic, but it is seemingly quite intentional. There is also very big old school castlevania style influences.
– Real player with 47.8 hrs in game
I don’t think I’ve ever been more split on a game in my life. I’m a huge metroid-like and lovecraft fan, plus i just got off the amazing rollercoaster ride that was Sundered so I thought Usurper would be a great continuation of the recent trend of Metroid and Cthulhu. Unfortunetly this game isdeath by a thousand cuts.
The good. The best part of Usurper is the atmosphere, it drips with lovecraftian ooze. I love it. The sprite work is perfect and most animations are very smooth (I’ll come back to that). Every enemy and character looks great either as their sprite design or as their art portrait. The music is good especially the Cathedral. The Guard system is unique and very preferable to just stamina. Reflecting projectiles is especially fun. The pet system is hella cool as well.
– Real player with 39.3 hrs in game
That Abysmal Place
From Black Void Media comes a horror experience like never before - a nightmarish 2D roguelite that will leave you questioning your sanity. Choose a character and guide them through increasingly twisted procedurally generated levels as you try to discover the secrets of That Abysmal Place.
Key Features
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Explore the dark tunnels to unlock characters and equipment for future playthroughs
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Encounter nightmarish enemies and merciless bossfights
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Keep your Terror in check or risk losing your sanity altogether
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Hand-crafted areas in procedurally generated levels mean no two playthroughs will be the same
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Play with your friends in coop mode or challenge your enemies to a brutal deathmatch
WARNING
This game is not for the faint-hearted or weak-willed.
It will not be a fair experience, nor will it be a pleasant one.
You will get lost. You will get frustrated. You will be forced to encounter uncomfortable things.
You will die. A lot.
We recommend playing with the lights down and the volume up.
Magrunner: Dark Pulse
*** NO SPOILERS ***
First off this is NOT a PORTAL clone. PERIOD.
With that said, here is my first impression (as I have not played it all the way yet). Magrunner is a genre of first person puzzle games, similar to PORTAL.
Like most of you, I was/am a PORTAL junkie. Preferred the 2nd one, but both were great. Then I played them again. Went looking for a clone, could not find one, then played some more. You know the song - sing along! LOL One of the clones I played and was instantly hooked (until I saw the end) was QUANTUM CONUNDRUM. Tough puzzles, very long game, very satisfying - at least until the end - I will alway hate the dev for doing that (no spoilers). So back to PORTAL i went :-), Then tried THE BALL - never finished it - did not have that - “gotta move on” motivation - so, back to another game of PORTAL (see, I’m a junkie).
– Real player with 88.1 hrs in game
Imagine someone gave you a Rubik’s cube and asked you to solve it. And as you are working away at this for hours you find there are just two cubes you can’t get in the right spot. Exasperated you look up the solution online.
You discover the trick is to peel off the stickers and switch them.
Now, how would that make you feel? I hope “angry” is somewhere in that description, because that’s how it feels for too many of the solutions in Magrunner. It is frequently glitchy. You’ll get stuck in walls, clip on tiny ledges, and the janky physics will toss you around as if you were a weightless particle.
– Real player with 41.0 hrs in game
Marrow
Incredibly good game that I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish. 100%‘ing it was a treat.
First of all though let me just say that this game is difficult. No my friends, you don’t seem to understand so let me repeat that just so we’re clear. This game is really fucking difficult. I imagine the vast majority of people will struggle immensely with it so if you’re a casual player in general then I honestly just don’t see you making any progress what so ever.
That difficulty though is a breath of fresh air to me and it does wonders for sticking with the games theme. That theme is that you’re not some super hero that finds a few upgrades and then steamrolls through the rest of the game. You’ll never get to the point of being overpowered, you’ll always feel that you can die and that’s how it should be for this type of setting. The dev himself said it best, monsters are not there for you to grind on or to farm for item drops, they’re there to kill you and nothing more.
– Real player with 63.2 hrs in game
Quite a hidden gem. The fantastic and creepy artstyle drew me in, and the challenging gameplay kept me hooked until the end. The difficulty is no joke, the game really is brutally difficult and many of it’s secrets are well hidden behind cryptic puzzles. At times it can even feel almost unfair against the player, but usually that is because player has missed some key item or strategy. Player is required to keep careful eye on his surroundings, as very minor detail can be a clue to solving a problem and progressing further. I also really liked the soundtrack. It really fits well the game’s atmosphere.
– Real player with 38.6 hrs in game