The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope
“Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?”
~The unknown individual
To be honest, I didn’t really plan to write this review. I mean… what is there to say? It’s the second game in Supermassive’s horror anthology (a series of short spooky stories told in “choose your own adventure” way with some QTE elements) and I already wrote detailed review of Man of Medan (which was the first one), so, like I said, what else is there to say? Surprisingly, it turned out that, even though the core mechanics here is almost identical to what we’ve seen in Man of Medan, the actual storytelling, the structure of the game is pretty different and it does make it to feel… well… different. So… here goes.
– Real player with 52.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mythology Multiple Endings Games.
“Little Hope” is one of the few cinematic, story driven games that are better played with a friend than alone and this is why I bought it. Unfortunately Supermassive Games let us down once more. We tried it a dozen of times, but just like their previous title the online coop is full of glitches, infinite loading screens and corrupted save files that didn’t let us finish the game. One year later they don’t even bother solving the problems and patching the game. Two years later they haven’t patched “Man of Medan” either. The single player is decent but nothing special. Cool story and atmosphere but definitely a step backward compared to “Man of Medan” as of the gameplay, decisions making and sceneries design. You can try couch coop though.
– Real player with 12.3 hrs in game
ASPEN： Uncanny Home
love the game the atmosphere was awsome little hard to tell most times what you need to do but it was a fun experence and i loved it so much hope yall will make more games like this in the future :)
– Real player with 3.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mythology First-Person Games.
Aspen: Uncanny Home has a beautifully rendered environment for the player to walk around in. There environment feels oppressive and claustrophobic as you wander between locations in the house wondering where a sound came from or how a doll got into a certain position.
For a psychological horror game, this is a great environment, but what this game has in environment, it lacks in player accessibility. The game doesn’t give the player direction and leads to aimless wandering in circles around the environment tying to figure out what changed each time and using the left mouse button to zoom in on specific items that change the environment to access the next area.
– Real player with 2.4 hrs in game
MetaPhysical
I think this game is neat.
– Real player with 11.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mythology Early Access Games.
Malum
Malum is a gem among the likes of Pacify or Devour, where you complete objectives and narrowly avoid the demons and monsters chasing you.
Your objective, place relics found about the map in the summoning circle to complete the ritual. The location of each relic and summoning circle is procedurally generated, and to determine the type of ritual to complete, you’ll need your torch to find otherworldly runes emblazoned on the walls that aren’t visible to the naked eye. Three runes can be cross-referenced in a Phasmo-esque journal, but be quick, the demon doesn’t wait for you to leisurely thumb through pages of arcane text.
– Real player with 66.8 hrs in game
Fun game! I love that each level has a unique feel and slightly different gameplay. Fun co-op game to play with friends and challenging game to solo. The dev is very active and is still adding content!
The Hospital level, in my opinion, is the most challenging. It is the largest level and the main demon can teleport you around the map. This map is best played in groups, although I know people who enjoy the challenge of trying to solo it. It is absolutely possible to hide/escape from anything that can kill you, even if she teleports to you. There is a cooldown before she chases you, so that gives you time to escape, if you are smart about it.
– Real player with 22.3 hrs in game
The Fold: Ingression
Developed solely by one of the devs on Through the Woods - introducing a first person thriller adventure with worlds inspired by the Norse people, old Norwegian legends and horror elements from the Lovecraft universe. Follow the dark story of Amund Vreim as he explores worlds, old and new.
Norwegian Amund Vreim is a part time exterminator and has received his first assignment at Eikherad stave church in Telemark, Norway. Through curious exploration and mysterious obstacles he finds himself in increasingly strange situations and quickly learns that he’s not alone, nor is the job as relaxed as first expected. The massive structure dates back to the end of the viking age and both church and surrounding areas hold many secrets.
It’s a relatively linear game, following a main story, but with several outcomes and variations to the story and environments. The story is based on old Norwegian stories, Norse mythology and traditions with horror elements inspired by the Lovecraft universe. ‘Ingression’ is the first installment in the ‘The Fold’ universe and will take the player on an introduction to those they call ‘The Fold’ and their mysterious ancient worlds.
Theseus
Introduction
Theseus is the latest game from indie developer, Forge Reply srl, and the developer’s first foray into VR.
You play the titular character, waking injured and with no idea of where you are, or why, in a strange realm of bloody waters and floating rubble. You limp towards a door through which a bright white light shines and find yourself in a strange, decaying labyrinth.
After wandering aimlessly for some time you discover the faint spirit of Ariadne, a woman who explains your situation. You are Theseus, trapped, like her, in the labyrinth by the minotaur, Asterion. Asterion was once the guardian of the place, but was corrupted, becoming evil. As the darkness infused him he became blind, but his other senses have been honed and he seeks you. Your only way to freedom is to reach the bright light at the centre of the labyrinth, where Ariadne is held captive.
– Real player with 2.2 hrs in game
The resolution is too low (to all Devs: let US the gamer decide how much SS (supersampling) we want!!! goddamn…), textures are mostly low quality/resolution and to the end there were some weird, minor audio issues, BUT: I actually kinda dig this game!
Combat is quite fun (not terribly hard though), third person is done exceptionally well and fit right in “VR” and the music is top notch!
Quite suspenseful at times which goes well with this more dark version of Chronos (which is by far the better, more polished game).
– Real player with 2.0 hrs in game
Marginalia
Super interesting. Didn’t quite get the story but I think it’s supposed to be vague in that regard. Really enjoyed the music, atmosphere and environment. I didn’t expect it to be inspiring but seeing the distant pink lights and hearing about an old family story really made me want to start brainstorming a new music project. I don’t know if any of these characters or events are real or based on real events, but I think researching it would remove its mystique, so I won’t. I played it again straight after finishing it (mainly because the ending dialogue cut out mid-way through) to see if there was anything I missed but I couldn’t find anything. A short fun little experience!
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game
There’s a moment early on when you’re following the traditional walking simulator flow of moving from exposition drop to exposition drop that you’ll see something… weird.
And there’s a moment where you’ll get lost in the woods and stumble upon something unpleasant but unremarked upon.
And there’s a moment where you’ll realize something is extremely- well… the less said about it the better.
I really enjoyed this interactive story. The writing and voice acting is excellent and the level design is incredible. You won’t understand why I say that at first but… you will eventually.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
Iwaihime
This is gonna be my first time reviewing a game/visual novel so bare with me here
There will probably be some MINOR spoilers
Honestly the story was unsettling and great at first but as it went on I honestly started to lose interest, it got boring and tiresome to read, maybe I’m just not a visual novel person but my main gripe was with the main protagonist.
Suzumu is an incredibly boring character who is lacking in flaws which made the whole story a chore to read, all these girls fawning over the most boring and generic character ever. Honestly, it made it hard to relate to the characters because they were all so in love with the most boring generic “anime boy hero i will save them with my plot armor!!!”. Literally so much plot armor throughout the story for him but then the ending is unsatisfying bc his plot armor fails near the end, won’t go into detail, the one time his plot armor shouldn’t have failed it did leading to this ending. The curses were disturbing and stuff at first but somehow they got less and less interesting the more they explained how they were not really a part of reality at all. Toe was really interesting and actually unsettling at first but gradually like when it explained the reasoning for her behaviors it kinda got more uninteresting to me for some reason. The DLC however, was the best part of the game, it was actually unsettling and disturbing and is what I paid to see, completely unnerving and great, ESPECIALLY BECAUSE SUSUHARA IS NOT PRESENT FOR THE MAJORITY OF IT, unfortunately he appears later in it tho. And also the entire thing with the dolls was really not expanded on a lot, there are a lot of doll imagery but its just revealed it really wasn’t much of a mystery vs the soot which was kinda lame.Also going to add that naturally since the protagonist was boring, so are all the romances.
– Real player with 79.6 hrs in game
Full video review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndlcGnufiZQ
Summarized version below!
It’s Spooktober, and as someone that thrives on horror games, movies, and other media, it’s one of the best times of the year. So here we have a horror visual novel written by the same guy that did Higurashi. Yeah, that’s pretty much my calling.
Story:
So right off the bat, if you’re familiar with the author’s other works, you’ll already know that any story from him is going to be quite the ride and that is no exception here with Iwaihime. It’s dark, it’s depressing, and it’s even outright nasty at times, but that’s par for the course given the writer’s track record. In fact, it doesn’t take long before the game goes into full-blown descriptions of humans dying in the most brutal way possible, with organs flying everywhere and this overall sense of dread that never quite leaves the writing, even towards the end of the game.
– Real player with 37.4 hrs in game
The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes
Better than most modern movies!
At first, the story seems cliche but will intrigue you the more you learn.
Choices shape your journey and allow for multiple play-throughs in return.
Exciting, scary and silly, all in one.
It’ll take you at least 5 hours before you’re done.
Off to find more secrets, I go.
There is much more of the plot, I need to know.
But there is one final note, for me to leave.
A grade of 7/10, this piece of art will receive.
And a word of advice, as you choose who will live or die.
– Real player with 49.0 hrs in game
Good:
Very fun with friends. Your choices can affect each other’s characters and you can mess around a lot.
Voice acting was well done.
The graphics look pretty.
There is a lot of action.
Bad:
The game isn’t scary.
Quick time events don’t do anything most of the time, and failing them doesn’t affect the outcome of the scene. When this is noticed you are unimmersed.
Some dialogue choices aren’t well enough presented so you pick what initially sounds good, but then the character says something completely different than you intended.
– Real player with 25.6 hrs in game
Through the Woods
The air is cold, the night is dark, and the woods are thick. Here my friend, cozy on up to my campfire, and let me tell you a tale. It’s a dark and unsettling one, so best cling tightly to your sweater and scarf and, whatever you do, don’t look too closely into the fire, for fear of what might lurk deep within the cinders…
I own a laptop. Actually, I own three laptops, but the one I use for Steam purposes is pretty powerful and can play, y’know, almost all those games which are notoriously troublesome on other people’s DESKtops - including AAA games like The Evil Within - with little to no worries. Yet for some strange reason, this new indie release is the first game I’ve had to dial down to 1280 X 720 and Low quality.
– Real player with 13.2 hrs in game
“It’s the silence that scares me. It’s the blank page on which I can write my own fears. The spirits of the dead have nothing on it. The dead one tried to show me hell, but it was a pale imitation of the horror I can paint on the darkness in a quiet moment.” Mark Lawrence
Through the Woods is a third person horror, adventure by Antagonist (published by 1C Company). The game is set in a forest on the shores of Norway, and is heavily influenced by Norse mythology and folklore, which it also takes some of its monsters from. Searching the woods for your son, you play as a female protagonist who is deceptively complex. At first, she evokes sympathy but this wanes as we discover more about her and her past through encounters and triggered dialogue in a kind of reverse character development. Unfortunately, I did occasionally find myself being dragged out of the narrative by questionable dialogue and flat delivery. I guess things could have got lost in translation from the original Norweigan but I played the version after the mother’s voice had been rerecorded with a new actor.
– Real player with 12.5 hrs in game