13 Plats of Halloween: Resurrection (Event Concluded)

[ShinigamiSensei-]

@blu3st4rdust305I completed my first 2 games for this event:

1- Digimon Survive

2-The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan (0%)

3- Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin

 

I have a question, ¿Can i use Far Cry 5 for this event? I don't know if the base game has spooky moments, but there's the "Dead Living Zombies" DLC so...

[Cassylvania]

Two more so I can have an even six games completed going into October.

1. The Wild at Heart
2. Erica
3. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles
4. Demon's Souls (PS5)
5. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2
6. Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory

Don't really feel the need to justify Bloodstained: CotM2. The other...has monsters. Some of them are even ghosts, I think.

 

As always, you can read my full reviews in my checklist thread below.

[DoctorDrPepper]

Another game down as well as one more run of Bloodstained down. You have to beat that game 6 times plus a boss rush run and it doesn't even have a plat. But I do like it.

 

1. The Quarry  

2. Dead Space - 0%

3. Tormented Souls - 0%

4. Cult of the Lamb (PS5) - 

5. The Last of Us Part 1 

6. The Walking Dead: Season 2 (Vita) 

7. Alchemist Simulator 

8. Wonderbook: Book of Potions 

9. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Vita Physical) - 65%

10.

11.

12.

13.

Edited September 30, 2022 by DoctorDrPepper

[KyonKuchiki]

6/13 games are done! I just 100% Injustice: Gods Among Us as my milestone Plat #450, and it's also became my new rarest platinum trophy as well! Fun fighting game with a great story, but the grind for the platinum is no joke. Definitely burned out on fighters which was why I opted to switch Injustice 2 out early on. That said, I'm still looking forward to playing the 2nd some day, especially since it's the October free PS+ game. We're officially in October now, and Dead Space month now begins for me.

 

3 Games I'm Committed To:

Dead Space 1 - 8%

Dead Space 2 - 2%

Dead Space Extraction - 0%

 

10 Games Up for Change:

Affected the Manor: Complete Edition - 100% COMPLETE

The Brookhaven Experiment - 100% COMPLETE

Wraith - 100% COMPLETE

Control - 100% COMPLETE

Bugsnax - 100% COMPLETE

Injustice Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition - 100% COMPLETE

Dead Cells - 0%

Alan Wake Remastered - 0%

Wraith the Oblivion: Afterlife - 0%

Thumper - 76%

[blu3st4rdust305]

Updated everyone.

 

On 9/28/2022 at 6:02 PM, AugustUnder said:

 

Serial Cleaner (the original one from the list) - Done

 

I thought about it and I decided that, just in case swapping it out was not going to be OK, I would complete the original Serial Cleaner as I originally intended. So that is what I did. I do have to say that, while there is a ton more content in the original (and a lot of movie related levels that are unlock-able) it is also a little more of a drag to play now having played the new one. The addition of save points in the new series was really missed in the original as it turned what was fun in the beginning into a bit of a slog with me yelling a lot more than I normally like. Anyway, long story short (too late) I did both games just in case, but will only count it as one. 

 

You can swap out any of the games, except for the 3 locked in. Having not played the games, and looking at the lists, you could count both if you are so inclined.

 

On 9/29/2022 at 3:18 AM, Man of Inaction said:

I missed posting about finishing Hades! I finished it a week ago, but the next day, I was feeling sick.  Ever since then, I really haven't been able to muster the focus to type up anything. Around Monday was when I finally started to feel okay-ish... um.. sorry. Back to the game...

 

I really enjoyed Hades. The entire time I was playing I was having a good time. It stays fresh for a really long time because of the build diversity available and the various changing events that can be different each run. There are many primary weapons and just when you think you've got them down, they start having unlockable aspects that can significantly change the feel and playstyle. Then you have all the various gods and their boons to help you etc. I don't think you will ever get the exact build twice, even when you want it.

 

I do feel like it maybe takes a bit too long to level up all the keepsakes, but run after run there was always some fun to be had. It didn't wear out it's welcome, but it was a close call. Early on, I thought I'd probably go back and do the PS4 platinum too, but by the time everything was wrapped I was like, "Nah. We'll just leave it here. I had enough. Thank you.'  It was nice to leave the game behind while I still felt very positive about the experience.

 

Super Giant did a great job of using the trophies to guide a player into additional story and dialogue they maybe wouldn't have seen otherwise. They also give some interesting challenges, but nothing too spicy. They also showed some restraint and didn't put in anything that had no point. Everything connected to a trophy has some specific purpose and when all of that purpose has dried up and you've seen practically everything they've created for you, you're done. There's not some random trophy for killing Hades 500 times, because they were well aware that a player would likely finish all major and minor plot points by their 50th kill, if not much sooner. It was great all around. I recommend it!

 

You might have gotten sick from Hades withdrawal. Hades was such a good time. I am saving my second stack for a year or two from now, when I want to jump back into that nearly endless rabbit hole of addiction. Highly recommended for everyone to at least try the game.

 

On 9/29/2022 at 2:29 PM, ShinigamiSensei- said:

I have a question, ¿Can i use Far Cry 5 for this event? I don't know if the base game has spooky moments, but there's the "Dead Living Zombies" DLC so...

Should be fine to count this due to the zombies.

 

As for me, I completed 2 more.

 

Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty - I did not think this would be a fit before starting. It does have a bit of a creepy, gloomy art-style. After the opening sequence revealing the origins of the new snack made by the corporate overlords, it was an instant fit. A cliché of old school horror flicks. The game, itself, is great. Came in as much more fun than I expected. Its a puzzle platformer where the mechanics are a bit janky, but precision is not always needed. There a fair amount of margin for error, as well as a very generous quick save/load option. 

 

Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition - killing endless zombies. Less fun than I anticipated. I just think it suffered from poor balancing. Instead of changing up the enemy patterns for harder difficulties, the zombies just became bullet sponges. 

 

It is time to start penciling in some of the potential 5 to round out my 13. I am going to need a better twin-stick shooter after Dead Nation. Demon's Tier works. There is also Tesla Force (Lovecraftian enemy influence) or Big Drunk Satanic Massacre (demons). Zombi (zombies) is a strong candidate for the final 5. Afterparty(afterlife in hell/drinking with the devil) also has a decent chance as a good palette cleanser of game genres here. A metroidvania may join the ranks, something like Guacamelee (inspired by the day of the dead traditions of Mexican culture)/Axiom Verge (demons)/ Blasphemous (sacrilegious imagery)/ Shantae (Rottytops is basically a zombie). A few that are on the bubble are Vampyr (vampire doctor in industrial London, it seems), Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (zombie nazis), Gauntlet (killing demons and monsters) and Manual Samuel (results of making a deal with death).

 

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes
Demon's Tier+
Alien: Isolation
Littlebigplanet 3 (100%)
Lords of the Fallen (100%)
Lone Survivor (100%)

Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty (100%)

Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition (100%)

[DoctorDrPepper]

I've been on a tear lately. Another one down with Tunic. It def fits the Halloween spooky vibe in several parts. Don't wanna spoil much for anyone who doesn't know anything about it. If you like old school Zelda, play it. Also got another Bloodstained ending. Two left on that.

 

1. The Quarry  

2. Dead Space - 0%

3. Tormented Souls - 0%

4. Cult of the Lamb (PS5) - 

5. The Last of Us Part 1 

6. The Walking Dead: Season 2 (Vita) 

7. Alchemist Simulator 

8. Wonderbook: Book of Potions 

9. Tunic (PS4) 

10. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Vita Physical) - 70%

11.

12.

13.

[MattbluePT]

Just to update my progress:

 

#1: Psychonauts

#2: The Last of Us ?

#3: LEGO DC Super-Villains ?

#4: Rage 2 (90%)

#5: Borderlands (94%)

#6: Borderlands 2 (72%)

[AugustUnder]

On 10/1/2022 at 11:07 PM, blu3st4rdust305 said:

 

You can swap out any of the games, except for the 3 locked in. Having not played the games, and looking at the lists, you could count both if you are so inclined.

 

Oh, thank you for the clarification. That is a really good idea, I think I will do just that. Both Serial Cleaner games includes homages to pretty famous movies, some of which are certainly horror movies. This plus you are cleaning up after a massacre (in secret) makes it all feel horror adjacent, so, yes, I will now update my list accordingly. 

17 hours ago, DoctorDrPepper said:

I've been on a tear lately. Another one down with Tunic. It def fits the Halloween spooky vibe in several parts. Don't wanna spoil much for anyone who doesn't know anything about it. If you like old school Zelda, play it. 

I wasn't even thinking about Tunic in this way, but now that you mention it, yeah, it really does lean into some good horror tropes. That alone feels like a spoiler only because the game presents itself as a very cute Zelda like (as you said), but the more you play, the more it really is a whole lot more. I have a lot of thoughts on the game's underlying meaning, and I am sure I am not even close to right about it, but it is a game I have fully completed 3 times now. Originally on Game Pass, but now, since it was released on Playstation, and since you made a good case for it......

 

Tunic - Done

 

I actually completed both the PS4 and PS5 version of Tunic over the last week. As I indicated above, it really wasn't one I planned on doing for this event. It is just such a great game that I impulse bought it when I saw it on the store (I didn't even really know it was coming to PS4/5) and ripped through the PS5 version. Once I finished that I was going to go do something else, but I really wanted to just play that all over again, so I ran through the PS4 version right after. I certainly didn't set any sort of records, but it was fun to see how much I could remember from the previous play through. At any rate, there is certainly a good amount of horror, both in the classic skeleton type of horror on up into the cosmic horror realm. It isn't a scary game (except for the boss fights) but it does have things about it that can make you feel uneasy. And already I have said too much. Technically I could add this one to the list twice (I think), but I really don't want to go down that road, so I will just add both to the single line. 

 

Below is my new updated list. I think that I now need to kind of split it up into a list of things I completed and things I am looking to complete (except for the locked in top 3). I am now trying to really dedicate myself to finishing Fatal Frame. I think I may finally have allowed it to hook me in. It can be frustrating sometimes, but I may be won over finally. We will see. 

 

Official List

1. Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water - (PS5) (44%) 
2. Castlevania Advance Collection - (PS4) (100%) 
3. Costume Quest 2 - (PS4) (100%) ?
4. Wytchwood - (PS4) (100%) 
5. Serial Cleaner - (PS4) (100%) 
6. Serial Cleaners - (PS5) (100%) 
7. Tunic (PS4 & PS5) (100%) 

 

Probable List 

• Manual Samuel - (PS4) (0%)
• The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan - (PS4) (0%)
• Call of Cthulhu - (PS4) (0%)
• Party Hard - (PS4 (0%)
• Layers of Fear 2 - (PS4) (0%)
• Alien Isolation - (PS4) (0%)
• Little Nightmares - (PS4) (0%)
• The Sinking City - (PS4) (3%)
• (Possible Sub) Inscryption - (PS5) - (73%)
• (Another possible sub?) Cult of the Lamb - (PS5) (27%)

 

One other game I completed for fun, and I have to call it out because it is just so good (and on PSN+) is Toem. While the game's themes can absolutely work for this event, it really is too short to qualify (I think just under 6 hours or so). However, it is such a great game with pretty wonderful writing and with free DLC to go with it, it is absolutely worth your time. It plays a lot like a cute version of Fatal Frame (or, if anyone has a PlayDate, Casual Birder, but no crank for this, obviously) where you are taking photos to solve the world's problems.....sorta. It is just so good. 

[MAUSZX]

On 9/27/2022 at 0:01 PM, MAUSZX said:

1. Darkside Detective A fumble in the Dark -
2. Man of Medan - 28%
3. In Sound Mind -
4. DOOM- 35%
5. Destroy all humans-
   
6. Manhunt-
   
7. The Persistence- 
8. SIMULACRA-
9. Nine Witches. Family Disruption.
10. Metro Exodus.
11. West of Dead.
    
12. TBD
13. 13 Sentinels Aegis RIm  

I want to make an update. I left 12. pending for a different game maybe some addition for a game in psplus. There is no update on that regard, but I would like to add Layers of Fear, is a horror game so it fits the bill.
Now that being said I think I will eventually change Metro Exodus, because we are already in october and considering the lenght of Metro games, I am pretty sure is almost impossible to make it.  I won't change it right now, but I am pretty sure I will because of time restrictions.

[Xylobe]

1. Costume Quest 2 (9%)
2. Psychonauts 2
3. Thymesia (0%)
4. Salt and Sacrifice (26%)
5. Yomawari: Midnight Shadows (0%)
6. Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (10%)
7. The Walking Dead: The Final Season (0%)
8. Temtem (91%)
9. Morbid: The Seven Acolytes (0%)
10. Ys IX: Monstrum Nox (0%)
11. Darksiders Genesis
12. Lost Epic
13. Wytchwood

Update time! Two more completions, for a total of four or five (depends who's counting). I had a great time tearing through demons in Darksiders Genesis, and it was a lot closer to a traditional Darksiders experience than I expected from it being isometric, level-based, and co-op. Also I want to marry Dis. Wytchwood, on the other hand, was one of the most exhausting games I've played in some time. Every single task you're given inevitably spirals out into a dozen things to check off the list, to the point where I was constantly losing track of what I was doing in between each dissociated step. At least it fits the Halloween theme perfectly.

 

@blu3st4rdust305 I should have asked this in my last post, but one of Temtem's trophies is glitched for me, meaning I can't get the plat until the issue is patched. If that doesn't happen before the end of this event, can I count it as complete in its current state? Or will I need to swap it out for something else? I did complete the glitched trophy's requirements, if that makes a difference.

[DoctorDrPepper]

Another one to add tonight with House of the Dead Remake. It was really fun to play this game I had only played in arcades all the way through but a couple of the trophies were tedious. I assumed it would have been the trophy for not taking damage but that wasn't too bad. It was finding all the paths, finding all the collectibles on a run, and that fucking trophy for shooting a dog over a wall.

 

1. The Quarry  

2. Dead Space - 0%

3. Tormented Souls - 0%

4. Cult of the Lamb (PS5) - 

5. The Last of Us Part 1 

6. The Walking Dead: Season 2 (Vita) 

7. Alchemist Simulator 

8. Wonderbook: Book of Potions 

9. Tunic (PS4) 

10. House of the Dead Remake 

11. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Vita Physical) - 70%

12.

13.

[Prometheous101]

On 8/16/2022 at 0:17 AM, blu3st4rdust305 said:

 

The event returns in anticipation of some serious space horror games on the horizon. Giving the event a sign up period and a tiny bit longer length to encourage more completions.  @Man of Inaction is providing the art. Thanks for the great banner! Credit to Toogie53 for the original event.

 

Purpose

Let’s get ready for spooky season by playing some Halloween themed games. Halloween can mean so many things: horror, dressing up and playing pretend, eating copious amount of candy, partying up, etc. This event aims to capture those vibes by playing games that embody Halloween in some fashion and to share those experiences.

 

Who can join?

1) No cheating! Flagged accounts will not be accepted.

2) Accounts with 50+ forum posts or 20+ platinum trophies prior to 08/15/2022. Want to encourage active participation throughout the event.

3) I may limit the participants on a first come/first served basis if there is a lot of interest.

 

What games count?

1) I do not want to police what any individual may consider or remind them of Halloween. I do encourage thematically appropriate games, but a reasonable explanation of how the game fits is expected. This may assist other participants find games they may enjoy.

2) You can use games already in progress. The base game cannot be completed prior to including on the list of this event. Games will only count when they reach 100% completion including all DLC. Example: You can include Resident Evil 2, if you don’t have the platinum. If you already have the platinum and are clearing DLCs, you cannot include Resident Evil 2.

3) Game does not need to have a Platinum trophy. 100% games count too! (Despite the title of the event). Rule 2 also applies to non-platinum games.

4) No stacks. The same game cannot be used twice during this event. If you have completed a game prior to the event and want to stack it for the event, this is okay.

5) The big limiting rule: Game can only count if the 50^th fastest completion time is greater than 6 hours. For example: SOMA (NA) is a spooky game. Its 50^th fastest completion time on the NA stack is 3 hours, 56 minutes. It would not count for this event. Resident Evil 2 (PS4) would count as its 50^th fastest completion time is 1 day, 5 hours.  If a game is about to fall under 6 hours completion time for the fastest 50^th completion time, it may end up not counting, keep this in mind. The primary reason for this rule is to encourage discussion of the games being played. Nothing against short games or autopops, in general. These games just do not count towards this event.

 

How do I join?

1) In order to join, you need to declare 3 valid games for the event. These games cannot be changed out after they are posted. The remaining 10 games can be adjusted throughout the course of the event. Just asking for a little bit of a commitment up front. If you list more than 3 games, I will assume the first 3 are the declared games for the event.

2) For those listed games, please include a quick statement as to why you feel it fits the Halloween theme.

 

Rewards @Man of Inaction has jumped in to save the day! Badges start at 3 completions.

 

Important Dates:

Sign ups end: 08/31/2022 11:59PM EST.

Event starts: 09/01/2022 12:00AM EST.

Event ends 11/07/2022 11:59PM EST.

 

Spreadsheet will be here once available.

Games with less than 50 achievers are good to be used?

[Arctic Cress]

Completion is hard, as I only finished my first game last night. Strangely though, I am still well ahead of my pace from last year. I swapped out two games as I thought both will take too much time now that I've wasted most of September.

 

Locked-in games:

Corpse Party (PS4) (10%)

Costume Kingdom (PS4) (0%)

Kawaii Deathu Desu (PS4) (27% -> 100%)

 

Other games in consideration:

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 (PS4) (0%)

Demon Gaze (Vita) (25%) Spirit Hunter: NG (Vita) (14%)

Hades (PS4) (22%)

Hakuoki: Stories of the Shisengumi (PS3) (29%)

Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk (PS4) (6%)

Lollipop Chainsaw (PS3) (12%)

Mary Skelter Finale (PS4) (0%) Little Nightmares (PS4) (0%)

Oxenfree (PS4) (0%)

Undead Darlings ~no cure for love~ (PS4) (25%)

Zero Escape: The Nonary Games (Vita) (5%)

[AugustUnder]

19 hours ago, Prometheous101 said:

Games with less than 50 achievers are good to be used?

I believe this to be true based on earlier discussions. 

[KyonKuchiki]

I now have 8/13 GAMES COMPLETE! Wraith the Oblivion: Afterlife had amazing graphics and story, and is definitely in a top 3 horror slot for PSVR games.

 

I also got the first Dead Space complete! I'm so sad I slept on this gem for so long; I am really looking forward to the remake coming out soon!

 

I'm swapping out Dead Cells for Amnesia: Rebirth since I forgot I actually had that one in my backlog library. I doubt the story's connected explicitly, but I am looking forward to going back to the Amnesia universe after 100% the original Amnesia Collection a few years ago.

 

3 Games I'm Committed To:

Dead Space 1 - 100%    

Dead Space Extraction - 0%

Dead Space 2 - 2%

 

10 Games Up for Change:

Affected the Manor: Complete Edition - 100%

The Brookhaven Experiment - 100%

Wraith - 100%

Control - 100%  and 

Bugsnax - 100%  and 

Injustice Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition - 100%  

Wraith the Oblivion: Afterlife - 100%  

Amnesia: Rebirth (changed from Dead Cells) - 0%

Alan Wake Remastered - 0%

Thumper - 76%

Edited October 8, 2022 by KyonKuchiki

[blu3st4rdust305]

On 10/5/2022 at 4:40 PM, Xylobe said:

1.  

@blu3st4rdust305 I should have asked this in my last post, but one of Temtem's trophies is glitched for me, meaning I can't get the plat until the issue is patched. If that doesn't happen before the end of this event, can I count it as complete in its current state? Or will I need to swap it out for something else? I did complete the glitched trophy's requirements, if that makes a difference.

 

I am unfamiliar with this game. Isn't there an apparent work around?

 

On 10/7/2022 at 1:53 AM, Prometheous101 said:

Games with less than 50 achievers are good to be used?

 

Yes, but you did not sign up, right?

 

I got 2 more completions.

Demon's Tier+ is a decent, short roguelike twin stick shooter. Nothing daunting about the list.  You can use a rope to escape and bank your D-bucks for new characters/weapons. I think I got the platinum with less than 6 hours of play time. Second stack after the Vita. Still have the PS5 stack for some other lazy afternoon.

 

House of Ashes.... now I have some feelings about this game. I will dig into details under the spoiler and keep it general out in the open. I was disappointed by this game.

 

Overall, it is technically the best of the 3 Dark Pictures Anthology games thus far. Its graphics, character models, lighting, design, etc. at all really good. Even on a PS4, there was minimal jank. A couple of scenes had delayed texture renders by like a split second, a couple of instances of cut outs and 1 time I got stuck against a wall, but a quick reload fixed that. It is beautiful to play and feels like a step up from Man of Medan and Little Hope, which were not terrible in these regards either. 

 

The pacing of the story was also really well balanced. Just when a scene or sequence felt like it was going to drag, the action and movement picked right up. Because of the setting, this is probably the most action packed game in the series. Constant enemy attacks, fire fights, etc. It really kept moving at a good clip. Even the multiple playthrus did not feel so bad because of the speed it feels like it is moving at. The platinum required more playthrus than the prior 2, which was a bit annoying.

 

But the story, I found, was just bad. It felt like the most clichéd cliché that has even been clichéd, and not in a fun, campy, way like Until Dawn. In a very serious, this is a war, kind of way.  Maybe they meant it as an homage to a much greater media franchise, but it felt like they botched a promising premise. By the end, I was properly guessing entire scenes and lines of dialogue. The story is, thankfully, not a re-tread of Man of Medan and Little Hope, which may have been a worse result, for me anyway.

 

I really do hope that The Devil in Me closes strong, but I will not be holding by breath as it looks like a Saw/Shining cross over.

 

Spoiler

I will also be providing minor spoilers for Man of Medan and Little Hope here.

 

From the very beginning of the game, with the opening in ancient Sumer, it was very clearly going to a different game. Man of Medan and Little Hope both start at a much more recent past and then hoodwinks the horror by making it psychological with either hallucinations or of projection from guilt/stress. In House of Ashes, the baddies are revealed very early on during a solar eclipse and are real monsters. Ok great, an ACTUAL threat of proper horror proportions.  The sequence ends with a cliché of two people of different social positions having to work together to overcome the threat. Cut to Iraq, 2003. Oh no.... Let me guess, Americans and Iraqis will need to work together to survive the next onslaught of the monsters.

 

The setting and framework left a lot to be desired. Personally, marines during the Iraq war is an uninteresting time to move forward into. The ground opens up, and we are back in the temple from ancient Sumer. Turns out the monsters are these flying vampire things. They cannot be touched by sunlight or fire and have to stabbed in the heart to be stopped. Okay fine. But why have they not come out of the ground at night or during any other solar eclipse in the last few thousand years?? 

The exposition about a prior expedition to uncover the ancient Sumer temple, which re-discovered these monsters are told using 10 old timey newsreels which phoned in any and all information that could have been revealed in a creepier manner. Maybe these were meant to soften the story or change the tone to be campier, but they made for a jarring dissonance throughout the entire game that undercut any potential for horror.

 

As the characters are strangely deciding to go deeper and deeper into the underground temple, it turns out there are cocoons of these creatures in mounds in an underground city.  The moment the green lighting starts peering thru in a couple scenes, it is obvious the monsters are actually of alien origin and all of the imagery of how they infect humans, they lay in wait, and how hosts are cocooned are all ripped off from Alien/Aliens.  By now my suspension of disbelief has been exhausted and full eye rolls are in effect. The exposition of the alien race is very brief and weakly explained. 

 

Since you are playing marines, you are very obviously going to try to destroy the "vault" and kill as many of these monsters as possible. Then, you somehow are able to climb out of the underground (which should have been option 1, several hours previously), just to be ambushed by a solar eclipse and a swarm of these monsters on the surface (but why now?) You retreat to hut where your remaining protagonists make their best Avengers rip off impression, but with flares.

This all closes with a government cover up, because, of course.

 

Perhaps it is my high regard for Alien and this game's poor execution of the story that really got me down by the end. Get rid of the black and white newsreels, move the setting back to the original archaeologists and throw in some camp, and I think the story would have had a better shot.  Think how The Mummy managed to tell an action horror story, but dial back the humor.

 

I also was not a fan of the actual characters. The married couple/adultery story line was out of place and poorly handled. Ashley Tisdale is the only new character model and she did fine in her role as Rachel. She was constantly in long, slow sequences or disappeared for a few chapters based on the developments in the story. Salim is pretty well developed and a proper badass, but was the primary agent of unification to call back the opening sequence and the only one with something to look forward to back home. Eric was not a great character, as the impetus for any of this happening. Nick is a conflicted marine who feels bad about erroneously killing a civilian and moping about his lover's husband returning to the scene. Biggest missed opportunity, as I think giving him some stronger dialogue or scenes to give him a bit of depth. Instead the climax has him recalling words told to him previously to get him thru and fight on. Jason is the leading jarhead, and probably the only character I actually consistently liked.

 

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes (100%)
Demon's Tier+ (100%)
Alien: Isolation
Littlebigplanet 3 (100%)
Lords of the Fallen (100%)
Lone Survivor (100%)

Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty (100%)

Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition (100%)

[Prometheous101]

6 minutes ago, blu3st4rdust305 said:

 

I am unfamiliar with this game. Isn't there an apparent work around?

 

 

Yes, but you did not sign up, right?

 

I got 2 more completions.

Demon's Tier+ is a decent, short roguelike twin stick shooter. Nothing daunting about the list.  You can use a rope to escape and bank your D-bucks for new characters/weapons. I think I got the platinum with less than 6 hours of play time. Second stack after the Vita. Still have the PS5 stack for some other lazy afternoon.

 

House of Ashes.... now I have some feelings about this game. I will dig into details under the spoiler and keep it general out in the open. I was disappointed by this game.

 

Overall, it is technically the best of the 3 Dark Pictures Anthology games thus far. Its graphics, character models, lighting, design, etc. at all really good. Even on a PS4, there was minimal jank. A couple of scenes had delayed texture renders by like a split second, a couple of instances of cut outs and 1 time I got stuck against a wall, but a quick reload fixed that. It is beautiful to play and feels like a step up from Man of Medan and Little Hope, which were not terrible in these regards either. 

 

The pacing of the story was also really well balanced. Just when a scene or sequence felt like it was going to drag, the action and movement picked right up. Because of the setting, this is probably the most action packed game in the series. Constant enemy attacks, fire fights, etc. It really kept moving at a good clip. Even the multiple playthrus did not feel so bad because of the speed it feels like it is moving at. The platinum required more playthrus than the prior 2, which was a bit annoying.

 

But the story, I found, was just bad. It felt like the most clichéd cliché that has even been clichéd, and not in a fun, campy, way like Until Dawn. In a very serious, this is a war, kind of way.  Maybe they meant it as an homage to a much greater media franchise, but it felt like they botched a promising premise. By the end, I was properly guessing entire scenes and lines of dialogue. The story is, thankfully, not a re-tread of Man of Medan and Little Hope, which may have been a worse result, for me anyway.

 

I really do hope that The Devil in Me closes strong, but I will not be holding by breath as it looks like a Saw/Shining cross over.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

I will also be providing minor spoilers for Man of Medan and Little Hope here.

 

From the very beginning of the game, with the opening in ancient Sumer, it was very clearly going to a different game. Man of Medan and Little Hope both start at a much more recent past and then hoodwinks the horror by making it psychological with either hallucinations or of projection from guilt/stress. In House of Ashes, the baddies are revealed very early on during a solar eclipse and are real monsters. Ok great, an ACTUAL threat of proper horror proportions.  The sequence ends with a cliché of two people of different social positions having to work together to overcome the threat. Cut to Iraq, 2003. Oh no.... Let me guess, Americans and Iraqis will need to work together to survive the next onslaught of the monsters.

 

The setting and framework left a lot to be desired. Personally, marines during the Iraq war is an uninteresting time to move forward into. The ground opens up, and we are back in the temple from ancient Sumer. Turns out the monsters are these flying vampire things. They cannot be touched by sunlight or fire and have to stabbed in the heart to be stopped. Okay fine. But why have they not come out of the ground at night or during any other solar eclipse in the last few thousand years?? 

The exposition about a prior expedition to uncover the ancient Sumer temple, which re-discovered these monsters are told using 10 old timey newsreels which phoned in any and all information that could have been revealed in a creepier manner. Maybe these were meant to soften the story or change the tone to be campier, but they made for a jarring dissonance throughout the entire game that undercut any potential for horror.

 

As the characters are strangely deciding to go deeper and deeper into the underground temple, it turns out there are cocoons of these creatures in mounds in an underground city.  The moment the green lighting starts peering thru in a couple scenes, it is obvious the monsters are actually of alien origin and all of the imagery of how they infect humans, they lay in wait, and how hosts are cocooned are all ripped off from Alien/Aliens.  By now my suspension of disbelief has been exhausted and full eye rolls are in effect. The exposition of the alien race is very brief and weakly explained. 

 

Since you are playing marines, you are very obviously going to try to destroy the "vault" and kill as many of these monsters as possible. Then, you somehow are able to climb out of the underground (which should have been option 1, several hours previously), just to be ambushed by a solar eclipse and a swarm of these monsters on the surface (but why now?) You retreat to hut where your remaining protagonists make their best Avengers rip off impression, but with flares.

This all closes with a government cover up, because, of course.

 

Perhaps it is my high regard for Alien and this game's poor execution of the story that really got me down by the end. Get rid of the black and white newsreels, move the setting back to the original archaeologists and throw in some camp, and I think the story would have had a better shot.  Think how The Mummy managed to tell an action horror story, but dial back the humor.

 

I also was not a fan of the actual characters. The married couple/adultery story line was out of place and poorly handled. Ashley Tisdale is the only new character model and she did fine in her role as Rachel. She was constantly in long, slow sequences or disappeared for a few chapters based on the developments in the story. Salim is pretty well developed and a proper badass, but was the primary agent of unification to call back the opening sequence and the only one with something to look forward to back home. Eric was not a great character, as the impetus for any of this happening. Nick is a conflicted marine who feels bad about erroneously killing a civilian and moping about his lover's husband returning to the scene. Biggest missed opportunity, as I think giving him some stronger dialogue or scenes to give him a bit of depth. Instead the climax has him recalling words told to him previously to get him thru and fight on. Jason is the leading jarhead, and probably the only character I actually consistently liked.

 

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes (100%)
Demon's Tier+ (100%)
Alien: Isolation
Littlebigplanet 3 (100%)
Lords of the Fallen (100%)
Lone Survivor (100%)

Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty (100%)

Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition (100%)

Haven't yet. Now that I know will make a list sometime soon. 

[blu3st4rdust305]

8 minutes ago, Prometheous101 said:

Haven't yet. Now that I know will make a list sometime soon. 

 

Sign ups ended 08/31. Sorry.

[Xylobe]

1. Costume Quest 2 (9%)
2. Psychonauts 2
3. Thymesia (0%)
4. Salt and Sacrifice
5. Yomawari: Midnight Shadows (0%)
6. Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (10%)
7. The Walking Dead: The Final Season (0%)
8. Temtem (91%)
9. Morbid: The Seven Acolytes (0%)
10. Ys IX: Monstrum Nox (0%)
11. Darksiders Genesis
12. Lost Epic
13. Wytchwood

Salt and Sacrifice done! I started the PS4 stack of the game after platting the PS5 version at launch, with the intention of putting together a guide. Obviously that never happened. The game seems like it's been made significantly easier through patches, which is a definite improvement, but my general opinion on it is still quite negative. I certainly wouldn't recommend it to fans of Salt and Sanctuary.

 

37 minutes ago, blu3st4rdust305 said:

I am unfamiliar with this game. Isn't there an apparent work around?

 

No workaround at the moment. It's not glitched for everyone, but those of us having issues need to wait for a patch. One of the in-game achievements can end up tracking progress incorrectly, and the trophy is tied to that. It's an MMO, so progress is saved server-side, and achievement progress persists through resets, meaning I can't even delete my character to start over and try again. It could end up being a non-issue if it's patched within the next month, but there's no way to know at this point.

[MAUSZX]

1. Darkside Detective A fumble in the Dark -
2. Man of Medan - 28%
3. In Sound Mind -
4. DOOM-
   
5. Destroy all humans-
   
6. Manhunt-
   
7. The Persistence- 
8. SIMULACRA-
   
9. Nine Witches. Family Disruption.
10. Metro Exodus.
11. West of Dead.
    
12. Layers of Fear
13. 13 Sentinels Aegis RIm  

Update.

Finished DOOM and SIMULACRA.
Doom, most of you already played it, action shooter you kill demons and go to hell, super fun but 1 annoying trophy that is glitchy.

Simulacra is a kinda movie game, basically you found a smartphone of this girl name Anna, the phone is super glitchy and that works for the horror factor of the game, you are basically using the phone to find out what happened to this girl and you start texting people that she had contact before. To be honest the game is super engaging and it ends up flopping with the ending, but the concept and all are super cool and I had like 3 jumpscares that really got to me.

[KyonKuchiki]

I now have 9/13 GAMES COMPLETE! Dead Space Extraction was a fun on-rails shooter that was interesting to see how much it set up Dead Space 1 as well as acting like somewhat of a bridge to Dead Space 2. As far as horror on-rails shooters go, I still have to go with Rush of Blood being the best, but this was a well done and fun game.

 

I'm firing up Dead Space Ignition next (which couldn't count for this challenge) and then going into the game I'm dreading the most and might just be the event stopper for me... Dead Space 2! I'm not looking forward to hardcore and limiting myself to 3 saves, but it will be a proud plat if I can come out the other end.

 

3 Games I'm Committed To:

Dead Space 1 - 100%    

Dead Space Extraction - 100% 

Dead Space 2 - 2%

 

10 Games Up for Change:

Affected the Manor: Complete Edition - 100% 

The Brookhaven Experiment - 100% 

Wraith - 100% 

Control - 100%  and 

Bugsnax - 100%  and 

Injustice Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition - 100%  

Wraith the Oblivion: Afterlife - 100%  

Amnesia: Rebirth - 0%

Alan Wake Remastered - 0%

Thumper - 76%

[Cassylvania]

One more to add to the list. I'd like to say two, but I don't have the DLC for Outer Wilds finished (or even started) yet, even though I got the platinum.

1. The Wild at Heart
2. Erica
3. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles
4. Demon's Souls (PS5)
5. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2
6. Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory
7. The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2

Clearly my most Halloween-y game so far. The whole game is about witches. It's also pretty bad, which is unfortunate because I kinda liked the story in the original.

 

Six more is pushing it...

[Breakingthegreen]

So I did 2 games for another event that I reckon I could blab their way into being counted.

 

1. Pumpkin Jack (EU) (PS4) 
2. Road Not Taken ?
3. Marvel's Spider-Man Miles Morales (PS4) 
4. Life is Strange: True Colors (PS4)  (50th 7 hr 29 min)
5. Overcooked: All You Can Eat (PS5)  (50th 1 day 4 hr)

 

My argument for these distinctly non horror games is relatively short.

In True Colors, theres is a LARP which features a bunch of characters in an almost halloween like dress-up, including, a Wolf, Gnome, Ogre, Sea Serpent, Warrior, Jester, and Witch.

 

And in Overcooked, you can play as a Ghost, Vampire, and Werewolf. And in the Overcooked 2 portion of the game,you need to face off against the "Unbread", a parody of the undead.

 

Edited October 16, 2022 by breakingthegreen

[damcrac5]

Took me a while to find the internet again(Long story about being on a boat), but I have my first update for the event!

Bit of a detour here and there through the process but I've got some big games completed!

 

Completed:

1. The Witcher 3  + 100%

2. Resident Evil 3 

3. Dark Souls 2 

4. Dark Souls 3 

Working or yet to start:

5. Sekiro ----> 10%

6. TWD Final Season

7. Little Nightmares

8. RE4

9. Elden Ring

10. Death's Door

 

I'm not sure how I'd feel about throwing Uncharted 2 (Having to fight a bunch of tree sap huffing junkies that turn blue and crazed after repeated use, plus all but one trophy done prior to event) and Uncharted 3 (Hallucinating and fighting guys with burning heads that you have to kill a couple of times).  Games aren't really horror or survival based, so unless someone gives me the nod, I'll hold off.  For now, I'll continue to work Sekiro.  Not sure I'll get it done by the end of the event.

 

Thanks again for the event.  Gave me motivation to knock out the Dark Souls titles before I originally planned on.

Edited October 17, 2022 by damcrac5

[ShinigamiSensei-]

So, i finished my third game for the event:

 

1- Digimon Survive

2-The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan (0%)

3- Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin

4- Far Cry 5 +?%

 

The real thing is...i'm not in the mood to play Man Of Medan at this moment of my life, so maybe this game will stay at 0% like...for a long time hehe. I'll see...

Edited October 17, 2022 by ShinigamiSensei-