Halloween Gaming 2019 Edition

[Wolf Kanno]

It's that time of year again. Time to get some spooky gaming going, especially since I'm growing quickly bored with Fallout 4. I think I'm going to hook up the PS2 and try to finish Silent Hill 3 and maybe restart Fatal Frame. On the PC front, I was going to do Amnesia: The Dark Descent, but I have a coworker who recommended me a few indie Horror RPGs like Ib, Mermaid Swamp, and Pocket Mirror. So I may check one of those out and see how well horror translates into RPGs.

So what are your favorite scary themed games?

[Fynn]

Hmm... Don't think I have anything planned this year. Might actually finally get around to The House in Fata Morgana, I guess? If I have the time, of course

[Bubba]

I played Alien: Isolation last Halloween which was far too scary for me. I lasted an hour before hiding in a locker, saving and never loading it up again.

[Karifean]

I actually really want to finally play SH2 at some point, maybe Halloween is a good excuse/opportunity to finally get around to it. Does it have a functional PC version?

[Fynn]

It does. But I don't think it's available through Steam or GOG or any similar services. You'd have to resort to... other means

[Wolf Kanno]

In Halloween gaming news...

I've started Amnesia: The Dark Descent, which is kind of weird, but largely because it's a style of game I just don't play very much. Unfortunately, I got distracted really early into the game so I didn't get very far. I am hoarding my lamp oil though, and while nothing terribly scary has happened yet, the audio cues have been good at getting my heart racing when the game hints at weird trout.

I also started back up my old save file of Silent Hill 3, which may have ended badly because I have apparently broken every PS2 controller I owned which makes the game unplayable one way or another. The best one I have has the R2 button broken, which would normally not be a big deal but SH3 has that as the "weapon ready" command meaning I can't fight anything which is a bit of a problem in this game. I finally found an old PS1 Dualshock controller that still worked, so I can finally continue on. I am at the point where I've finally reached Silent Hill.

I also got inspired to do a NG+ of Bloodborne, though I'm going to try to keep my playtime on this game at a minimum since I've already beaten it. Took down the Cleric Beast and I'm currently opening up all the pathways in Central Yharnam before dealing with Scrub Filter Hunter Gasciogne. I already obtained the Music Box as well. It's interesting going through because I'm strong enough to lay waste to most of the enemies, but the difficulty spike given has kept me on my toes at least. The nice thing is simply just knowing my way around cause holy hell is the early portions of the game very maze-like. I'm sporting a basic Hunter Pistol +9 and the Rakuyo +10.

[Depression Moon]

I got nothing planned and I just played RE2 this summer, but I might put it back in on the 31st and try one of the game modes.

[Wolf Kanno]

Silent Hill 3 is such an odd mix. On the one hand, I'm liking the characters and production values, but the gameplay and pacing is really getting to me. I just reached the Amusement Park which was the setting of the game's prologue. The game has certainly picked up, but I feel I can safely say that SH3 is a bookend style game that starts and ends strongly, but is bogged down by a really lousy middle section. It takes you 2/3rds of the game to reach the point where the plot properly kicks off.

Amnesia has been interesting. I like the fact that my only real options are to run and not fight. Most of the items I have are just fuel for lights, and the plot is finally picking up as I try to investigate why I gave myself amnesia and left notes behind telling me to murder someone. There is some real potential here.

As I promised myself, I have not touched Bloodborne as much, I'm still just exploring Yharnam and getting all the short cuts activated. Still need to fight Gasciogne, but I pretty much have the main path to his boss fight ready. Funny enough, I'm dreading the optional battle with his partner Henrick more than him. Looking at the Trophy list, I'm only missing three, I know two are the endings, but the last one is beating the Pnumerian Queen from the optional dungeons, and that is sadly something I really should have done before jumping into NG+.

[Fynn]

I feel SH3's biggest weakness isq that it is a sequel. I feel that everything about Heather and her personal journey through Silent Hill would have been better if it hadn't been bogged down by forcibly tying it to the first game. I like the connection, overall, and feel the callbacks are nice, but it would probably have been better if the connections were looser and the game actually explored feminine horror more. The themes kinda die halfway through when it becomes a straightup revenge plot - and yeah, the lore dumps kinda slow the game to a crawl. It's kind of a clear contrast between SH2 and SH3, as in SH2 you had to walk down a very long, boring path until you actually reached the town, but that made it feel that much more isolating and hard to go back, while in SH3 you get three entire dungeons or so outside of Silent Hill and that just makes it feel... kinda detached from everything? You're literally just going back home and nothing is weird aside from this weird detective (who is potentially half-naked) and no-eyebrows lady.

Honestly, this only reminds me how unfair it is that this game is considered the "last good Silent Hill" while Silent Hill 4 is treated as a franchise killer. This game feels like a rush job in so many aspects (the areas of Silent Hill you visit are just retreads of the second game's areas - not even the first game's which would have been more thematically appropriate) and aside from the very fresh take on the protagonist, honestly doesn't feel like it really adds much to the general Silent Hill themes. And I was never really scared throughout this game, tbh. The Room, on the other hand, had pretty great pacing from the start (slowed down a bit later with the dungeon retreads) and has an actually interesting departure from the format, as well as some unsettling scares that genuinely got to me.

No hate for SH3. I just want justive for SH4.

[Wolf Kanno]

Haven't played much SH3, instead I dived a bit deeper into Amnesia and fell off the wagon concerning Bloodborne.

For Amnesia, I've reached the first story location my character had a funky flashback for. The opening area isn't too bad and while I spotted some monsters, I didn't really have much problem evading them. From my understanding, they get more aggressive later. Got some nice Lovecraftian backstory going on here with diary entries and even some gothic horror with a subplot about the Lord of the castle hiring some men to kidnap locals, only for the authorities to start investigating and said lord locked them all in the wine cellar to die or something possibly worse. I'm on my way to a lab, but the area is flooded thanks to the earthquakes and I've encountered my first real pain in the ass monster. Critter is invisible, but I can tell where it is from the footsteps it makes in the water. The issue is that he is faster than me, and while I can evade him by staying out of the water or throwing items to distract it, I have to hit a silly switch to open a door, but said switch is on a timer. I got a bit bored trying to do the marathon race to the door so I've stopped there.

In Bloodborne.... Well I've taken out both Gasciogne and Vicar Amelia. Never realized there was a summon spot for the Amelia fight, but I used him more to deal with the two crazed hunters guarding the south door to Old Yharnam. Took a dive into the Chalice Dungeons only to be reminded of why I ended up quitting them and just ending the game. The last few Chalice Dungeons start adding some nasty restrictions, namely halving your health and then overloading the place with hard hitting or speedy enemies. Despite my gripe, I took down the boss that was giving me issues before I finished the game, but I'm probably going to avoid going further until I gain some more levels to help balance the higher difficulty in NG+. I have most of Cathedral Ward explored and with Amelia gone, we've shifted to actual night in Yharnam meaning I can do a few side-quests like sending people to one of the two "safe" houses and helping Eileen the Crow hunt a few mad Hunters. I'm currently playing around with a few new weapons, namely having a ball playing with the Scythe weapon. I may deal with Old Yharnam next, I'm just debating if I want to tangle with a boss I disliked to open the backdoor, or if I want to play bullet hell with the Gatling weilding hunter guarding the place.

[Wolf Kanno]

Came back to SH3 and have finally reached the final boss. Man this game is back heavy. It just feels like a lot of the backstory of the cast really doesn't come into play until the end when little of it is enough of a bombshell to hold onto it. I'll give my final thoughts once I beat the game. I've been a bit too distracted to play the other games.

[Jiro]

I played through Call of Cthulhu, Resident Evil 2, and SOMA with a friend recently, as per our tradition of playing games together that we're too scared to play solo. It's amazing how much "the ability to fight back" helps, even if that ability is only minor, to minimise the fear factor. Of course, smurf Mr X as a blanket rule. We really should give Silent Hill a spin. Recommendations for the best entry point for newcomers?

[Aulayna]

League of Legends. The skill level of some players is scary.

[Fynn]

We really should give Silent Hill a spin. Recommendations for the best entry point for newcomers?

Silent Hill 1. It's what started it all and is the creepiest entry by a mile. If you can't get past this being a PS1 title, then 2. It's completely standalone and works great as an entry point, since most of the later entries take more or less direct inspiration from it. 3 is a sequel to 1, so that's a no, and 4, while a fantastic game, kind of shakes up the series formula a lot so it's not exactly the OG Silent Hill experience you're getting here. Have not played any of the post-Team Silent titles, so I can't comment on them.

[Aulayna]

We really should give Silent Hill a spin. Recommendations for the best entry point for newcomers?

Silent Hill 1. It's what started it all and is the creepiest entry by a mile. If you can't get past this being a PS1 title, then 2. It's completely standalone and works great as an entry point, since most of the later entries take more or less direct inspiration from it. 3 is a sequel to 1, so that's a no, and 4, while a fantastic game, kind of shakes up the series formula a lot so it's not exactly the OG Silent Hill experience you're getting here. Have not played any of the post-Team Silent titles, so I can't comment on them.

Wholeheartedly agree with this. Silent Hill is one of my favourite PSone era games, made even more special that when I first played it I had a NTSC copy on my PAL PSone so everything was in black and white (due to my TV being so old that it didn't have a SCART socket) which added to overall atmosphere so much - although it meant that one door puzzle took me forever where I didn't have any colours to go by