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Thread: Halloween Gaming 2019 Edition

  1. #16
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    • Former Cid's Knight

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    Yeah, I'd say Silent Hill 1 or 2 are the best starting entries. I started with SH2 which is my fave entry, but played SH1 last year and had a blast with it. The technological limitations of the hardware only add to the creepy factor of the game. It's interesting how the PS2 entries utilize a film filter on the games as well to give it a more aged feeling. If there is one thing Team Silent has always done a stellar job of, it's constructing an eerie atmosphere through their audio and visuals.

  2. #17
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    Well, Silent Hill 3 is finally finished. Overall, it's been the toughest entry in the Team Silent entries for me, both literally as a game and figuratively in my investment with it. There are some great ideas here, an excellent cast, and the usual awesome atmosphere the team is known for; but this was really the hardest game to get into for me. I honestly thought SH1 would be that, but I blasted through that game. It took me over two years to finally beat this game and my playtime is under six hours. It just could not hold my attention. So let's break this down and do my usual +/- comparison of the individual elements.

    Story: I honestly liked the plot, while I agree with Fynn that I had wished the series moved away from the silly cult angle, I liked the idea of seeing and adult version of the child Harry rescued in the first game would turn out. I feel there was an interesting hook still here so I didn't mind the fact the game is a distant sequel to the first one. My real complaint of all this is really that the story under performs in what it was trying to do. I don't know if Konami simply made them rush this game out the door, budget cuts, or what; but SH3 feels like a half-assed attempt at a really good idea.

    This thought didn't occur to me until I reached the final dungeon, which was a semi-redo of the final area from SH1 which involved seeing a few locations from around the town pertaining to Alessa. I realized how awkward it was that we spent 3/4ths of the game just trying to find the excuse for Heather to visit the town and when we got there, we only really visited one old location from the original game and majority of what you see of the actual town was just reused from SH2. I mean it was Alessa's childhood home, so you think they would have had you going through recreations of SH1 areas. In fact, part of me thinks the building area you have to explore before reaching home would have fit so much better had it just been a location in the main town instead of Heather's absolutely bonkers return trip home.

    Having Heather explore the SH1 Silent Hill would have been neat and helped with her character arc concerning how she is Alessa, but really her own person as well. Her commentary when she sees some of the most iconic places were some of the most interesting parts of the final dungeon. Likewise, exploring the town would have allowed them to better spread out the subplot concerning Vincent and Claudia, instead of having most of it dumped on you in the final dungeon. Another issue is that while most of the SH games have a killer plot twist in them, I feel like Heather's would have been a cool bombshell had it not been spoiled for me, but it also brings to light all of the issues from above. This is in contrast to SH2, where the major spoiler was also ruined for me, but honestly enhanced the whole experience because it made picking up the symbolism and subtext more rewarding and noticeable.

    Characters: Honestly the game had a great cast, and I really loved Heather. I appreciate the fact that she didn't play up damsel in distress like so many female characters do in this genre, and found it amusing that after awhile she not only got use to SH's shenanigans but became vocally irritated by it much like how the player would feel. She had the right amount of vulnerability and inner strength to make her super endearing. I especially love how in the ending, she finally breaks down after everything is done to finally come to terms with all the trauma she went through in the game. Her commentary from reading objects was hilarious and I love the playful "take that!" to some of he weirder parts of SH2 if you have a save on the card. Heather was easily the best thing about this game.

    The supporting cast isn't too bad either. Douglas became a pretty interesting guy once you reached SH and Vincent was an interesting foil to both Heather and Claudia. I only wish both of them had a little more screen time to flesh out their arcs better. Same goes for Claudia, who is just as demented as Alessa's mother was in SH1, maybe even more so.

    Gameplay: Here's the other place where I feel a lot of things went wrong. I feel a lot of people complained o how easy SH2 was compared to the first game so the devs decided to ramp up the difficulty. There is an odd focus on combat in this game that really didn't do it any favors. Enemy A.I. is far more aggressive than in SH2, which is not necessarily a bad thing since it does ramp up the tension, but I feel the enemy types were poorly balanced. Half of them are speedy annoyances that will make you curse the more aggressive A.I. whereas the other half are massive meat bags who are always situated in small areas that are difficult to maneuver around. The game almost forces you to have to fight and kill a lot of these creatures just so you can have time to check your map and not get molested. Course the real issue at hand here is that many of these enemies can do a ton of damage and Heather goes down really easily. The other major issue is that enemies are just massive damage sponges in this game. Even the dog enemies felt like they took way more dame than they should reasonably be able to, so the last leg of the game became an issue because I got a bit too frivolous with ammo and walked into a super tanky final boss fight having to learn how to melee her since aI had virtually no ammo for any of my guns. The game adds a block function to combat but the feature is way too slow that only the most bumbling of telegraphed attacks will allow you to time it right. Even then, some of these windups are so slow, the block may even subside before they actually attack making the whole point moot. That' not to say you can't become a combat expert, the issue isn't that these tools don't work, it's more that they have a higher learning curve than I feel the game warrants seeing how the clunky tank controls and slow ass animations make combat an utter chore to begin with. I guess I can commend them on trying to make it more worthwhile, but it only made me wish I switched gameplay to easy mode so I didn't have to waste my time on the least enjoyable part of the game. I can't wait to get to SH4 and add breakable weapons and item management to this terrible formula. The puzzles are still fun, if a bit more out there in this entry. I also, I think it was BS that the human sized enemies can block and take scratch damage from your weapons. I know the Memory of Alessa is basically a dark psychic phantom created from the recesses of Heather's soul, but it doesn't change the fact that it's total bulltrout she can take scratch damage from a shotgun blast to the face just because she raised her puny arms up a bit. Not to mention the computer seems to cheat a bit in this aspect with zen like reflexes to block and being able to hold a block pose longer than Heather can.

    Level design is a bit hit or miss. On the one hand, the locations themselves are pretty well done and have the usual twists and turns expected from the series with special points going to the Mall, Subway, and Amusement Park. But the linear nature of the game, and the near removal and lobotomizing of the town itself hurts the game's pacing.The town can be nerve wracking in the beginning of the games, and sure most fans complain it's a lot of dead space, but it does serve a purpose as being a bit of a palette cleanser for the player. Cause eventually the town becomes much less scary than the actual locations you need to go to, and the downtime between finding areas helps to reset the tension. SH3's more linear approach just makes the game feel exhausting after awhile. The mall level itself is massive and takes what feels like forever to complete, so to follow it up with the spooky claustrophobic subway afterwards just felt like overkill. Not helping matter is the fact that all but the final two locations have a Light and Dark world variant which became a bit more predictable than it should have, and making these locations feel like forever. For a game that I timed in under six hours, it really felt like it was going on three times longer than necessary. Not helped by the fact not a whole lot of relevant things happen in the first three areas besides Heather wondering why she's having this nightmare.

    Music and Atmosphere: Not going to lie, Team Silent still brings it with great visuals and designs combined with an awesome score that is equally on par with the earlier installments. The VA work still feels a bit wonky and some of the motion capture elements give away the fact the actors were trying to get around wearing bulky suits, but it honestly adds a charm to the game and more down to earth tone to the cutscenes, so no complaints here.

    Final Thoughts: The game has a serious pacing issue not only in its narrative but also with the core game. I kept putting the game down because there was little narratively going on to keep me invested and the gameplay's constant barrage of dungeon to dungeon with wonky controls and combat made playing through it feel more like a chore than usual. I mean the first two game's weren't great in this department either, but something about the design here really just wore my patience thin. I feel it was a lack of breathing room between locations and the heavier emphasis on combat was likely the culprit. While I enjoyed the game being a direct sequel to SH1, I feel the team didn't take the idea far enough, which is sort of why I can agree with some detractors that SH3 may have worked better as a standalone title like SH2 was. The game needed to be longer, get you into the town faster, and give the player a real focus much sooner than it did. Once the revelation was made about the twist concerning Heather, the game should have let her explore the first game's part of SH1 and let Heather walk in Harry Mason's shoes while giving more time to build up Vincent's subplot and Cluadia's past to really make the ending sequences more cathartic for the player. It's not a bad game, but it's harder for me to recommend over the first two games for sure.

  3. #18

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    Late to the party and most of these aren't technically RPGs, but I think they hit the horror element anyway. All of these are available on Steam.

    Sound of Drop is Visual Novel that I've recommended on here before, but I'm going to let the game's intro theme and artwork speak for itself:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnFNMHM7-aw


    Tokyo Dark is an interesting story about a cursed mask, though I haven't finished the game and am still working my way through it. The main character is really likeable and their are plenty of achievements to get.

    The letter is a very choice driven VN about a haunted mansion. The decisions you make affect who lives and who dies, and the opening and ending theme songs are really nice. The artwork takes some getting used to, but I got past it by the time I finished the demo.

    Betrayer is on the scarier side of my preference range with a default black/white/red color scheme which makes trying to see the skeletons you're supposed to shoot all the more difficult. Though to be fair the scary spot doesn't start until you unlock the night world, which is a bit into the story. Also haven't finished this one because I keep running out of ammo, so I'd say it's on the challenging side if you like that sort of thing.

    P.R.I.C.E. is also a great Halloween game as it's free and short. It's an escape to room type game with beautiful artwork and music.
    Last edited by Sarisa; 11-07-2019 at 12:20 AM.

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