$20 Game of the Week: Halloween Scarefest

With Halloween in two days, now is the perfect time to take a look at two terrifingly awesome games that are $20 or below. So with no further ado, lets go forward. Just make sure you got the lights turned on!

$20 Game of the Week Part 1: Left 4 Dead 2 (PC)
Powered by its own Source Engine, Valve’s Left 4 Dead bought the feel of a zombie movie home in a way that not even games like Resident Evil could. It also made cooperation and teamwork the focus of the gameplay in a way seen in few games of its type. Its sequel brings the action down south. As in the original, you (and up to three friends/A.I. bots) take control one of four survivors as you make your way through hordes of zombies in order to get to safety. You won’t find merely shuffling and slow moving types either. Some spit acid on you, others chase you down, and some even try to hijack you and push you into a crowd of zombies. Like in the original, you have to stockpile weapons and watch your teammates backs, even freeing them from zombie attacks at times and reviving them if necessary. Left 4 Dead 2 adds melee combat for those times when you need to get up close and personal. One of the key features of the original, the A.I director, returns to adjust the level on the fly, sending different groups of zombies after you, adding walls in different places, and doing other fun things to the level layout, thereby guaranteeing that you get a new experience each time you play through a level. Several downloadable content packs also exist for the game, and they are free on the PC. The most recent of these, The Sacrifice, brings back the cast of the original L4D in a separate campaign, and allows you to play through the original L4D campaign with the new features from L4D 2. So, if you have some buddies, then this is an fun PC title to play together.

Note: This is also available for Xbox 360, although it may not be for $20. Also, the DLC for the Xbox 360 version is paid content.

$20 Game of the Week Part 2: Dead Space Extraction (Wii)
Dead Space Extraction is a Wii-exclusive prequel to EA/Visceral awesome survival horror classic. Unlike it’s PS3/Xbox 360/PC brethren, DSE is an on-rails shooter. Despite not being as graphically fancy as it’s bigger brothers, this is still every bit as gripping as any other Dead Space title. Taking place before the events of the original Dead Space, Extraction begins as a team of miners work to extract the marker from a planet. However, things go crazy very quickly. Crew members flip out and kill each other, and the bizarre necromorphs start appearing everywhere. You’ll play as a number of characters, some longer than others as you investigate the colony. Eventually you’ll make your way to the Ishimura, and no doubt run into some familiar looking backdrops. You’ll gain access to a number of weapons, most of which you’ll recognize from the original Dead Space. Each of them have two modes of fire (the second is activated by holding the Wiimote sideways). You’ll also have a kinesis option that lets you draw items in closer, throw them at enemies, and pick up items. You’ll even run into several puzzles and minigames, such as operating a circuit and putting a barricade together. DSE is every bit as gripping and disturbing as any other entry in the Dead Space franchise. Necromorphs will attack you from every which way, and you’ll even be grabbed and pulled on at several different points. Often times, you’ll wonder if the person you’re playing as currently will even make it to the end of each level intact!

Dead Space Extraction, Ghost Squadron, and House of the Dead Overkill have proven that the Wii is the place to be for classic on-rails shooters. While the latter two games are more traditional in design however, DSE adds in several new tricks to make separate itself from its peers, while giving Wii gamers some much needed M-rating action.

Note: A Move-compatible version of this game is included with the PS3 version of Dead Space 2.