Spooky’s House of Jump Scares is a freely available horror game available on Steam. At first, it seems cute, almost like Eversion. You’ll wander the first few floors, encountering cardboard cutouts. However, like Eversion, it uses its own charm to turn things on it’s head. You’ll find yourself being chased by freaky and disturbing enemies, and without a way to defend yourself, all you can do is run through the floors as fast as possible. If you get caught, you’ll witness some very disturbing visuals. You’ll encounter the floor designs over and over in the game, making the game somewhat repetitive. However, this design quirk helps players memorize the rooms quickly. The game turns into pure nightmare fuel in short order. The game is free, but for $5, you can purchase the Karamari Hospital DLC, which adds even more disturbing levels to the game. If Five Nights at Freddy’s is too soft for you, you’ll want to check this out. Подготовка участка к зиме

As I noted in my review of Datura a few weeks back, indie games often use vagueness and minimalism as a means of attracting players. However, there is a difference between using minimalism to benefit the game and being vague for the sake of being vague. Sadly, Vigil (or Victi as it’s known in Europe) does the latter. While it drags players in with its Sin-City-style graphics and interesting storyline, it’s vagueness and frustrating gameplay will turn off players with the quickness.
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If you’ve never heard the name Junji Ito or read any of his works, then congratulations. You’ve been able to sleep a little more soundly at night.

Ito is a horror manga artist from Japan who revels in delivering his scares with tales of the strange, unnatural and the unexplainable. And copious amounts of body horror. He’s notorious amongst manga fans for his sheer ability to create nightmare fuel with his style of drawing and his love of putting his story’s protagonists through ungodly amounts of hell.

Out of the over one dozen volumes of his horror collection, and several stand-alone stories that can span many chapters, there are some that stand out above the rest, be it for their superior story or their extreme ability to make us squirm.

These are those exemplars in my book.
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This is the fourth and final of our special series of horror-related $20GOTW for the month of October.

Developed by Ukrainian developer Action Forms, Cryostasis is a unique (if flawed) first person psychological horror game. Stepping into the shoes of Russian meteorologist Alexander Nesterov as you explore the remains of a shipwrecked nuclear ship as you try to figure out what happened to the crew, many of whom having turned into mindless beasts. With his ‘Mental Echo’ ability, you can enter the memories of the crew members, figure out what happened to them, and even try to change their fate. The game takes place in the North Pole, so naturally, you will be cold. The warmth will serve as your life meter, so you’ll have to find sources of heat to stay alive. Cryostasis moves along at a slow and linear pace, although the story is compelling for anyone who sticks with it. As Lost Planet showed players, the icy north cam be a good setting for video games, particularly horror.

In space, no one can hear you scream. Before Pitch Black, Dead Space, and any other space horror, there was Alien. The horrifying Xenomorphs scared moviegoers shitless throughout 3 films (and a forgettable 4th along with the two Alien vs Predator movies), hundreds of comic books, and several video games. Alien Trilogy, an FPS from the 32 bit era, bought players up close and personal to the xenomorphs like never before. While it clearly pales by today’s standards, Alien Trilogy matched the dark mood of the films like no other video game before it, and few games have afterward. Playing as series heroine Ripley, you shoot your way through a storyline loosely based on all 3 films in the franchise as you shoot various Aliens throughout an abandoned space colony. It’s you, along against the aliens in the colony’s dark hallways. While the graphics show their age, and the level design tends to be a bit confusing, Alien Trilogy stands as one of the best FPS games of the 32-bit era. There is little chance of it being available in any form, so this is a disc you’ll have to hunt down.

Note: This is the second horror-related $20 Game of the Week for this month, keeping up with our Halloween theme. Stay tuned for more interactive horror!

I found that Eternal Darkness sequel you’ve been looking for. Okay, so it may not have the same themes as the Gamecube classic, it’s theme of sanity still remains, and it’s just as disturbing and frightening. If you play, you should follow the developers advice: make sure the room is dark, wear headphones, and keep the gamma level as is. Don’t try to play this game to win so much as immerse yourself in the experience.
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Developed by Kalisto Entertainment and published by Activision, Nightmare Creatures is a gory action thriller that predates games like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta. Taking control of either priest Ignatius Blackward or hot chick Nadia Franciscus as you try to stop cult leader Adam Crowley from taking over London with an army of superhuman monsters. Both characters have a primary weapon as well as a selection of sub weapons they can use. An adrenaline meter constantly ticks away and requires you to keep killing monsters in order to keep it filled, or else you start losing health. While this mechanic doesn’t seem necessary, it does make things challenging and forces you to keep it moving. While its polygonial graphics are dated, the bloody action will keep players hooked even today. A sequel was released a few years later. A third entry in the series was planned for Gamecube, Playstation 2, and Xbox, but plans fell through and development was scrapped. I’m surprised that it has yet to show up on the Playstation Network store or even GOG.com. If any game from the past deserves a second chance, it’s this horror classic.

As we all know, Halloween is this month, so instead of doing one big long horror themes Lost Classics/20 GOTW at the end of the month, I’ll do several smaller $20 GOTW each week of the month and throw in a horror themes Lost Classic and Maximum Letdown as well. This is the first of several horror themed 20GOTWs each week of this month. Most of them will be indie releases, but if you want a good scare, check them out! This week’s game is Zaratustra Productions’ Eversion, an innocent looking platformer, or at least it starts out that way. The Lovecraft quote at the beginning of the game and the developer’s warning that this isn’t for kids should cause some alarm.
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