Fear the Spotlight and Sorry We're Closed

Two horror LGBT Games.

Fear the Spotlight

A nerdy girl agrees to help her goth chick crush sneak into the school library to conduct a seance during a thunderstorm and, yeah - bad things start to happen! With blocky graphics and an intentionally bad shaky cam this actually isn't a bad horror game that's decent at building tension with some decent jump scares and a "sneak past the monster mechanic" while solving the puzzles that keep increasing in difficulty. I was pleasantly surprised by this one - it might not look like much but its pretty good. Recommended!

Sorry We're Closed

Keeping in vein with the above, this game has got demons and monsters and possibly zero straight characters and a bit of a step up art wise, though a fair bit of it is odd. It isn't a stealth game though and instead plays more like Resident Evil with all its fixed camera angles and needing to save at pay phones. While its still a horror (of a more adult variety) its not as scary as the above, simply because you can fight and destroy the monsters in your way. It's annoying that they respawn though, and that there's a fair bit of backtracking. While I liked this one, I felt Fear the Spotlight is better.

RE:Verse / Midnight Ghost Hunt / Against all Odds

When players as content fails, because you don't have players.

RE:Verse

A multiplayer death match game using characters and creatures from the Resident Evil series might sound good, but in practice the slow, cumbersome movement that helps provide fear because your character isn't super agile makes it rather silly when put against other players. Then again I wouldn't know as there were no games I could match make with, as no one is playing it. Not recommended.

Midnight Ghost Hunt

In this team vs team action game, four ghosts attempt to hide by possessing regular items while four ghost busters hunters try to track them down and destroy them... in 5 minutes (because they are dumb and always arrive 5 minutes before midnight). When the clock strikes 12 the ghosts gain a lot of power to fight back and usually will slaughter the hunters. Basically a hide and seek game with weapons - but again no one was playing this. At least there's a bot mode if you want to try it out though.

Against all Odds

This party platforming race game has players traversing a deadly obstacle course (which is handy when you want to murder the competition) to see who can make it first to the finish line! Included is a map editor to make your own courses and there's silly commentary as you play... though most likely this will still be by yourself as again, there are no players. Not recommended.

Resident Evil: Village

Welcome to Barovia?

Having some bad experiences in the USA (what with all those horrors set lose), Ethan Winters moves his family to Europe where they find a short period of peace before being abducted and taken to a run down village beneath the shadow of a looming castle in a valley full of monsters! No, there's no Strahd here but it's pretty close!

Expect to do a lot of running.

It's a strange setting for the Resident Evil series, but its done very well. There are shocks, scares and awesome terror especially at the start of the game. Later on when you can fight back effectively, the horror level drops a fair bit but its still quite enjoyable. Honestly, the only thing I didn't like is that the protagonist monologues a little too much at the worst times but otherwise, I highly recommend it!

RE:the Netflix Series and Welcome to Racoon City

Resident Evil (Season 1 - Netflix)

In an alternate universe where Albert Wesker is black (portrayed by Lance Reddick), this show follows two really stupid girls using the two time period approach: one that follows their youth and one where they are currently, constantly hopping between them just when the current one you are watching is starting to get exciting.

They've got some nice billboards too!

Despite the OK budget, they didn't do very well on the plot here as time and again either people just do the stupidest things or things just "happen". Great example: Oh no, we really can't drive out of this place because the horde is too dense. Take one guess how they get out of that place.

While there's currently only one season of this I can't really recommend it yet unless they up their game severely for season 2 (if it should ever happen). Lance Reddick fans rejoice though, as he has the best parts and is the highlight of every episode.

Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City

This movie tries its best to stick with the plot from the original games, but that actually translates into a pretty slow film with lots of wandering around in dark places with a flashlight at the start followed by lots of running and shooting when the armies of infected inexplicably show up.

It also creates the problem where fans of the game series know exactly what will happen which reduces tension a lot and to top it off feels a bit cheaper on the production values. Not a great watch and not one I recommend.

Resident Evil, 0 and Infinite Darkness

Two games, one TV series.

Resident Evil 0

As Bravo Team's Rebecca Chambers, your job is to investigate a series of cannibalistic murders with your useless team who pretty much are eliminated by horrible creatures right near the start. Yes, there are zombies but somehow whatever reanimates them also can reanimate dogs and force other creatures to become way bigger than normal. Luckily, you do get a partner to help you because there are multiple puzzles that need two people but more importantly because you get six more inventory slots.

While the monsters are jump-scare level scary and the puzzles are fricking obscure at times, your main enemy will be your inventory space and the fixed camera angles. At least you can drop items but each room has an "item limit" which is laughable. Fortunately the map is very well designed once you get used to it, and shortcuts open back up to the starting areas meaning you'll always be able to go back. Worth a play if you like the series, but prepare to scratch your head a fair bit, especially at the start. I give it two herbs out of five.

Resident Evil

Since Bravo team went dark (due to the events of Resident Evil 0), Alpha team is sent in to find them and immediately gets attacked by zombie dogs who chase the survivors into a mansion filled with more locked doors, puzzles, and monsters. Playing as either Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield you need to do a full sweep of the place, and your old enemies of fixed camera angles and lack of inventory space will be back. This time, you can't just drop things anywhere either. You need to put them in a chest at the safe rooms.

 

Arachnophobia triggered!

While the contents of the chests are global (any chest, same contents) this still leads to a lot of back tracking, and this time that is more dangerous as the zombies don't just randomly come back - they WILL get back up if you don't randomly head shot them, or set them alight with limited fuel. Worse, if you down them only, there's a chance they come back as "crimsons" which can sprint. This really encourages just "dodging" them in the first place and seems like pretty good game design to me. Two and a half surprise spiders out of five.

Infinite Darkness

This four episode series has Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield investigating zombie outbreaks in some unexcpected locations (as usual). While the CGI is decent enough the script is a bit weak, or at best rushed but at least there are many decent action segments. Not really missing out if you skip this one, but fans of the franchise might still enjoy it. I only give it one and a half rats out of five and wouldn't watch it again. The plot armor on the heroes is just too thick at times.

Take Two: Resident Costume of the Dishonored Bannerlord

Four game sequels, and two days to read all about them. :)

Resident Evil 2

More about running than fighting!

This retelling of Leon and Claire's arrival in a zombie filled Racoon City really shows off how graphics have improved since the original. While the finite enemies are mostly slow they also take too many bullets to permanently kill so you'll need to get good at -sprinting- slow jogging around them while you solve the many puzzles that block your path.

The horror level really ramps up when the unkillable Tyrant arrives too - he's slow but  relentless as he chases you across the neatly designed maps, even into your "safe" rooms. Strangely, that is the best part of the game. Combat in general is average and the story is ludicrous.

Better off running than reloading that weapon...

There is a replayability factor here too as I believe each protagonist has two unique playthroughs but once is enough for me. I did dabble with the "ghost survivors" mode with new heroes and zombies though, but with no save points in any of those scenarios that just became too tedious for me.  All up, pretty good and worth it if you are a RE fan. I give it three green herbs out of five.

Insight: Always use the map to help your searching, a red room means there's still stuff to loot. Second, always ditch items that have a red tick as they have no more uses and simply occupy inventory space.

Costume Quest 2

Now with timey-wimey shenanigans!

I quite enjoyed the first Costume Quest and its DLC. This time around the kids are back to stop a time traveling dentist from banning Halloween and making the world a dental utopia! Much of the game play is the same as last time though you will be using a new set of costumes with slightly different powers.

The puzzles and combat system are simple enough and there's not much grinding to do which is great. Once again, you shouldn't be defeated by anything here as long as you remember the super helpful combat training. Highly recommended, but you need to play the original first as the story does continue on from there. I give it three candies out of five.

Insight: Make use of those combat cards! They don't vanish after use, instead just requiring a cool-down of a few battles. Handy ones are force the enemies to skip a turn, fill up everyone hero gauge, and make minions attack themselves - which you can use to cheese the mini-boss fights against moles and snails.

Dishonored 2

A master class in world building.

Taking place years after the first game, a new threat emerges and this time you can choose your protagonist - Empress Emily Kaldwin or her father and hero from the first game Corvo Attano, in a quest for retribution - which can be as bloody or as bloodless as you want, just be ready to face the consequences.

In fact in my playthrough, I told the Outsider to take a hike and play without any supernatural powers (and only killed two people) which made it feel almost exactly like a thief game! "A+" to player agency! There are some fantastic maps too, all of which have loads of world building thrown on top.

One of the best missions lets you jump through time!

I cannot recommend this game enough, though if you play it as a fully super powered rage machine it might be a tad on the short side. Five exploding bullets out of five.

Insight: I only personally killed two people but lots more died pursuing me into random monsters. Not my fault as I didn't attack them at all! :P

Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord (Early Access)

Brilliant when it comes to sweeping, large scale battles.

After an epic battle participated by every nation resulted in a loss for everyone, Calradia is more divided than ever. While you start out as an individual on a revenge trip, you can eventually grow your army and own shops, villages, castles, cities and even the entire continent if your ambition (and patience) is large enough.

The little quests, tournaments and tavern board games are great (I now love Tablut!) but what this game shines best at is medieval tactical large scale combat - and there is a LOT of it. You'll be charging across plains and hills of grass and sand and snow, skirmishing in forests, using rivers to slow down enemy cavalry, and participating in sieges with functional siege equipment all to some pretty epic music.

While this is certainly an improvement to the original Mount and Blade which laid the foundations nicely, it does suffer a few problems. First, there is a really long intro quest that might put you off but that's quite intentional so that you can build up your clan enough to handle what comes after. The bigger problem is in "the after" and the same one found in the first game: repetition.

The game is good at what it does, but there's only so much before that content grows stale. Sure, this castle looks different than the last one but functionally its the same to get in. Once you've fought one or two massive armies you've fought them all. Don't get me wrong - it's super fun, I'm just wondering ... where to next? Hopefully when this gets out of early access it will have an answer. As it is I give it three battering rams out of five.

Insight: Press N to use the encyclopedia to find people on the map. Also hang on to one handed axes and buy wheat in bulk if offered in "The Art of the Trade" as they are used in other easy quests. You can also slowly cheese some sieges if you go up a ladder with a two handed spear and stab the defenders out of their range. This won't work if enemy archers are covering the ladder though.

Resident Evil 5

Where health packs come in spray form.

When bio terrorists unleash a plague in Africa, it's up to Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar to stop them, and kill all the infected natives that get in their way! There's a lot to like in this very cinematic game - the graphics are great, the maps despite being one way are concise and to the point and you could play it co-op if you wanted. There's also a ton of optional reading material for those that interested in the lore.

Doubt you'll find a reason for this stupid jump though.

The enemies, especially the final boss, are nice (by that I mean terrifying) though fortunately they are on the slow side especially since ammo is always scarce. Some also require very specific methods to win against which is a negative for me. Not doing exactly the right thing at exactly the right time or shooting the right spot often results in a game over. Have fun when you are out of ammo. Similar Quick Time Events can also insta-kill you if you aren't on your game.

Still definitely worth at least one play through, just expect to require multiple runs to unlock all the extras. I give it 4 uroboros out of 5. Yes that's how they spell it in this game. It sounds really weird.