Dread X Collection: The Hunt Review
Me and my friend binged another Dread X Collection, this time is a 7 game "The Hunt" spin off!
I will be quickly reviewing each game from worst to best. The "review" is mostly kind of like an impression and hopefully will not spoil much even if you choose to play it, but I hope this will be a fun read.
Game X: The Hub (Alright)
Before starting the list... lets chat about the Hub.
An isolated snowy base is kind of underutilized as a setting for horror and being lonely. In DreadX hunt, this new "The Thing" inspired Hub area is kind of good, kind of meh and pretty new. In previous Dread X hubs, it is either a puzzler (Second collection) or a Point and click with too much story (Third collection). This one is an inbetween the two, which is nice and has some proper gameplay.
We recommend after each game that you put in the codes rather than all at the same time. Play a game, put the code in. There is a nicer pacing to it that way.
Anyways, this Hub is both good and ok. Lots of negative space to explore, but the actual gameplay that it insists is pretty cool for a Hub World.
Seraphixial By Vidas Games (Come on...)
What a pain.
I was not the player for this one.
Seraphixial is a pretty bad shooter, it was pretty nonsensical and there was a lot of unnecessary crap. The irritating noises, the re-used gimmick scares from their previous game. The shooting. It had some neat design ideas, but not really... At least it is not just a jumpscare fest, but it is definitely awfully annoying and looked pretty easy.
Not much else to say that this sucked, im sorry...
Black Relic By TorpleDook (Boring)
Im sorry, but it was boring, maybe not entirely.
I was the player for this one.
The black relic is a bit campy, gothic cult slaying action. But it does not really make anything threatening for there to be "action". It does have some world building and the campy nature does come off as funny. The enemies who are never a threat, made themselves to be entertaining by being so bad. Aesthetically is also nice from their game in the second collection, since now, they opted for a pixelated filter which hides the cheap polygonal look. I think this one is... barely passable.
Rose of Meat By Mr. Pink (Neat)
Nothing great, but it was a neat experience.
I was the player for this one.
Rose of meat is this surreal game about... I dont really know. Theres stuff here you can interpret but I didnt make the attempt to go so far. I did really like the behaviour of everything, and the dynamic of multi-use weapons. I feel as if Mr. Pink tapped into a bit of gameplay that a lot of shooters is missing.
Anyway, the game looks like a trip and is pretty hard to understand. It is also a bit funny and I think it was pretty alright.
Axis Mundi By Philip Hesselbäck (Alright!)
I was the player for this one.
Cool fatal-frame like "shooter". That even teaches you something. The game generally is not scary, but you can get caught by surprise here or there. I also especially liked the picture book puzzles, kind of reminded me of pokemon snap in a way.
There is not much to the game other than running around and defeating ghosts, each with their own level. But it was not bad and was diversive. I am certain that there is a final puzzle to the book that we could unlock, but it required going out of the museum hub to capture the picture. We never figured out how we would do that so we left it at that.
The House of Unrest By Dan McGrath (Nice!)
I was not the player for this one
A funny, point and click-ish action game about a priest taking down a demon that haunts a house. I loved the style, its quips were funny, the puzzles were a bit hard to figure out. Not so much FIGURING OUT, but rather Finding stuff. Not really scary, but pretty entertaining.
Quality wise, I wouldnt put this above Axis Mundi, but the fun in House of Unrest and its themes is what put this as third best game in the collection.
Uktena 64 By KIRA (Poggers!)
I was the player for this one
This is the most complete feeling game in the list.
I love the attitude for this game, it has some scary moments, ngl. The silence kinda makes it. But it is mostly a very arcady like hunting game. The style, the attitude and even the buildup in levels is great. The gameplay is fine. It has a bunch of secrets and references, and I cant believe they put that all together so fast.
There is a lot of secrets too, I wish I could revisit this game to see if there is more.
It was quite the journey (On heroic difficulty) and is rivaling the Top Spot with the next game.
The Fruit By Christopher Yabsley (GREAT!!!)
I was not the player for this one.
The only reason why I put this game over Uktena 64 is because it has unique horror themes and does them well, has great ideas for a Survival Horror game and ends great.
The rifle mechanic, exploration and spell book is all great, they also combined it with some good immersion with light and physics (Even if its not that particularly amazing). Simply seeing a patrol lit up in the dark approach your building has this tenseness to it (be it ready for action, or an oh shit moment). The story is also nice and has a good journey building up to the ending. It is not as "perfect" as Uktena 64, but it is absolutely refreshing and new.
You see, the best Dread X Collection games to me are the ones that try something new. In style, in mechanics, or in horror. This is why I put the Fruit up there as it did them together mostly well and felt like a proper game should take notes from it.
In conclusion
Dread X Collection: The hunt was... not as diverse as the others. It had a general FPS theme to it and only 7 games with more time to make them. I kinda like the Quantity over quality as some of the developers just nail it with something unique.
What was odd is that, many of these games had a Plant-based theme to them. I dont know exactly what it is but, thats what it had. It was definitely the weirdest running theme amongst the games because The second one had a "Fear of God" or "Lovecraftian" theme, while the third one had a theme surrounding Death despite being cutesy in aesthetic.
This one has themes surrounding roses, and plants and stuff. I cant quite wrap my head around why that is. Nature? Is the theme Nature?!
Oh well. This Dread X Collection imo is not as strong as the Third collection, so far the Second Collection is holding itself up as the best one despite having extreme bads and extreme goods.
