of course when something only has white people in it, it’s weird, but when there’s no one with actually black hair you know something Sinister is afoot
Basically I forgot about this game for two years and now I find it even more interesting.
And yes I gave Protag the name "Eino", since it means "alone, lonely, on their own".
After slaying a couple more bigoted villages and in order to escape the law, he and his big goth husbando took refuge in Paris, opening their own "magician" activity.
I already apologize if the traslation of "my love" Is not accurate, I checked an online dictionary for Finnish... :)
Another Dread X Collection after a while!
As always, it is me, and a friend playing through the games together. He picks a game and plays it, I spectate. Then I pick a game and play it, he spectates.
I know that it means we never had the opportunity to spook ourselves all alone, but the games are a treat and are fun to experience with someone else.
Read my review of each game, and the outpost 3000 hubworld!
Anyways... This Dread X Collection is weirdly the weakest collection.
Hear me out...
Me and my buddy ol pal were reminiscing of the previous collections.
1, 2, 3, hunt, coming up to this one and we concluded that DreadXCollection 5 is the weakest but for disappointing reasons. Mainly, the games.
The general theme of this review is how we mostly disliked the games, or found them unremarkable. But there are glimmers of some really good games, and choices in general.
Let us Start with...
Game X: The hub world
The hubworld of this game is a Chucky Cheese esque little playground restaurant with animatronics and all that jazz. Called "Outpost 3000" that has the theme of 'aliens' and typical extra terrestrial aesthetics.
This might be the best mechanical Hub world of the collections simply because it had some engaging gameplay and semi-forced us to play a game before continuing on with the hub world.
(Previously, on The Hunt, we did the entirety of the hubworld and then played the games. Outpost 3000 forces you the pacing that you deserve)
However, I still think the 2nd collections House is the best.
The third collection wins in aesthetics, its progressive darkness was awesome.
The Hunt was thematically fitting.
Speaking of themes... Outpost 3000 to me continues the illusive story of the dread x collections but fittingly in a thematic way, where the hubworld itself eludes to the otherworldly being corrupting the world to be an extraterrestrial itself. But that does not say much, you can see how much effort we put in figuring out the Dread X story ;)
One more thing,
The theme of the games are also so much harder to pinpoint. Many of the games had similar warnings, like "Play with headphones, because audio is important here". So that might have been the mechanical prompt, but the story prompt could have been "Becoming a part of a horror entity" or "Aiding the horror entity". The story that is revealed within the comics is a good similarity to the many stories of the games. There are many similarities, although not all follow my theory exactly. Another one could have been collectibles, or easter eggs. But we never bothered to complete them in any game.
Still, I think im 90% close.
Game 1: Gallerie by Shakles
I was the player
Gallerie gets the overall rating of Pretty Good
Gallerie was a pretty surrealistic game. Its funny, spooky, confusing. Its so many things like the raving colours it bombards you with. I encountered a few bugs but we worked around them. It had many mechanics, and then actually stringed them together in a good way. It is hard to summarize this one, but all I will say is that it was actually pretty good, and, somehow, the creator knows everything about it while I struggle to understand most of it.
The translating parts is the wackiest hectic interpretations ive been forced to do.
Game 2: Karao by Stroboskop (Sylvio)
Friend was the player
Karao gets the overall rating of Alright
Karao was this, plunge down the rabbit hole esque depressing insanity ride. It felt a lot like silent hill in some of the aesthetics. The game itself is mostly linear, you trying to find your way, and shoot some women with guns. I dont know what to say much about Karao. This is the first where me not being the player hindered me truly feeling and understanding it. It kinda got forgotten as we went down the list of games.
sorry.
Game 3: Vestige by Philisophic Games
I was the player
Vestige gets the overall rating of Ok
So... this game had many opportunities to be so much more than it did. In the end, it was... annoying, easy and annoying.
The start of the game, figuring out where the plants are, the rooms etc made me tense up simply because you only control with your mouse, point and clicking the environment to go to. This clunky control scheme made me think I will struggle, but the real gameplay is just...
Playing a game within a game, with a cheap random jumpscare that kills but is easy to avoid from time to time, while the game within the game also being annoying.
But its not... terrible. Its soo in the middle for me. It caught my attention then kinda... did whatever it could do... oh well.
Game 4: Spirit Guardian by Nikk F.
Friend was the player
Spirit Guardian gets the overall rating of Pretty Bad
Not outright bad, but... pretty bad. Spirit guardian feels so buggy and makes no sense. It has made the effort of some style, but it does not mount up to much. The puzzles, the mechanics, the story. So mediocre. It is so dark, yet there is literally limited amount of batteries for your flashlight. Its not that scary and kinda made us angry.
Game 5: Beyond The Curtain by Matt Reeves
I was the player
Beyond the Curtain gets the overall rating of Great!
Beyond the Curtain is very walky-simulatory, but then things actually get you to consider giving ATTENTION to it... ahem.
The look and feel, the atmosphere is what this one was mostly about. Yet it also had some actual gameplay considerations. This games sound design is the winner of sound in this collection. It was all appropriate and visceral and tense. Great ending too!
Game 6: Ludomalica by iwilliams
Friend was the player
Ludomalica gets the overall rating of Great!
Ludomalica, puts everything into place pretty well, you play this board game, walk around the house and entice the rules. Then it tries to scare you as it shuts off the lights or opens the door.
We really did not feel much for it until... well... I cant spoil it.
Lets just say that, it wasnt a real scare, it was a scary realisation. And it was so clever, it caught us off-gaurd. Maybe we should have seen it coming, but whatever. It was a really good horror trick.
The rest of the game kinda sucks, kinda. You kinda go and do the same things, but with increased difficulty.
Still, this was pretty simple yet iconic.
Game 7: Rotten Stigma by VisceralError
I was the player
Rotten Stigma gets the overall rating of Meh...
pppfffff.... this was... fine, but, didnt do much... It was run of the mill silent hill homage. shoot the monsters, spooky vibes (but not spooky enough for me), and some puzzles or whatever. I did not care much for this. Forgettable. Sorry.
Game 8: Resver by colorfiction
Friend was the player
Resver gets the overall rating of Pretty Cool
Resver is a linear walky simulatory game. Where it shines tho is in its experience. It has this very cool grungy style, making a lot of itself have a difficult time to be interpreted or defined. Which adds to the horrors when they happen. Nothing scary imo, just a nasty soft panic. Which is a unique feeling to tap into. It is pretty short, but good!
Game 9: The Book of Blood by Darkstone Digital
I was the player
The Book of Blood gets the overall rating of Good!
This game is a mish mash of many mechanics. Its closest comparison would be five nights at freddies but actually good. But also not good since there are a few mechanics that suck ass, or arent used.
Regardless, you think you are stuck in one place but then you have to go out into the darkness. I must say, the presentation in this game was really good.
Being caught never really threatened me as the QTE was easy, also maybe bugged out and didnt let me press on some of them, loosing me a life. And the "Peek out window" mechanic also never got prompted for usage, even if I peeked out to see if I would catch the intruder.
This was good. It wins in presentation, theres a lot of cool shit put togheter.
Game 10: Hunsvotti by Roope Tamminen
Friend was the Player
Hunsvotti gets the overall rating of Best game in Collection!
This is funny, confusing... The game invokes the feeling of being bullied. Its such a shitty feeling but the game kinda does it very well. Im surprised to the "horror" of this game being the feeling of getting bullied. What the fuck, lol.
Regardless, it is great. It has some oddly surprising mechanics (Namely, when you are at 1 hit away from dying) It has a satisfying conclusion, and we even set out to loose on purpose to see what would happen. We werent disappointed.
Game 11: We Never Left by FYRE games
I was the player
We Never Left gets the overall rating of Could have been the best.
We never left is this investigative game where you look through the life of a supposed serial killer by reading papers, listening to tapes and... playing his game.
A lot of awesome buildup and reveals. I must say, this game was great, I loved it. Especially when sound got put into play.
Its biggest, and I would say absolutely horrid drawback, which might have been our fault, is the FPS when all lights are on. It has such a horrid FPS, I was looking at the floor or ceiling when moving around.
The optimization of the game was terrible. The worst
But I still feel like I got what the game wanted to give me, and it was a nice little video they made at the end as well!
Game 12: INTERIM by Phantom Sloth Games
Friend was the player
INTERIM gets the overall rating of Bad
Short, controls mostly suck, story didnt do anything... just bad. It felt so buggy, terrible jumping, yet was a platformer at one point... Gosh, just... not good. Im sorry.
Like, we are forced to run up vertically away from a monster, by jumping and walking over planks you have to set down, and then in a cutscene fall into the monster anyway...
gah, thats just... not good.
The only thing that it got going for it, is some of its style, thats it. It wasnt funny, maybe it tried to be tongue and cheek, but we didnt feel it.
Conclusion
So as you can see, not all games were horrible, but not all games were awesome or amazing. This collection had the most middle of the road set of games, and was not memorable.
Sure we had some moments, but then it dies out.
It wasnt the POGGERS from The Hunt
or the Stapling of Squirrels
The 3 Skelle bros
or Seeing a ghost at the edges of the screen
The Crazy Moon austronaut
The "What the fuck" of Rotgut
or the uh oh of Summer Night
Nothing really stood out from this collection like before.
