Évaluations récentes de 🌻Chudah🌻

This game is the wurst!!!

Yes, I played the OG when it first released in 2001, and it’s remained one of my favorites to this day. I’ve listened to the soundtrack more times than I can count. Hell, I used to listen to the game rip before bed just to relax (you know, the industrial noises that sound like “rocks banging around a washing machine”). None of that makes me an expert on the series, though, nor does it even matter. Silent Hill 2 isn’t the same game that was released in 2001. Sure, there are aspects of the original that I prefer and don’t believe can ever be fully replicated, but Silent Hill 2 is a good game. No…it’s a GREAT game! And that’s WAY more than I expected to say when it was first announced two years ago.

Silent Hill has been, and always will be, about atmosphere. These games instill a sense of dread in me that I can’t fully explain or comprehend, and that is why I constantly find myself returning to them time and again. To step back into that world for the first time in over a decade has been a dream come true! What Bloober Team was able to accomplish has finally brought me home to where my love of survival horror had all begun.

Despite my initial worries, the story remains faithful through and through, with added scenes, tweaks to conversations, and new character interactions elevating its emotional core even further. The actors are beyond fantastic. Luke Roberts adds so much depth to James Sunderland's character, he feels like a flesh and blood human being. I’ve seen comments that the performances are flat and lack the emotional poignancy of the OG, but I don't agree at all. These actors ARE the characters; you can see it in every expression, hear it in every sigh, read it in every utterance… There are moments when I know EXACTLY what a character is thinking, and they haven’t said a single word. Granted, there are a few line deliveries from the original that come off more intensely authentic, but I far and away prefer the new performances to the old, and don’t find them to be any less “dreamy” or effective. James is more than a grieving husband. Maria is more than a trampy harlot. Angela’s pain and trauma is so on display that I can’t understand how anyone can look at her and not instantly feel their heart rend in two... Eddie is, well, Eddie, but I like that he’s less a of goof and more of a ticking-time-bomb, and that works perfectly for his redesigned boss fight.

If there’s anything that has been improved over the original, however, it’s the combat. All of the old weaponry is accounted for (save for one item, but I like what they did with it thematically), and they feel satisfying to use, especially the melee weapons. The heft of the board with nails, and later on the pipe, is palpable when you’re bashing the monsters into a bloody pulp. Granted, it’s not as thrilling as Leon S. Kennedy round-house kicking ganados, but it feels weighty and impactful, and I never really got tired of it. James’ increasingly unhinged grunts and screams as he’s bashing away at eldritch monstrosities don’t hurt either. The gunplay, while basic, is serviceable without making James feel overpowered; even while using keyboard and mouse, landing hits isn’t always a guarantee. The way the enemies move is often unpredictable and requires some finesse with the dodge button, but that’s all part of making the mechanics more engaging. James isn’t a commando, nor does he play like one, so you’ll be on your toes from start to finish, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Then there are the graphics. I’m not lying when I tell you this may be one of the best looking games I have ever played. The world design, the environmental detail, the lighting, the fog, the grime, the decay and blood and rust, it all adds to the immersion and makes me want to explore every nook and cranny ‘til I’ve uncovered all the little secrets the game has to offer. The ONLY issue I have with so much graphical fidelity is that sometimes the increased detail doesn’t allow the mind to fill in all those disgusting little cracks with even more horrific imagery. But that’s where shadow comes into play.

The darkness in Silent Hill is almost an entity in-of-itself. The way it swallows James’ surroundings, especially in the Otherworld, eliciting feelings of claustrophobic isolation…it's near perfection. I’ve never seen darkness wielded so well in a horror game. When you’re drowning in a sea of black, when not even your own flashlight burns bright enough to push back the encroaching shadows, every source of light is a welcome respite from the horror. You’ll definitely need to have ray tracing turned on to get the most out of the lighting effects, however. Without it, the dark areas are TOO dark, and you’ll be forced to increase the gamma to the point that the shadows aren’t nearly as ominous as they should be. For some, that may mean their performance gets dumped into the toilet, but if you can at least play at a stable 30 fps with RT on, I’d highly recommend it over the alternative.

As for where the game falters, it's in the sound design. Most of the ambient sounds are remastered from the OG, but I feel part of what made the original so unsettling is that there was rawness to the “noise” that feels overproduced with the remastering. It’s like when an artist remasters an old song, it rarely has the same vibe as the original. Imperfection creates character, and taking it away doesn’t always make something better. In a game where the degradation of your surroundings is actually part of the story, losing those imperfections actually removes a bit of the horror. Then there’s the silence. The moments when James is surrounded by the complete absence of sound are few and far between, and THAT is the biggest failure in the sound design. There’s nothing like walking down a hallway and the only thing you hear are James’ footsteps echoing throughout the darkness. It not only instills a sense of loneliness in the player, but creates unease as our emotions are no longer being lead by what we hear. Now don’t get me wrong, the sound design isn't at all horrible. It WILL freak you out, especially while traversing the darker environments, doubly so if you’ve never played one of these games before, but it’s missing the eeriness of the original that I’m not sure can be recaptured, and that's a shame.

Of course, there are also the performance issues, which are difficult to get around no matter how beefy your system is. Despite upgrading specifically for this game, my RTX4080/Ryzen 9 5950x combo at 1440p was still struggling, and the stuttering and frame drops proved to be far more than mere annoyances. It took days of fiddling with settings, installing mods, and endless engine.ini manipulations to determine that none of it was really fixing anything. So I dropped the mods, switched DLSS off, turned Rebar on, cut my monitor’s refresh rate in half, and capped my fps to 60, and that gave me a smooth enough experience to truly enjoy my stay. That said, I can completely understand how the performance issues are a deal breaker for many, but even at its worst, I was still able to enjoy myself enough to overlook these technical difficulties.

To be honest, I could probably write another half dozen paragraphs on the game (I didn’t even touch on the boss fights, symbolism, theories and new endings), but this review has gone on for far too long. Despite some minor grievances, Silent Hill 2 is a fantastic return to form for the seminal horror series, and I really, TRULY hope future games continue on this trajectory, because I want MORE. I NEED more. Whether it’s another remake, a new entry, or just more Silent Hill media in general, we need games like Silent Hill. There really isn't anything else out there quite like it, and I’m overjoyed that it’s finally back to fill the hole in my horror-loving heart.

Best soundtrack I've bought in years. Smooth and smarmy, and SOOOOO G-E-W-D, gewd!

Listen, I'm not here to make any excuses. Squirrel Stapler is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ insane, and I loved every moment of it. My only regret is not visiting the Shady Shack on day 1, but there's always next run! If you love weird, surreal, totally absurdist indie horror, you can't go wrong with Squirrel Stapler. It'll be the best time you've ever had stapling dead squirrels to rotting carcasses, and you can quote me on that!

Let me preface this review by stating that I absolutely did not like Puppet Combo's "Stay Out of the House". It was loud and frustrating, and I spent more time dying than actually enjoying my time with it. Sinner 97, on the other hand, is one of the freshest surprises I've had in a LONG while. It has similar gameplay to Stay Out of the House, but gets rid of all of that game's annoyances while adding mechanics that make the experience much less exasperating.

The game starts outside a run-down Baptist church. You're a journalist who received a note and videotape from one of the congregation's members begging someone, ANYONE for help. It seems the pastor has gone insane and has cut off all access to the outside world. The people are trapped, suffering, and in need of rescue, and you're the only one who can get to the bottom of it all!

Now, don't mistake Sinner 97 for a narrative horror, 'cause it ain't that. There IS a story, and you do find notes that give bits and pieces of answers to what's going on, but the game is basically an arcadey version of Resident Evil 1, except you have a chainsaw-wielding maniac chasing you around in a horrific game of cat-and-mouse. You need to find your way through locked rooms, solve simple puzzles, and gather evidence before fleeing the church so you can reveal the truth to the world.

Much of the game's difficulty comes from your limited inventory which only allows you to hold 3 items at any given time. The puzzles need solving, but you won't likely have what you need on you, so you gotta remember where you last saw that wrench, sneak your way through the house again avoiding the Father in the process, then head back with it firmly in your grasp. It's a lot more nerve-wracking than it sounds, especially when you hear the Father's footsteps clomping around nearby. And let me tell ya, I haven't been on edge like this since Mr. X in RE2R! Thankfully, getting attacked by the Father isn't an insta-kill. He'll do some damage, but as long as you can get to a hiding spot without him seeing (or to the one safe room in the entire house), you should be fine. There are health kits laying around, but they're limited, as are the batteries you'll need to power your flashlight. So, there is some strategy needed when it comes to resource management.

The ONLY thing I have a gripe with is that when you save the game and completely close out of the application, all of the health and batteries that you used reappear upon booting the game up again. Even the items you've seen or picked up before are moved to the Save Room including the ones you already used in previous puzzles. I'm really not sure if this is a bug or if it's actually intended due to a limitation of the game's programming since every new playthrough has random item placement. Maybe the game can't remember where you originally saw and/or left those items, so it just gives them to you so you're not searching around in the wrong places? Unfortunately, this allows players to cheese the difficulty by resetting all of the resources on demand, but if you want a pure gameplay experience, I'd suggest playing through in one sitting which takes between 2 and 3 hours depending on how good your memory is. Considering the game was made for speedrunning, I'd say a single sitting is the intended way to play anyway.

Sinner 97 is absolutely more than it appears. It may not be the deepest horror game you'll ever play, or even the scariest, but it's a heck of a lot of fun. I generally don't enjoy cat-and-mouse style games, but this is one game that does it right, at least for my specific taste in horror. So if you've got a fiver sitting in your wallet and you're looking for something to get your adrenaline pumping, you can do a LOT worse than Sinner 97. Seriously, have you seen some of the games that pass for horror on Steam these days? It's embarrassing!

I realize Red Valley is from the same developer that made Trash Horror Collection, which was charming in its jankiness, but Red Valley lacks the quirky qualities that keep me playing games like these just for the poops and giggles. I'm really not sure if it's purposefully bad, but I've played a lot of indie horrors that despite being janky and unpolished, clearly came from a place of love. Red Valley, on the other hand, feels shameless in how much it rips from better games, especially Silent Hill. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but this is way beyond imitation...one music track is literally stolen right from the Silent Hill 2 soundtrack with absolutely no edits at all, just straight up copy/pasted. As for the gameplay, it's your standard "explore an area, fight off monsters, find keys, open doors, rinse and repeat." There's nothing too offensive other than the melee combat with hit boxes that are non-existent half the time.

I know the game is only 2 bucks, but seriously, go buy yourself a candy bar instead. Or better yet, check out Unsorted Horror. It's free, it has achievements, and it's creatively unique.

So I was sitting in my security booth, checking people in, counting down the seconds 'til my federally-mandated 15 minute break when some weird crap started happening. I wasn't sure if the hooch I'd slipped into my coffee was playing tricks on me, but I could swear that bloody-looking hand print wasn't on the stall wall when I started my shift. Was it blood? Maybe it was mud. I don't even know, but the cars kept coming, and I didn't have time to fuss with it. Besides, the last time I brought up all the weird crap I've been noticing to management, I ended up with a pink slip. So anyway, that's when I hear the crying...

I don't know what it is about horror games that have me performing mundane tasks while creepy things happen all around me, but I absolutely love'em, ESPECIALLY when they're as creative and fun as Security Booth. The premise may sound boring, and things do take a little bit to get going, but when they do, it's a freaking riot. You play a security guard screening employees on their way into a "Half-Life" type lab when strange things begin happening. Depending on how well (or badly) you screen the employees, different events will occur, and as a minimum-wage working grunt you'll have no idea how or why they're happening, but that's why it works so well. In a world where games are determined to explain away all of their mysteries, where the most minute detail has a full wiki page dissecting it down to the finest minutia, Security Booth strips away all of that and lets your mind fill in the blanks. And let me tell ya, not knowing is way more fun than having exposition dumped all over you.

Depending on how you fare in your screening efforts, there are 7 different endings, all with different unique outcomes. Then there are the unlockable "tapes" that have you playing through various scenarios to uncover more of the story and lore. These gameplay snippets take place in vastly different settings, but all shed some light on the experiments Nova Nexus has been conducting. Experiments that may or may not be violating the laws of nature itself...

I realize games like this appeal to a very particular set of tastes, but if you enjoy quirky gameplay with creative storytelling and aren't turned off by the chunky polygon aesthetic, definitely give Security Booth a try, especially if you can snag it while on sale. Though $5 seems more than fair for the amount of enjoyment to be had here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9ZkPgB-iVo

I'm not even sure how From the Darkness ended up in my library. I was sifting through games looking for something to sate my indie horror hunger when I stumbled across it. Needing something to play, I quickly perused the Steam reviews and saw a bunch of thumbs up and people lauding the game, but I've been there before. Can't tell you how many times I was lead astray by reviews claiming an indie horror is the creepiest thing they've played since sliced bread...or something. My expectations were suitably low as I fired it up. The stock assets didn't have me very hopeful, but with nothing better to do on a lonely Saturday night, I poured myself another glass of wine and forged on...and let me tell you, I'm glad I didn't nope out after the first 5 minutes. There are only a handful of indie devs that truly understand horror, and if From the Darkness is any indication, N4bA has a bright future ahead of him.

The premise is pretty simple. You enter an abandoned apartment in search of a family photo album. Much of the game takes place in the same handful of rooms, but unlike other horror titles where you're trapped in an enclosed area with little to do, From the Darkness will continually keep you on your toes with creepy freak outs that are more surreal than cliche. The sound design is phenomenal as well; there are a few points where what you hear is vital to the gameplay, and it's horrifying on an instinctual level. Sometimes what we can't see is WAY scarier than what we can.

Could the game have been better? Probably. But From the Darkness is honestly pretty damned good for a short horror experience, and I'm ALL about short indie horrors these day. This is a game that proves creativity trumps presentation. There may not be much of a story here, but does that even matter? Horror is what we feel, and this game creeped me out in all the right ways. $7 for an hour of creepy gameplay may be a bit much, but if you can nab this little gem while on sale, it's totally worth your time. Now, to check out N4bA's other games...I need another horror fix.

I'd always been a fan of the slide puzzles from the Legendary Mahjong games, so it's nice to see the game mode release in its own title with over 90 new puzzles to work through. And let me tell ya, the puzzles ain't messin' around this time. The difficulty has significantly increased, but so has the tedium of slowly working through each board. Still, clearing each stage feels like an achievement when you've been boggling over just how in the heck you're going to avoid getting pieces stuck over and over again. Fortunately, if you're TOO stuck, video walkthroughs are available in the game itself to help you through, but I prefer to puzzle them out myself. That said, puzzle fans will definitely want to check this one out. But if you're looking for something a little more casual, the Legendary Mahjong games may be a better option for ya.

https://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3025567325

I'd say Unsorted Horror is better than it has any right to be, but considering how low effort so many indie horror games are these days, no...Unsorted Horror has EVERY right to be this good. These 15 minute shorts are creepier than 80% of the drudge releasing on Steam. Seriously...a little creativity goes a LONG way, and the uniqueness of each of the 5 games in this anthology is so SO refreshing. As a free-to-play title WITH Steam Achievements? There's really no excuse not to play this gem if you're at all interested in indie horror. Good indie horror.