Seneste anmeldelser af hulanoobisplaying

Although not perfect and on a few trope-y paths, I genuinely enjoyed playing Whitehaven and appreciated the puzzles and the story it told.

Now, the intro - which was also used for the demo - is pretty much the weakest part of the whole game, especially if you play a lot of horror games, there will be nothing overtly exciting. However, going further into the game, it plays well, the puzzles are fun (confession: I did get stuck in one puzzle and somewhat forced my way through it - I still don’t know what I did there :D), there are a few spooks that were very nicely done (and a few eye-rolling cliches). The story unfolds nicely, although it is rushed a bit towards the end. So, in sum, this is a mixed bag that is still highly enjoyable to play.

I give thumbs up because there were quite a few things in it that I liked a lot and that showed potential for the devs. I am looking forward to their future games because there are some lovely ideas, some actually creepy moments, and a good feel for storytelling (that needs a little polish). The voice acting and soundtrack were very good, above the usual indie game fare, so the devs know how to pick collaborators.

So yeah, go into this with an open mind and you’ll enjoy it. Laugh at the cheesy tropes and appreciate the good moments. After all, that’s what makes indie horror games so fun.

If you want, here's my playthrough (again, for puzzle help, I solved all puzzles fine with the exception of one that just befuddled me and I still don't know how I solved it).

https://youtu.be/17SS3XC41ZE

First things first: I only did a first impression Lets Play on this because I realized that this is not the type of game for me (I am abysmal at run & hide-games), so I can’t say much about the entire game & plot but I played for an hour, which should suffice for some feedback.

The gameplay is smooth, I think especially for running & hiding, the movement is fast, personally, I found that running usually works best but there’s also a few parts where hiding is required. This part was surprisingly fun for me since I usually hate it.

The enemy design was my favourite part. They are both hilarious and terrifying, I loved the pixel weirdness and audio cues, the three enemies I encountered were a hoot, 5/5 can recommend.

The puzzles are mostly easy, although I personally thought that the first chapter was a bit hard to crack since the loop made it hard to try things out without getting a bit annoyed of the repetition.

Which brings me to my main criticism: I have nothing against the loop mechanic per se but there’s so many parts of the game and the pretty slow dialog that you can’t skip that it gets repetitive and ultimately a bit tedious since you HAVE to wait for the characters to finish jabbering before you can make a run for it. This gets old once you’ve heard the same dialog three times in a row, it’s like grandpa’s jokes at a family gathering.
There’s also certain twists that are connected to the loop that seem like a good idea at first but then only end up costing time because you have to move through them over and over again if you failed something. Yes, there’s no death in this game but the alternative plays pretty much like death, so it’s not necessarily an improvement. The main character doesn’t even remember former loops which is kind of weird because that’s not how Groundhog Day works, right?

Anyways, I think that for gamers who enjoy run & hide, fun enemies, and who don’t mind repeating some game steps, this can be a really cool experience. For anyone who has no patience for slow-talkers who say the same thing over and over again: run … and hide, lol.

https://youtu.be/Uf05iqvnIuQ

The Whisperer is a very classic indie horror experience, it has the moody, isolated atmosphere to feel lost in, a lot of mysteries and the point & click gameplay adds to a certain old-fashioned charm - who doesn’t like a classic? I really enjoyed this and I think it’s a gorgeous way to introduce the world of the upcoming sequel/long game “The Valley of Whispers”. It's like the first course for the main game - a great idea also, to build an entire world of horrors.
Also: the environments are gorgeous, I love Winter horror, and this had the additional look & feel of Donner party terrors, so it intrigued me on two levels.

My Playthrough:
https://youtu.be/a-V7AWMQlZU

This game is an adaption of a story by Paul Dini, Stephen Langford and Greg Nicotero which I unfortunately already knew, so the twists and turns did not really wow me as they would an assuming player (and I think this will be a great story to unfold for everyone who doesn't know the source material). I do think this is a nice experience with a few things that could be optimized such as reducing the walking a little (it’s A LOT) and adding a few more conversations and notes to get to know the characters and their dynamics a little better. As it is, it felt a bit rushed at times and slow at others (like, when you had to walk somewhere, did I mention that it was a lot?).

So, all in all, a nice experience and I don’t regret the 4 bucks I spent for it (support your indie devs) but it could have been better with more space for character development, build-up and world building.

If you enjoy Lets Plays or want to take a first look into the gameplay:

https://youtu.be/DVRVDkHkzE4

What I love about Chilla’s Art is that there is a truly unique, distinct style with every game, you just know it’s a Chilla’s Art game. But with this distinct style come games that each do something new and expand on this haunting universe.
The Radio Station has an actual driving mechanic to get to the different locations and follow the mystery of why our protagonist’s brother apparently committed suicide (or did he?) Step by step, we find out what might have haunted him during his last weeks - at the radio station (and some other places)!

As a crappy video game driver, I had a few problems getting into the driving sections, since there are many and there’s so many bends. Fortunately, the game’s car is solid as a rock. It took me a hot second to get into it but once I got into the story, I really got into it. I loved the different puzzles and I think the game design is very smart leading you to the next destination. I am incapable of getting any directions right (in and outside of games) but managed to get through this game fine - that’s good game design :D

I also really loved the subtle spooks that came from the sound effects, the buildings we visited and some scenes that out of context might have been banal but within the game added to the sense of unease.

The one thing that really needs a little update are the translations & subtitles. The translations read like the worst Google translate can offer and it’s a shame because the story itself is creepy as heck, so I am convinced that it would be even better with a less confused translation. On top of that, some of the subtitles jumped so much that it was hard to read parts of it.

Other than that, I really enjoyed it, even if I must have gotten a thousand tickets for bumping into literally everything with my car.

https://youtu.be/DBf_35H88l0

I am not really a fan of maze games and will probably never finish ToruTaru but I still have to write a review to recommend this unique, weird little gem. The main gameplay is finding keys to the next floor but you also can help other people trapped in this hell mansion as well as dispel ghosts with talismans (which also have other functions).
I didn't get too far in my first try but the talisman system apparently allows you to jump between rooms. You also have a map that you can mark individually, so there's a learning curve that will definitely influence how well you're doing.

But is it scary?

YES! The environment changes in between floors but is spooky all around. The sound design is absolutely amazing because it doesn't use the usual tropes of children's laughing or footsteps, it has these weird, distorted sounds and moans that really play with your mind. The ghosties are equally gorgeously twisted and unnerving.

All in all, ToruTaru is super weird but excels in this weirdness because it is also creepy and fun to play. I think especially people who love a challenge, will get a lot of enjoyment out of this.

See my despicable display while hardly making it to the bottom floors here:

https://youtu.be/m8weSMIguic

So, I played one round of Not It and have the faint idea that I barely touched the surface, since this visual novel has 30.000 words and 25 endings, so please consider this when reading my review. I also got the steam key from the devs.

I had a lot of fun with the setting and the characters. It’s great to have voice over for visual novels, it makes the characters come to life and the cast is engaging (a little campy - just enjoy the accents, don’t think about them too much, lol, it fits the visual style and story). The story itself is a lovely cozy (and quite murdery) Halloween-in-a-smalltown-setting that I personally loved. My playthrough took 45 minutes till the end but I played it quite safe and probably therefore got one of the better and more immediate endings.

I think this is a great game both for people who are into visual novels and those who are new to the genre or don’t engage with it often since Not It has shorter story lengths depending on your decisions and the voice over also keeps things more active. Unfortunately, I can’t say how gory this really gets (damn my sensible decision-making) since I really wanted to see some guts but since there is a gore-filter, I am quite sure Not It will deliver.

Costing less than 6 bucks, I would definitely recommend it since it’s easy to get in, fun to get through and interesting enough to go for several endings.

My Lets Play to get a first impression:

https://youtu.be/sT4gDKLiwZE

Two siblings, one babysitter and a creepy forrest nearby - this pixel horror is an amazing new entry in Octavi Navarro’s and Susanna Granell’s Midnight Scenes-series of short horror games. Don’t let yourself be fooled by the cute visuals, this game packs a punch and has an epic ending. It’s worth every buck.

Tl;dr: House of Ashes is worth a playthrough for the story and change of scenery but lacks a lot in both the gameplay and character department. If you like stale tropes from 90s military action movies, you’ll love this game, otherwise, be prepared to roll your eyes a LOT.

House of Ashes plays in Iraq during 2003 and follows a rag tag team of soldiers into an intel mission that ends up in an ancient tomb that houses more than a few (deadly) secrets.

Look, when I saw the first trailers for House of Ashes, I was excited because it looked like we do finally get the Horror Tomb Raider we always wanted (we did, didn’t we?). But something changed with my beloved “Daily Soap but make it Horror” franchise. Instead of interesting, sassy and delightfully annoying characters, we get a bunch of beefed up “Oorah” shouting Blandy McBlandfaces who have no personality whatsoever. The only characters that seem to be remotely unique are not even playable and have approx 10 minutes screentime.
What you get instead: some sexist yo mama-jokes no one asked for, clunky “we can solve our differences by fighting a common enemy”-storylines and so much military romanticism that this game is not only set in 2003 but also feels like it was written in 2003.

Add gameplay that is like explaining to your mother how to set up WLAN - slow, awkward and frustrating. I played Little Hope on Playstation which ran smooth as heck. House of Ashes on PC played exhausting and had fixed camera angles that felt like no one did a test playthrough. I heckled the gameplay as much as I heckled the characters throughout this game.

Now, to end with the good: The directions House of Ashes takes eventually are quite interesting and some of the visuals are gorgeous. There is some world building lore that is intriguing (but also makes you think why it wasn’t a bigger part of the gmae) and towards the end you get some character pairings that are actually fun and remind of ye olden times of Supermassive Games, although none reach the heights of the delightful Emily from Until Dawn (<3).

As it is, I acknowledge that the devs wanted to try something new and that should never be discouraged. But I question the clunky gameplay, tropey story and especially those weirdly boring characters. I always thought that the biggest strength of Supermassive Games was in writing snappy dialogue and creating tension between everyone and their mother. But House of Ashes wastes their cast mostly with generic stock characters whose conflicts and fates quite I never truly cared about.

I warmed to both the game(play) and the characters eventually but it took about 2/3 which in my opinion is a tad bit too long. I do recommend it, though, since 2021 has been a bit of a lackluster horror year and I did eventually enjoy the game.

Wanna see me starting off excited and getting more and more annoyed in my Lets Play?

https://youtu.be/664MW86q1SM

If you don’t get weird over the length of indie horror than this roundaobut 2-3 hours long horror experience will be an absolutely delight for you. You play as Chris who gets stuck in rural Wales and stumbles right into the middle of a big scientific mystery, complete with an abandoned village, flickering memories of a horrifying past and a radio voice that might or might not be trustworthy.

The gameplay is super smooth and easy, so this game is also great for beginners or noobs (like me!). That doesn’t mean that it’s boring though. The pace of the game is perfect, there’s not much backtracking and you can trust in the game to lead you where you need to be without missing out.

The voice acting, dialog and visuals are all fantastic. I would say, this game nails what is positive about understatement. Every single thing has its reason, feels polished and keeps you immersed.
Personally, I only encountered a tiny audio bug that was easily fixed with a new load and a stuck sheep that was in its own way more hilarious than anything else. Which is to say: for a small indie production in the first couple of days after publication, this game is already ahead of a lot of buggier games by bigger studios.

As it is, this is one of my favourites this year and hopefully will be a setup for more horror experiences by Headware Games. I can very well imagine this as the starting point for a bigger world that elaborates on the mysteries of Chasing Static. It’s absolutely beautiful and worth every penny.

Get a first impression of the game in my Lets Play: https://youtu.be/qhYyjMjBqww