The Yakuza series had massive success with its spinoff, Like a Dragon. While it had flaws, it was entertaining and had great characters and a detailed story. The entire Yakuza franchise excels in the storytelling and character development departments. Judgment is no different. You play as the lawyer turned detective Tavo Kagami, trying to rid himself of his demons and upturn a bunch of corrupt politicians. An Alzheimer’s cure and a murder mystery are at the center of this. The story is well constructed and kept me on the edge of my seat at every turn. The entire story has chapters ending on cliffhangers like addictive binge-worthy TV shows. I always wanted to know what was going to come next. At many points, it felt like Yagami and co. were backed into a corner, and I didn’t see any way out, only for the story to twist and turn in crazy ways.
I don’t want to say too much about the story, as any small detail can spoil it. Just know that this is the strongest point of the game and what makes it worth sticking through the 30-plus-hour game. The second reason is the characters. There are many, and they are well-acted and have great backstories. They are slowly introduced throughout the game, and by the end, I either loved them or hated them. Tavo himself is a well-rounded character who’s stubborn and unwilling to back down from anything. I really liked the personalities of each character. They were unique and interesting, and they all stood out in their own way. For such a large cast, this is usually hard to pull off or not done well enough.
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As for the gameplay, this is where Judgment falters, and the entire Yakuza series lacks here in every entry in some way. You get to run around in this open map called Kamarucho. I don’t want to say open world because it’s just a small city that can be run across in about 2–3 minutes. It’s a city full of crime and underground misdeeds. What’s the point of the open city? I don’t really know. Mostly for side quests, but I always found these to be underwhelming and repetitive in the Yakuza series. There are a few types. First off, there are actual side cases that net you more SP and cash. That’s about it. They are mostly uninteresting and don’t advance the story or characters at all. There are friend events spread throughout that net you skills that can be unlocked, SP, and cash. These are the two main types of side quests you can partake in, and I did finish most side cases just for the SP and cash. You really need cash to buy healing items and stay stocked up.
There are taxis spread throughout to help with fast travel. With such a small area, you would think it’s pointless, but it’s great to avoid fights on the streets. These are randomly occurring, and you can usually run from them. I felt it hindered progress, and after the third chapter, it didn’t net enough SP to be worth bothering with. Eventually, you will be wanted by street gangs, and your threat level will increase unless you stop a boss-type enemy. This never goes away and will always go back to 100%, so I just ignored them. There are also side activities that are mostly used for dating. That’s another side quest that I didn’t find interesting. You can meet girls through friend events or side cases and later date them by presenting presents. Side mini-games like batting, darts, and gambling can be fun to an extent, but when are mini-games like this ever fun to go back to? It’s just filler content, and for achievement hunters, really. It doesn’t advance the story or add to it in any way; I just felt like all of these side activities and missions were chores to complete.
Let’s get into combat. It’s flawed, for sure. While it looks cool and is easy to understand, it suffers from unresponsive controls and animations that don’t interrupt when you input a command. I always felt like my button presses were delayed. There are two fighting stances. Tiger for one-to-one fights and Crane for multiple enemies. You can pick up objects and hit people with them, and there’s a special EX finishing move that you can perform, which is key to winning tougher fights. You also have an EX boost, which unlocks more powerful combos and increases your defense. Again, a key thing to use to win fights I just felt like no matter what I did, I couldn’t master the system. There is a block and dodge button, but it seems that the enemies are magnetized to you because no matter how much I dodge or run away, they always follow me and connect their attacks. It makes boss fights especially infuriating. While I had plenty of items I could use at my disposal to help, I wish I could rely more on my skills, but the fighting system just doesn’t allow it.
There are other small annoyances, such as mortal wounds. These lockout parts of your health bar, and the only thing in the game that can fix this are med-kits, which are rare and cost a lot of money. There’s only one person that can heal you, and they’re sold underground in a sewer. Of course, you have to go through the animation of opening the sewer, sliding down a ladder, running down the sewer, and then the same thing going back up. Just cut all of this out! I also found the game way too long. It’s padded with a ton of fights throughout the main story, and I wish a lot of this was cut out. There are easily 10 hours of fights just in the main story. Nothing breaks this up, however. There are repetitive detective events like searching for objects in first-person, chase scenes, and tailing people. My god, do these get old quickly? Tailing missions are never fun in games, and these are dragged out for sometimes over five minutes. You can hide behind objects, and that’s about it. Just don’t fill out the suspicion meter. All of these mini-games are just incredibly repetitive and could have been cut out.
The game at least looks decent. It’s a PS4 port, so some parts look rough. There are some textures that look like PS3-era stuff, but at least the facial animations and character models are really good. There’s lots of detail everywhere, but don’t expect this to push your hardware to its limits. It mostly looks very realistic and sterile, with not much in the way of artistic flair. It looks like a modern-day Japanese city.
Overall, Judgment excels in storytelling and character development but falters in gameplay. The fighting is stiff and unresponsive, the mini-games are repetitive and pad out the hours, and I felt the detective work in the courtroom was a missed opportunity. The open city is an excuse to throw side cases and missions at you that are meaningless and just pad gameplay. Random city fights are annoying and get in the way of progress, and the visuals aren’t much of an upgrade. What’
Scorn is a game that’s been in the making for a long time, despite my only knowledge of it being shown at E3 earlier this year. I’ve been hyped for this game since and stayed up until 3 a.m. on launch day to play it. The gameplay videos were misleading. It looked like a very atmospheric and macabre FPS; however, nothing was said about the heavy puzzles, short length, or complete lack of story or context.
The opening is similar to God of War. The menu is in real-time, and when you start a new game, you awaken from the main menu. I didn’t suspect anything during the first hour of the game. I expected the game to open up slowly and thought the slow pace, long hallways, and lack of any story, voice acting, or context were just the beginning. Sadly, this is the entire game. There are five main acts in the game, and each one is just a giant level full of puzzles, backtracking, and terrible combat. Combat isn’t actually introduced until Act 3, but I digress.
The game doesn’t start out well, with an incredibly frustrating slider puzzle. You must move pods around a wall, and I had to look up how to try and solve it right away. The first act took an hour to complete because of all the backtracking and trying to explore the level and see what parts of this puzzle I should tackle first. This quickly takes your focus away from the fantastic art design, infrastructure, and alien mystery of the game. I was running around pulling switches, pushing carts, and sliding puzzles for an entire hour. There was no reward to this except an incredibly disturbing and gory-cut scene of a poor creature pleading for help only to be sacrificed to progress to the next level. I thought during the E3 videos that this was what Scorn was full of. Incredibly gory scenes, but there were only a few of them spread throughout.
As you progress on to Act 3 to pick up your first weapon, you realize that this is all the game is. Puzzle after puzzle, endless rooms and hallways, no exploration, no side quests, nothing. The first weapon is some sort of jabber thing that gives you two hits before it needs to charge. This is where combat falls apart. The enemies are fine. There are three or four different kinds, ranging from weak two-hitters to massive dog-like ones that need projectile fire. The combat is just so slow. You need to aim, jab the creatures, then run away and let them recharge just to turn around and do it again. It’s clunky, I died way more than I wanted to, and health is way too scarce for this type of combat. Later on, you get a pistol and then a shotgun, but ammo is so scarce for them that I often just had to run from enemies. You eventually have to take everyone out, as there is a lot of backtracking needed to find keys, go back and insert them into the correct spot, then go back and do something else.
Reloading is really slow, and you’re vulnerable. If you thought Killzone’s reloading animations were long, this is worse. There’s no jump button, no crouch, but there is a sprint button. You can just run away, turn around, shoot, and hope your shots don’t miss. If you’re caught with an unloaded weapon, you’re dead. Normally, this would be forgivable, but there’s no reward for doing anything. The occasional gory torture scene doesn’t cut it, and they are short and spread very far apart. I actually enjoyed the smaller puzzles more than the large level-size main puzzle, but some were just way too complicated and difficult. I frequently got lost in maze-like hallways, and Act 4 was excruciatingly difficult due to all the enemies around and scarce ammo. I had to strategize what ammo to use on what enemy.
There is a final boss fight, which was more annoying than frustrating, and I did find several bugs in which I couldn’t activate switches, and my game crashed my whole PC once. Checkpoints are unfairly spread apart, and you are forced to restart entire sections and go through the same animations and small scenes just to die again. Even the ending didn’t save this game at all. There’s no satisfying conclusion. I kept telling myself, Okay, this is the moment! This is it! We’re going to see why you’re in this alien world trying to survive!” Only to get nothing. The game pretty much just ends without spoiling it.
I did enjoy seeing this game, though. Playing it again is another story. The game has some of the best art design, technical visuals, and sound design I’ve ever seen. The late H.R. Giger (Alien)-inspired architecture is fascinating to look at, and I wanted to stop and look at every new thing I came across. This game is a work of art, and I feel if they either went all-out with the combat Quake style or cut it out completely, it would have helped this game immensely. The combat doesn’t add anything to the game at all. It just hinders puzzle-solving and backtracking and makes the game take longer to finish.
Overall, Scorn is a pretty big disappointment with many shortcomings. The complete lack of story or context, awful and sluggish combat, scarce gory scenes, and maze-like levels hinder the game at every turn. The game’s only saving grace is the amazing sound and art design. It’s a visual masterpiece. The game’s short length is in its favor because of these issues.
I really like the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei series, but they are insanely long and challenging. These are hardcore JRPGs, not meant for casual players. Most won’t have the stamina needed to sit through 150+-hour games, and the PlayStation Trophy data shows that. Less than half of all Persona 5 players finished the game. Thankfully, for people like me, Atlus put me in an extra-easy mode called Safety that let me finish my first-ever Persona game. I tried the third and fourth games several times and just couldn’t do it. While I eventually did well in battles, the games were too long. The story in Persona 5 is fantastic, and there are plenty of great things about this game, but a few key issues may drive most players away, even more casual JRPG fans.
The story is insanely deep and detailed. There are plenty of mysteries, twists, and turns that kept me trucking on because I wanted to see what happened next. The characters are compelling, well-written, and very likable; however, you still need to like anime to enjoy the characters in this game. There are some typical anime tropes that leak in, but I think people who play JRPGs are already aware of this. Your character is Joker, a teenage boy wrongfully convicted of assaulting a high-profile individual for just trying to save a woman from harassment on the street. You end up living with someone who volunteered to take in a convict and watch over you so you can get rehabilitated. This game plays just like previous persona games, with a time limit, days going by, social rankings, and acquiring personas.
The game will introduce things to you throughout the entire game, and I mean throughout. 40 hours in, I was still getting tutorial messages. The game is an incredibly slow burn. I didn’t get to do any battling until the fifth or sixth hour. This was all story and world-building, introducing the idea of personas, your purpose, and your back story, and showing you how to go about the day-to-day. The game is mostly dialog, to be honest. Out of the 80 hours it took me to finish the game, maybe 25 of those were spent actually exploring the dungeons and fighting. There is a lot of character-building and slice-of-life stuff in here. You also have a time limit to finish every palace, which is the main dungeon in the game.
When you’re not battling, you are living your everyday life. You need to go to school, and the day is broken up into sections such as early morning, which is reserved for dialog you hear on the train going to school, talking to friends at the train station, etc. Morning and afternoon are reserved for things happening at school during the week or random quizzes that you can answer to increase your social stats. These stats are knowledge, proficiency, charm, kindness, and guts. These are needed to finish confidant arcs and max out that persona category, so you can get stat boosts when using that type of persona. These stats can be increased by doing certain activities like watching movies, playing games, doing chores, and other everyday activities. It’s important to use your downtime to increase these stats, as the game is balanced by not just level grinding but having these extra stats for each persona type.
After school time is reserved for doing things around the city, such as said activities, and getting together to enter Momentos, which is a secondary dungeon with a few dozen levels that you need to descend to complete requests from people. In the end, it’s required to descend fully for the final dungeon, but before that, it’s optional. I recommend doing these late-game activities so you can just barrel through the levels at the end. The evening is reserved for nighttime activities and jobs, even to earn more money. After the activity is done, you advance to the next day and do this all over. Some days are interrupted by story elements, scripted scenes, and other events. It’s important to hang out with confidants when you get texts from them to advance their persona ranking. These are where the side stories for each character are held. They can be long-cut scenes too. Usually, you get 30 odd days between each major palace to fill the time. This time period can take hours to finish.
When you do actually battle, your persona is based on finding the weaknesses of your enemies. This can be both good and bad. If you find the weakness, you get one more turn. This can be elemental or physical. The downside is that the entire game can be over if you don’t find these quickly. It’s trial and error as to finding the weakness, and some just don’t have one. You waste precious turns trying to figure this out, and it can make some boss fights grueling. You can save within these palaces and return to the real world to buy items and increase your persona rankings more, but if you don’t find the treasure and beat the boss by the deadline, it’s game over. I’ve always hated this about the series, and it makes the game more difficult and frustrating than it needs to be. You can capture personas by talking to them when they’re weak in battle. If successful, they will join your ranks. It’s important to keep a good variety of personas leveled up and acquire new ones with better skills. You can fuse and itemize them in the Velvet Room, as well as sacrifice weaker ones to strengthen others.
While you can use multiple personas, your party members are stuck with one. Every few levels, they will gain new abilities for their personas, and you have a limited number of slots, so it’s important to keep them balanced. Inside these palaces, you can acquire items, treasures to sell, and powerful equipment that you can buy in the airsoft shop. These palaces are huge, with multiple levels, and can take hours to complete. I played the game on safety difficulty so I could beat each palace in a single sitting, but if you need to level grind and fuse personas, you could take the entire time limit. Each palace has a different theme, and they look cool, but the weak puzzles and labyrinthine halls of some of them are really annoying. Enemies walk around in real-time, and because you are a thief, you can get behind cover and dash around them stealthily or take them head-on. Some palaces are a really confusing mess, and I found some just went on for too long.
Those are your two main parts of the game. Battling in Momentos or palaces and living your everyday life to increase social stats and play mini-games I personally don’t like the trial and error of exploiting weaknesses to win each fight. The graphics are decent, while stylistically they look great with lots of flash and color, but technically it looks like a typical JRPG and borderline last generation and not too much of a step up from the PS3 version. While it seems there is a lot to do in the game, there actually isn’t. You’re so focused on visiting confidants and maxing out social stats in the real world that it feels like a chore after a while. You have to realize there are nearly 250 in-game days you have to get through on top of the palaces and moments. The game just feels like it never ends. 80 hours to finish safety difficulties, and it can take 150–200 hours for higher difficulties. I had to dedicate every free minute I had over the last three weeks to finishing this game and not playing any other games in between. I wish there was a warning at the beginning of the game letting players know how long the game can take on average, or even put it somewhere on an official source of information for the game. I have played and bought many JRPGs, not realizing just how long it takes to beat them.
Overall, I don’t want to talk too much about the story because I can easily spoil something. The Phantom Thieves and trying to change the hearts of criminals is a great story. It can be very dark at times when talking about child exploitation, abuse, murder, money laundering, and many other crimes. It’s a dark game, and I felt it had a very memorable story, but it takes way too long to tell it. Many will balk at the trial and error of weakness exploitation to win battles, insane amounts of grinding, and the constant need to micro-manage your personas to get a well-balanced, always leveled-up arsenal, which might seem like too much. That doesn’t include dozens upon dozens of hours of reading dialog and watching cut scenes. I recommend this only to the hardest-core JRPG fans. This game is not to be taken lightly. While I complain about some of these things, fans of this genre embrace it, and that’s okay, but for only around 40% of players to have finished the game says something about the length.
Ratchet & Clank was a series I never got into growing up. My youngest sister was a diehard R&C fan and played every game as they came out, but they seemed “kiddie” for me at the time. While I knew they were good, they seemed too easy and straightforward. Fast forward nearly twenty years later, and I wish I had played them. R&C is a complete “from the ground up” remake of the first game with fancy next-generation visuals and polish. If you didn’t know anything about the series, you would think this was a brand new series. I say brand new, as this isn’t just a 1:1 remake but a complete redo of the first game. Characters were added and taken away; Quark’s story is redone, and so is the entire story. A couple of enemies are missing, and even a couple of levels. However, what’s left looks amazing and is still a blast to play.
You play Ratchet and Clank. Ratchet is a Lombax obsessed with glory, and Clank is a defective robot that escapes Dr. Nefarious’ factory. Together, you gather weapons and explore planets to help the Galactic Rangers and Quark take down Chairman Drek and Dr. Nefarious’ planet-killing device. The story is simple and not very memorable, but the characters are, and they were iconic staples back in the day. Quark is a dimwitted superhero, and all the other characters have sharp and witty writing. You will definitely chuckle a few times throughout. The characters and enemies are well designed, with fun animations and lots of variety on each planet. Most of the game is mostly just completing objectives in linear levels and then moving on to the next one. There are a few planets with optional objectives, such as a trading card-collecting game, collecting 90 brains, and exploring certain parts of levels. These will award the player with new gadgets, weapons, and, of course, trophies.
Shooting in the game is fun and one of the series’ unique mainstays. The weapons are what make R&C so unique and stand out among other shooters outside of the tame presentation. The Groovitron is a weapon that shoots disco balls and makes enemies dance, so you can get some breathing room. The Pixelater (my favorite weapon) turns the enemies into 8-bit sprites for a short time and acts as a shotgun. Mr. Zurkon is a shield and satellite weapon; the Glove of Doom releases a bunch of angry robots; and the Photon Drum is a bomb that pulses and causes damage. While the weapons are cool, I did find them unbalanced. I felt there were too many of them, and a lot just never saw any use, such as the Sheepinator and various others. I wanted more weapons that shot projectiles that weren’t just missiles, maybe more rapid fire, and more close-quarter weapons. While these weapons are cool and unique, I just didn’t find many uses for many of them.
You can buy new weapons from the Gadgetron vendors and upgrade weapons with Raritanium. Upgrading is a must for getting max damage, more ammo, and extra bonuses. I recommend you upgrade all the weapons you mainly use first, as one play-through will let you upgrade maybe 2-3 weapons to 100%. Outside of weapons, there are a few passive gadgets that let you progress through levels, such as the Trespasser, which involves solving puzzles that can get rather tricky. There are a few hoverboard race sections, and of course, you need to acquire bolts in the game by smashing boxes, defeating enemies, and completing objectives. I do want to mention one aspect of R&C that’s fun and unique: seeing hundreds of bolts on screen fly around as enemies explode and boxes blow up, and going around and collecting all of these. It’s something in the game I’ve always thought was fun.
Despite the simple design of the game, it never gets boring. Each planet is beautifully crafted and has a huge graphical upgrade over the first game. There’s just so much more detail two console generations later that couldn’t be done before. Each level is completely different, and all have great pacing. You will never get bored or tired of playing at all. If you really want to keep going, you can collect all 28 gold bolts and all the trading cards in the game. Don’t worry; towards the end of the game, you can get a Map-O-Matic that displays all collectibles on every level. It can add a good five more hours of fun if you want.
Overall, Ratchet & Clank is a fine remake of the first game, and only diehard fans will notice the changes to the story, characters, and missing levels. The game is unique, helped define the PS2, and has that PlayStation DNA that stands up today. It’s a fantastic series, and I hope future games get remade in the same fashion. The game is a bit on the easy side and only offers a challenge during the boss fights, but it’s a fun dozen hours that you can’t get on any other system.
We all love a good scare, right? Horror games are some of gaming’s greatest past times. Usually booming in October, horror games from the past and present are played all around the world. The problem is, there just aren’t a lot of them made, and the best ones are far and few between. Usually, this is a great time to dig up old classics rather than trudge through recent crap. While the PS1/PS2 era was the golden age of horror games, the HD era, or the seventh generation of consoles, struggled and was probably the most anemic when it came to horror games, especially the good ones. There’s a reason why some of the rarest and most coveted physical games are horrors. It’s the genre that’s been the least explored and not done well enough most of the time. If you can look past clunky controls and awkward gameplay, most retro horror games do provide good scares, atmosphere, creepy monsters, and good visuals. I’ve compiled a list of the best and the worst.
American McGee is well known for his dark interpretation of the Alice in Wonderland series. The first game, American McGee’s Alice, was clunky mechanically but was a visual treat. The same goes for the sequel. It’s a gorgeous game with a lot of dark themes dealing with mental illness. The enemies are fantastically designed, and the levels themselves are living art. Despite the incredibly repetitive gameplay, this one is a blast to play through.
A lot of people didn’t like Homecoming due to its more action-oriented combat, but I actually quite liked it. I feel it was the last good Silent Hill game in the series, and it still retains the creepy atmosphere and insane creature design. The haunting music is still present as well. While it’s not as tense as the original trilogy, Homecoming does have better combat, despite being the wrong focus here. This was the first game in the series that was part of the jump to the next generation. The next game in the series, Downpour, would be considered the worst in the series, and I personally hated it. These would be the last games in the series to date.
Metro 2033 and Last Light were some of the best horror games to grace the seventh generation of consoles. While they played and looked best on PC, the console versions still looked great and did a good job giving us scares. The post-apocalyptic horror series had an intriguing story and a tense atmosphere, along with crazy creature designs. The final game in the trilogy, Exodus, would be on next-generation systems and receive mixed reviews.
While not inherently designed to give you nightmares, Shadows has a lot of horror elements in its design, such as creepy enemies and an overall atmosphere of dread. It’s more of a comedy-horror title, but it has tons of style that helps make swallowing the shallow substance a bit easier. It’s also not very good-looking, on a technical basis, but the art is awesome. Most of Suda 51’s games were one-shots and never saw sequels. SotD never saw high enough sales, even if he wanted to do a sequel. To date, it hasn’t seen a remaster, remake, or port.
Condemned Series
Condemned: Criminal Origins really showed us what next-generation visuals could look like. The E3 2006 demo blew me away, and it was one of the reasons I got an Xbox 360. This was one of the few games that looked the part and really pushed the industry into a new era of HD visuals. It’s a game that can be replayed many times, and you will always have a fun experience. It’s too bad the series is dead because Monolith nailed the atmosphere here. The game is intense, with crazy melee combat and incredibly dark and haunting levels. Crazy bums coming out of nowhere, breathing, panting, and trying to attack you in dark hallways is something else. The sequel, Bloodshot, was great but focused more on combat and less on the atmosphere, so it’s not quite as scary. It was also the nail in the coffin, as due to the poor sales of the sequel, Sega shuttered the series for good. To date, the series hasn’t seen a remaster, remake, or port of any kind.
Dante’s Inferno is one of the best hack-and-slash games ever made, but EA was bound to make sure you didn’t know that. It didn’t get much attention and was considered just another God of War rip-off. While the game was short, it had incredibly responsive and fun combat, an interesting protagonist, and insanely gory and adult-themed levels. It’s just too bad the story wasn’t fleshed out enough. What’s here is a fun 4-5 hour game that you won’t find anywhere else. Sadly, the game’s low sales sealed its fate to have no sequel, caused Visceral to shutter, and hasn’t seen a port, remaster, or remake to date.
Specifically speaking about the first two games, BioShock had a crazy dark atmosphere, some creepy enemies, and horror that kind of just oozed everywhere. There were no jump scares or downright frightening scenes, but you always had a sense of dread and fear, and that’s really hard to pull off in games. The game was more about psychological horror and isolation, and it sure pulled off mostly the best in the first game. Surprisingly, the entire trilogy was released during this generation and would receive barely passable ports later on as the BioShock Collection.
While Dead Space 3 was mostly about action and less about horror, the first two games were damn scary. I would consider them one of the scariest games I have ever played. Jump scares aside, there was a constant foreboding presence of something lurking around every corner, and the Necromorphs are some of the greatest video game enemies of all time. This was peak horror during the HD era. Another trilogy saw its ending in the same generation cycle. The series would stall here, and the first game would receive a remake two generation cycles later.
Deadly Premonition is the perfect game; it’s so bad, it’s good. The gameplay is dated and feels like a PS1 game; the graphics are terrible; and the voice acting is awful, but the writing and overall atmosphere the game presents are well done and memorable. It really feels like a PS2 game that was quickly ported over to next-gen consoles without any improvements in mind. It can be scary in the sense that its trippy Japanese horror weirdness will freak you out more than scare you. This is one of the few games you should stomach for its terrible design and weirdness. It’s worth it. It would get a sequel in the next generation, but it would not look like it and would be poorly received.
Oh, man, this one brings me back. The first game was very scary, with crazy The Ring girl vibes that were all the rage in the early 2000s. The gunplay was genuinely solid, and you needed a NASA PC to run it back in the day, but forget about understanding the story. The second game had some really scary elements but was more action-oriented and had less of a mid-2000s PC shooter Half-Life 2 style vibe to it. The third game, well, just isn’t scary at all. Another trilogy was released in the same console cycle. While the first game was a port and was released during the PS2/Xbox era, the entire trilogy would never see a remake or remaster.
The Resident Evil series really took off after the previous generation. This generation will see the most action-focused games yet. Resident Evil 5, 6, and Operation Raccoon City were the main releases. There was also an HD port of the 3DS exclusive Revelations, as well as Revelations 2 as a sequel. Some would consider this the weakest run the series had, only to go back to its roots in the next generation cycle, starting with Resident Evil VII. The games also weren’t very scary around this time. They were just too action-focused and didn’t have the same nuanced scares and puzzles as before. Revelations would be the only sub-series to feel scary or have any tension at all. Operation Raccoon City would be lauded as the worst game in the series.
The Last of Us would be considered one of the best horror games ever made. It was wildly praised and made waves throughout the gaming industry, receiving awards and praise from all angles. The tense stealth scenes with the Clickers were awesome. These monsters are some of the creepiest and eeriest creatures ever made for a horror game. This wasn’t just another zombie game. It would receive a sequel in the following generation as well as some of the most controversial decisions ever for a game. It would also receive a full remake and remaster.
Outlast
Released at the tail end of the HD era of gaming, Outlast never saw a port to consoles until the next generation. It was damn scary. This small indie game made waves and became one of the top streaming games of all time. The tense atmosphere and overall great design, in general, made Outlast terrifying. The sequel would be released several years later on PC and consoles, as well as a port of the first game released about a year later.
Amnesia was probably the top-streamed video game of the year in 2010. Game streaming was new, and scare reactions reached the charts on YouTube. There hadn’t been many really scary games during this generation. It was all action-focused and multiplayer-focused to generate sales. That’s why this indie game was released on PC only at the time. It had interesting puzzles and enemies you couldn’t fight. It wouldn’t receive a port until many years later and two generations later. The sequels, A Machine for Pigs and Rebirth, would be poorly received, and I personally didn’t like them that much either.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Series
The STALKER series wouldn’t sell well at first but would gain a huge cult following. The entire trilogy was released around the mid-life of the HD era and was exclusive to PC. It’s rough around the edges, but a huge following of moderators would improve the game, and it wouldn’t be until two generations later that a true sequel would be released. The game never saw a port to consoles, and for a reason. The engine is already poorly optimized on PCs and wouldn’t do well on consoles. It would be a huge undertaking to port the entire trilogy, and it would be hard to market.
Alien Isolation
Alien Isolation wasn’t technically developed for HD consoles, but mostly for PC and next-generation systems. It came out right as the next generation was coming in, and the HD versions were quickly forgotten. Isolation is considered the best game in the Alien series and one of the best horror games of the last couple of decades. It captures the 80s aesthetic of the movies and tells a great story while being terrifying. I still haven’t completed it to this day because of how scary it actually is.
Penumbra Series
The original horror trilogy, Penumbra, was developed by Frictional Games, which would later go on to make the Amnesia series. This was released for PC only and never received a console port. It was a less talked-about indie series that was loved among horror fans, but indie PC games didn’t receive the same spotlight that they do now. Console gamers didn’t care unless they were ported. Penumbra is a slow-paced, puzzle-focused horror series all about adventure and discovery. It’s creepy, full of psychological horror, and a must-play for any horror fan.
While this is stretching it a bit, The Evil Within was mostly meant for next-generation consoles and PCs. It played and looked nice on PS3 and Xbox 360, but those weren’t the intended systems. This was Shinji Mikami’s next opus and was definitely creepy and had some good elements, but it was too action-focused and unbalanced, and the story made no sense. Some say that’s the charm of survival horror games. There’s a bit of jank that’s needed. I personally just thought this game was okay, despite the amazing monster designs. A sequel would later come out, but not sell as well.
This is one of my favorite horror games of all time. It has a great story, memorable characters, and a great combat system that plays off of light and darkness. I’ve replayed this game many times, and it wasn’t an instant hit for Microsoft. The sales were slow, and it wasn’t appreciated until much later. It received a PC port and a recent remaster. It’s a must-play for any horror fan.
Siren: Blood Curse
It was a surprise to see a niche and obscure horror title return to PS3. Siren didn’t sell or review well but is considered a cult classic and part of the classic survival horror era. Blood Curse was a digital-only episodic release in the US that had some great scares and an overall fun adventure. Sadly, only Japan and Europe received a physical release.
Oh man, where do I start? My favorite horror series was butchered with this release. I rented this from GameFly and had to follow a guide through most of the game. It was a confusing, convoluted mess and felt like a chore to play. It wasn’t scary, it wasn’t fun, and it was the worst game in the whole series.
While the movies were quite enjoyable despite their flaws, the games were just awful. They weren’t as gruesome as the movies and played it too safe. Pretty much every bad conventional video game flaw was present here. Awful voice acting, terrible graphics, bad puzzles, and poor level design.
Vampire Rain
Easily considered one of the worst games of the HD era, there was no redeeming value in this game. There was nothing you could overlook. There wasn’t any “it’s so bad, it’s kind of charming” to this game either. It was just a disaster and an unplayable mess. It wasn’t scary; it felt like it was trying to be several games at once; it looked bad; it played even worse; and it wasn’t any fun despite all the hype leading up to its release.
Aliens: Colonial Marines
This game needs no introduction. It’s been covered by every “worst of” and “most controversial” video game on YouTube out there. Its history has been extensively documented. From broken AI to awful visuals, this is just a completely unfinished and broken game. It’s also considered one of the worst games ever made. It’s a stark contrast to Alien Isolation.
I had the displeasure of actually finishing this game when it came out. I was hoping it was going to be a great reboot of a classic horror series. I followed the developer’s diaries all the way through the release and played it without reading any reviews. The game is pretty bad. It’s one of the worst games of the HD era. It was just an awful chore and a mess of a game. It wasn’t fun. It wasn’t scary. It was just plain bad.
Amy
Probably one of the worst games ever made. This was a small indie game that was supposed to be full of suspense and horror, but instead, it’s a chore of a game with awful controls and graphics. The game was also poorly optimized and suffered terrible framerate issues. The story made no sense, and overall, it was just a stupid and lazy game.
I was so excited about this game, and every time I think about or have to write about it, it breaks my heart. I absolutely love Clive Barker’s work and have had it since I was a young teen. I fawned after the figures from Todd McFarlane and loved the characters in his movies. Undying was also a cult classic. The game was just trying to do too much at once. It had cramped-level design, awful performance, dated visuals, and just felt like a chore. The only thing it had going for it was the art design. It’s one of the worst games I’ve ever played and one of the saddest scars of the HD era.
The stories within are probably the most real and hard-hitting yet. Most of this issue is about death, specifically the end of life, either from suicide or old age. The first issue, however, gives us a bit more about how ICM works. It’s a superhero-styled comic, with ICM being a superhero himself and a reporter who wants the big scoop on him. He invites her to his base, and we get to see a lot of references to most of the issues thus far, which is really cool, and it’s not to get more of ICM on paper.
The second issue is back to reality. We get the thoughts of a dying man who is recollecting his life and the way he raised his two kids. As both his son and daughter visit, we see their flaws and how much life isn’t perfect after all. It’s really sad. Hits home in certain ways. And makes you question your own life. Of course, ICM’s antics are at play as always. Our third issue is experimental, but it actually tells a good and dark story. It’s told in black and white and is like a step-by-step how-to book. It’s interesting and tells the story of a man through his three stages of life. A trauma he experienced as a boy and how it affected him his whole life, but also delves into your last thoughts as you die from old age.
Now the last issue is a little weak. It’s basically a one-shot type of comic that has ICM kidnapping a family and making them listen to his sick and twisted versions of kids’ stories such as Green Eggs and Ham, Goodnight Moon, and The Giving Tree. The pages are drawn in the same style as the books, which is cool, but there’s no advancement of ICM’s story or a telling of anything that hits home. It’s pretty weird and sick, but that’s about it. Not even really gory or anything.
By issue 20 and five volumes in, I really like Ice Cream Man. The sick and twisted individual stories tell real down-to-earth problems that humanity faces daily and that some of us may have faced, and nothing ever has a happy and fun ending. I just want more of ICM’s story. All of these individual people he’s messing with tell great stories, but I want to know why.
Ys is a series I have barely dabbled in. I rarely finish JRPGs, either due to their insane difficulty spikes, incessant grinding, or boring story and characters. Ys I is a game that’s older than I am. It’s also incredibly short because of this, and due to the cryptic nature of games from the late 1980s, I decided to play this game using a walkthrough guide. This is sadly one of those JRPGs that has a specific way to play, or it becomes an incredibly hard game. There are so many things you can miss, but it also encourages multiple play-throughs. For a game this old, I don’t see any reason to play it other than to complete the Ys series from the beginning. It is as basic as JRPGs come due to its age as well.
The story is pretty decent, despite the short playtime. I actually enjoyed the characters as well. There isn’t a lot of talking that drags on forever. The game does get to the point with some short and sweet dialog. You play the series’ main protagonist, Adol Christin, who must collect the books of Ys to save the world from evil. It’s pretty typical, but I enjoyed the little world they built around the books of Ys. They were interesting to read, and I felt this was a world you could get sucked into if it were to progress (which, surprise, it did). The art is amazing, with beautiful backdrops. The music is also fantastic, thanks to legendary composer Yuzo Koshiro. There is lots of rock and beautiful orchestral music. The Chronicles+ version contains both the chiptune versions and the arranged versions.
Ys’ main combat system is called the “bump” system, in which you just walk into enemies and are dealt knockback damage if hit straight on. The idea is to hit them on the edge of their sprite, kind of like speed jousting. It’s a weird system, but it keeps the pace of the game moving, and I like that. Again, the game is really hard unless you quickly level and are constantly acquiring the best equipment. You can get some for free if you do things in a certain order or find a certain key for a certain chest. These are JRPG tropes that I absolutely hate because, most of the time, no one will know them without a guide or accidentally coming across them. Easter eggs and extra dialog are fine, but essential things to play are something that really irks me.
Due to the short length, you can easily hit the level cap in a few hours. The cap is 10, and you quickly acquire money and XP as you advance to more powerful enemies. For such a short game, there is a large variety of them as well, and their design is really cool. I always looked forward to seeing what was next. The dungeons are also varied, such as a mine (which is dark), an ice floor with mirrors, a 20-floor tower that you must climb towards the end, forests, and other places. It’s crazy just how much unique content was crammed into a 4-5 hour game. One thing I was relieved by is that if you keep up with the equipment and level up to maybe 4-5 before the first boss, you can easily fight each boss with just a few hits. I know that sounds crazy, but there’s only so much balancing in a game this short. The final boss is notorious for being impossible to beat, and even with the best armor and weapons, level cap, and Easy, I still had to try nearly a dozen times to beat him. You can also only fight him with a specific weapon.
Overall, Ys I is a memorable JRPG if you play it the way it was supposed to be played. Many will get frustrated due to the need to constantly level up fast and always have the best weapons, and the weird boss difficulty spikes will turn many away. I only recommend this game if you’re a fan of the series or really want to start from the beginning, like I am. It has fantastic art and music and is a well-contained and fun JRPG, if you play it right.
Ys II Chronicles+
Being a direct sequel to Ys I and being in my late 80s, I came into this not expecting much. While content-wise it’s completely new, with new locales, new characters, new weapons, and armor, otherwise it looks the exact same and plays the same way. You still play as Adol Christin, trying to save the world of Ys from another evil source and rescue the goddesses Reah and Freena.
The game even starts out the exact same way. You wake up in a house in a quiet village and must start your adventure in a green forest area, like before. Sadly, the game is just as cryptic and obscure when it comes to figuring out what to do. I followed a guide through my entire playthrough, but if I hadn’t, there would be so much backtracking and aimless wondering. Some of the dungeons are more improved layout-wise, but the final two dungeons are a labyrinthine mess, more so than anything in the first game. I had to resort to a map online to figure out where to go, especially when I had to backtrack and start learning shortcuts.
The bump system still exists, but seems a little easier and more forgiving this time around. You don’t need to hit enemies off-center, but it’s still not a fun combat system. It makes the game fast-paced, and I like the lack of random battles, but it’s still not engaging in any way. Thankfully, this time around, you don’t need to rely on hidden, obscure equipment and can just buy stuff as you can afford it. Only the short sword, in the beginning, can be had for free in the first dungeon, but everything is to be purchased. I liked the addition of magic wands in this game. It helps add a layer to combat, but sadly, it’s abused with boss fights. All but the final boss need to be beaten with magic only, and the only offensive magic is fire. Which I found a bit weird. Everything else is passive magic, such as being able to turn into a Roo to talk to enemies to pass certain areas; light magic, which is used to see secret doorways and light dark areas; and time magic, which slows enemies down. Unfortunately, a lot of items, required or not, are hidden in obscure areas and can be easily missed without thorough exploration or a guide.
I did find the boss fights more manageable this time around and less frustrating. The leveling system is also improved, but only slightly. While the cap this time around went from 10 to 55, you can easily reach the first 30 levels in the first two hours of the game. Before the first boss, I was already almost level 20. Bosses are a lot more reasonable, and I only struggled with a couple of them, but once you learn their attack patterns, it becomes much more manageable.
Overall, YS II is a good sequel to the first game. With enough new content to explore, an interesting story, and fun characters, while I wouldn’t say the story itself is memorable, the adventure itself is fun. I just wish the magic system was more expanded and there was less backtracking. Most of the game’s fault comes from the cryptic items and confusing dungeon layouts, but it’s manageable with a guide. It’s a fine Ys game to send out with the 80s and still remains a solid RPG today.
The entire series is well worth playing, but only if you’re curious about the beginning of the series, want to start the series from the beginning, or just like 80s JRPGs. Expect basic combat, cryptic progression, confusing dungeons, and unbalanced bosses in the first game. If you play with a guide, you will most likely have a great time.
We’re deep into this series now, and while the last four issues were a bit weak, we have to continue this trend for a while again. The first two issues are experimental, kind of like Neopolitan triple story one in Vol. 2. The first two stories are palindromes. They can be read forwards or backwards, which is kind of neat, but the first story is about a man who lost his wife to cancer and doesn’t want to move on. It goes through a metaphorical trip through Hell. There’s an odd spoken dialogue that’s broken up and told in riddles like a madman.
The second story is about an old couple who are having an add-on built into their home, and the husband is obsessed with crosswords. The wife is a mean old bat who doesn’t like what the young construction crew is doing. The story is a lesson on live and let live, and we’re finally back to the real-life problems that people have that can hit home and feel real. I don’t know why it took so many issues to get here, but this story feels good.
The third story is more of a ghost story and has a few twists and turns, and I quite liked it. It’s more of what we were getting in the first two volumes, and it feels like everything is back on track. This one is pretty trippy, and the last story is as well. An overbearing, worried dad who can’t stand the thought of his teenage daughter having sex decides to snoop into her life and pay the ultimate price. It’s a wild ride, and I didn’t quite expect the ending to happen the way it did outside of ICM’s typical meddling, but it definitely talks about the bond between parent and child to an extreme.
Overall, it’s a bit strange, but the fourth volume brings us back on track to the types of stories I liked from ICM. The experimental stuff got too experimental and didn’t tell wholly interesting stories, and we still don’t know a lot about ICM and his brother.
This volume is fairly weak compared to the last two. I feel the series kind of lost its footing here, with two of the four stories being fairly below average compared to what we’ve come to expect. We actually do get a full issue dedicated to the ICM’s story arc, so that finally picks up, and it’s a real doozy. It’s a total surprise as to what the ICM is and what his intentions are. However, after this issue, we still don’t get much more.
The first issue is exactly what I talked about just now, but it’s set in a Wild West setting, which is kind of odd. There’s still no explanation as to the settings or anything. We’re also introduced to more of ICM’s possible world, but it’s hard to tell if that’s what it is or just a reality he made up. The second issue is probably the worst by far. It’s set along the Mexican border and tells a small tale of a white man in love with a Mexican woman whom he wants to take away from her land and save. It’s half told in Spanish, and unless you use Google Translate (which the author actually suggests), you have to use the cheat sheet on the back. I found this annoying and lazy, and making the characters speak Spanish didn’t play into or add anything to the story as she speaks English anyway! It’s all dialog with two young people in love, and the evil captain is trying to marry the girl. It’s a typical spaghetti western setting, and I found it rather boring and uninteresting.
The third issue has the ICM put a man into a series of weird sci-fi-style reality shows that also don’t really go anywhere. They’re interesting, and the panels are shaped like TV sets, but this feels like a one-off story, and you don’t get to know the man or have any heartfelt feelings like you did in previous issues. There’s no sense of reality you can relate to like we’re used to. The only interesting part was the connection to previous characters in the series and a couple of gory scenes.
The last issue is a space story. It’s rather interesting and surreal, and it has a great setting and atmosphere. The man in the story is sent out to find a new Earth and has an AI that can read his thoughts. As you explore certain areas with him, he finally finds a signal of a previous pod that was sent out and lost. Of course, this leads to ICM being involved, and we get another small tidbit of ICM’s story. This is probably the best of the four issues, but overall the volume is still solid, but not on the level of previous ones.
We continue the journey of the Ice Cream Man. Four more strange stories are told in unique ways with the continued arc of ICM and his opposite, who is out trying to save the people he’s making suffer. The first issue is about suicide. We follow the thoughts of a man who has jumped from a skyscraper and a woman who has noticed it and is trying to do something about it. It’s very thought-provoking and goes pretty deep into the dark side of why someone would want to do this. Of course, no happy endings here, but ICM’s hated friend shows up again.
The second issue is weird, and it took two reads to understand it. There are no words in this issue, but it is told as a “Neopolitan Panel” type story. Each panel is colored like ice cream and features three different timelines of a man. When he’s young, middle-aged, and possibly an alternate timeline of him being captured and tortured. It was a bit confusing at first, but the back of the issue explains it in more detail. While I feel like anyone who bought this at full price would have felt upset with the lack of words, there is a story here that’s fairly sad, and after a couple of flip-throughs, it kind of gets to you.
The third story is about imaginary friends, and things get really creepy and gory here with ICM. He really starts to show more of what he is and wants. The story can feel pretty real with a father who doesn’t want to placate his daughter’s imaginary friend after her best friend dies of cancer, but the mother doesn’t think it’s harmful. It gets incredibly dark and violent, and we get some of ICM’s story here.
The last issue goes into drug addiction again, but on a professional level between two paramedics. The story goes on about them talking about their drugs, how fun they are, and then maybe regretting it, and in the meantime, ICM’s killing people on the sidelines while they miss everything. The ending is pretty messed up and cruel, and it shows just how incredibly heartless and evil ICM is. By this point, we really establish that this guy isn’t your friend, and he will go to no end to make people suffer. With this being issue 8, we still don’t have a lot of backstory for ICM. We just keep getting teased about each issue, and I really think it’s getting dragged out. He’s an interesting character, and I really want to know who this cowboy guy is who keeps saving his victims.
thebinarymessiah.com 
Try multiplayer. A lot of fun !