Recent reviews by The Horror Network

Keep in Mind: Remastered is a slightly upscaled version of a title that was originally released on Game Jolt. The rework include a new engine, professionally composed soundtrack, and some bug fixes. You should go into this release knowing that a playthrough only lasts 10-20 minutes, and there is no incentive for replaying it. You take control of a man named Jonas, who has been torn apart by depression, which led him to alcoholism. His life and his marriage are all starting to come unravelled because of his inability to properly cope with his inner demons. So you wander around and talk to 16 demons in a dream world, and that's it. Each of these demons are meant to represent various emotions and feelings; burden, guilt, anxiety, depression, and a host of others.

After a while, it becomes evident that Jonas harbors deep guilt for the death of his brother. In the end, all that really comes of it is a "look inside yourself and push through it" sense of resolve. Then everything is fine and dandy and Jonas is on the road to recovery because he has an inner epiphany. You know, the kinda thing that doesn't really happen or work if you're truly suffering from a dark depression and have delved into life-destroying alcoholism. On one hand, it's a shallow portrayal of serious mental issues, but on the other hand there is some good artistic representation here. In the end, however, it's probably not going to change any lives or spread actual awareness. Keep in Mind: Remastered is okay for what it is, but as a $2.29 CAD title, it's too short and too sheer to warrant a purchase.

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Story of One Night is a game that bills itself as a completed horror release. There is no story, and there's not much to say since the campaign can be completed in 10-20 minutes, so let's just jump into why you shouldn't waste your money here, even if the game is on sale. For those looking for a scary experience, the only "horror" element to the game is some reaper guy that can one-hit kill you when he shows up, but the majority of your gameplay will be spent slightly moving shields back and forth to project beams of light to open up the door to the next level.

What you're really getting here for $8 CAD is something that feels like a bunch of scrapped ideas and levels from the alpha version of an abstract/surreal puzzle-platformer, think along the lines of Kairo, that were not good enough to make it into the final product. Furthermore, there are more missing sound effects than ones that are actually included, and overall you'll be unable to shake the feeling that you're just playing a freshman's C- mid-year project. It's certainly not worth the base price, and the $1.99 CAD I paid for it on sale isn't even justifiable. At worst, it should be a buck. At best, it should be free. In an ideal world, the developer would care enough to even add some sound effects, if they're asking such a large price for such a short title.

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Apocalipsis is the story of a man named Harry who lost his wife, who was his world. There's very little story, so let's just kick things off with what's good about this release. The art direction is solid; it really is a good throwback to depictions and artwork from ancient Greece, as well as Greek mythology as a whole. The muted neutral tones, contrasting blacks, and occasional snippets of color only push the dreary atmosphere to new heights. It's all very aesthetically pleasing. Additionally, the glum soundtrack really instills a sense of deep melancholy, disparity, and loss. If you're looking for atmosphere, you've come to the right place. However, if you're expecting anything more then know that in this instance beauty is only skin deep.

Where Apocalipsis is bad, it's terrible. Despite all of my best efforts, the majority of the game lagged horribly when interacting with puzzles or when walking from one side of the screen to the other. Frame dips as low as 1 FPS in the ending scene and 15-30 in puzzle areas were seen. Thinking at first that this may have been an issue with the game downscaling from 4k to 1080p, I set my native resolution to such, rebooted, and all seemed well for a few levels before the issue returned. The problem seems to lay within the fog effects, as levels without it run fine. For reference, I have an i7-6700k/GTX 1080 rig that runs all modern games at 60+ FPS in 1080p, so a 2D point and click should be of no issue.

Optimization problems aside, the gameplay just isn't that fun. The story is obscure, and a lot more narration could've been done to help get audiences even interested in what's going on. The developers put a clear focus in on the puzzles, but there's no hand-holding here and you're left up to your own devices to figure out what you're even supposed to do. Some of the enigmas are straight-forward and almost child-like in their simplicity, while others are completely obtuse with solutions hearkening back to the notorious 90's era point and click difficulty.

Man, okay so here's where my two worlds really come together. I started reviewing some 11-12 years ago now by writing about metal music, and my roots are seated primarily in black and death metal. Every extreme metal fan knows Behemoth, and their vocalist/guitarist frontman Nergal is pretty well revered in the underground. From how the developers have presented his presence in Apocalipsis, you can tell that his inclusion is their main selling point for the entire game, but you may be disappointed to know that you only get four or five lines from Nergal in the entire 2-3 hour campaign. It's unsatisfying, and moreover whoever was responsible for the sound completely botched the narration by recording Nergal's voice at max capacity; you can literally hear the mic trembling and distorting. And yes, I always have, and always will, use headphones of the highest quality when it comes down to me talking in-depth about anything relating to sound quality. It comes across like some mega fan's dream come true, and that they used a video game as an excuse to make it happen.

Apocalipsis is a game with a lot of potential, but it's weighted down with some overburdening problems. How a 2D point and click game could run as low as 1 FPS (for the ENTIRE end cutscene) on a rig that can run every modern game at 60+ FPS in 1080p is baffling; optimization here really needs to be addressed. A lot of additional disappointment could've been avoided by not pushing the Nergal appeal so hard as well, since he has relatively little to do with the game and speaks perhaps an entire minute of narration in total. The puzzles are also all over the place, with some being incredibly obtuse and some childishly simple; a lot of them aren't very ingenious either. With all that said, the art direction and sound are spot on, but there is much here to be desired.

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Though the present year isn't explicitly stated, Silver Chains does take place sometime between 1910-1930. A man named Peter wakes up after driving his car into a tree, and finds himself outside of a creepy old mansion in England's countryside. Seeking refuge during the stormy night he slips inside the seemingly abandoned lodge, but he soon realizes that he isn't as alone as he thought he was. Not only has an evil entity discovered his presence, but ghostly children make themselves known, begging for his help to solve the mystery of what happened at the manor so that their souls can finally be at peace. A lot of the story is told through fleshed-out notes, but there are also a surprising amount of plot-riddled cutscenes for a game of this price and budget.

This is a horror game that relies heavily on puzzle solving, much like the Silent Hill and Resident Evil franchises that inspired it. The developers did a great job disguising staunch horror mechanics as something unique, bringing an outstandingly creative feel to the gameplay. For instance, there's a monocle that allows you to see otherworldly hints for where to go next in the large mansion, along with some standard key and object finding that masquerades as deep exploration. Additionally, there is an evil spirit that can one-shot you, but it appears very rarely and stealth isn't required; you simply dive into the nearest locker and wait for a few seconds until it disappears. The majority of your time will be spent finding various items to progress the plot, and getting startled by utterly unpredictable jumpscares.

Silver Chains is one of those small indie horror titles that ended up getting swept to the wayside somehow, which is really lamentable seeing as it has all of the markings of an AAA game. The controls and mechanics feel both sturdy and smooth, where as many other games around the same price range suffer from weird movement and slipperiness. Each step feels solid, and all interactions feel purposeful and tight. The graphics are well above exceptional, and they're not slathered in chromatic aberration to make them look photo-realistic; instead, they're just so intricately detailed and nicely textured that they look that way naturally. The sometimes tense, sometimes foreboding, and sometimes absent soundtrack really ties the atmosphere of the game to the visuals, and hearing Peter's breath shudder from time to time really cements an anxiety-ridden immersion.

In the end, Silver Chains is a fantastic ghost story and a total hidden gem of a horror game that deserves a lot more recognition. It looks great, feels great, and it'll nearly give you multiple heart attacks before it's all said and done. The one true downfall to it is how short it is. Average gamers will only find 3-4 hours of content here, and a second run can easily be achieved in about an hour, which isn't much given the $28.99 CAD price tag. The end is also somewhat disappointing, with a concluding boss "fight" that is a mile away from the rest of the offered gameplay. It should also be noted that this developer doesn't seem to take in many suggestions from their community, which is a shame as things such as checkpoints could indeed use improvement. That said, you'll be hard pressed to find many other indie horror games of this calibre within this price range. On sale, or not on sale, you should give this ghostly psychological nightmare a playthrough.

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The developer provided a free copy of this game for review, through The Horror Network's Curation page.

For the developer only, unless you like spoilers:
There are a couple areas in the game that your audience thinks are bugs/glitches, and they get fed up and quit/leave bad feedback. One is the monocle room, because you actually have to pause between steps to get the door prompt to appear. Another is near the end, in the locked room before the one with the combination lock. There's no indication you have to go back to the start of the game to find the dresser that needs to be moved. Making these sections easier would probably be beneficial.

This may surprise you, dear reader, but as The Horror Network I've played a ton of horror games. I've totally run the gamut on most of the well-known titles, and this is why I often take for-better-or-worse blind dives on indie games. In doing so, I always make my way to three general outcomes; being pleasantly surprised to find a hidden gem which I get eager to share with my community, strolling down acceptable-yet-mediocre lane, or finding myself severely disappointed in ways I never thought possible. Your Home managed to send me into the latter realm of immense dissatisfaction, and I imagine even the average horror enthusiast would find even the paltry price tag of $1 too much for this effortless cash grab.

Yes, this is yet another Russian scam game from a developer/publisher who pump out garbage, surprise surprise. Your Home is a 15-minute maximum "horror adventure" that can be speedrun in 5 minutes. It's about a guy named Patrick that comes home to find his family kidnapped on the second floor of his house, by some unknown maniac. The only way to save them? Solve four easy puzzles to get four coins to open the door on the second floor. There's three endings, and all three of them are a waste of time. You solve a pipe puzzle, a "which animal comes first" puzzle, find some numbers for a safe, and that's it. There's nothing to see here, save your money even if this one is on a heavy sale.

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There just aren't enough horror games that take place in space. Sure we've had a meager share of great sci-fi themed horror titles like Alien: Isolation, the Dead Space trilogy, Doom 3, Stasis, and System Shock, but these are games that come along just once in a blue moon. Whether they're outstanding or just mediocre, it's always nice to welcome another "you're completely alone in the middle of an unending, lifeless void" release into the sci-fi horror family. Enter the free, half-hour indie title We Went Back. You wake up from cryostasis, alone and on an abandoned space station. The crew, the reason for being aboard, just how long you were frozen, and what is making those disturbing thuds somewhere in the air vents all remains a terrifying mystery.

Since the 2014 release of our beloved lord and saviour Silent Hills P.T., cut down in its prime and forever to be mourned, there have been ceaseless amounts of clones birthed into the gaming world. Although it utilizes the core mechanics and concept of cycling an identical area that slowly changes and becomes more gruesome with each loop, We Went Back is nowhere near your tried-and-true replica of our horror monolith. In fact, it's the most unique title that has taken the basic premise of Silent Hills P.T. that you'll currently have the pleasure of playing. Rather than being stuck in a house, you're on a space station. Sure, the scares are mild and there are only a small handful of them, but they're still pretty fun to encounter.

It's also surprising to see the attention to detail that was put into such a small game; if you pay attention to your surroundings, you'll see that even the temperature of the station degrades over time. There's only one puzzle to solve, and it's simple enough, but it requires you to cycle the small space station several times over to gather all of the items needed for the solution. At most, you'll end up getting about an hour out of We Went Back, but what an hour it is; this release feels like a precursor to an even bigger project, and that would be a welcomed addition to the very niche genre that is sci-fi horror.

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Caligo is a short atmospheric walking simulator that can be completed in about an hour. It's comprised of several chapters, and entertains with a plot that slowly unfolds over time. To say much of the story would spoil the game, but a lot of what is presented is left up to interpretation, and it may take on slightly different meanings for different people. The locations are beautifully crafted, and the ambient soundtrack is fitting and immersive. There's a lot to take in, and you might just find yourself spending a bit more time to just look around the detailed environments, while pondering the meaning of it all.

Running at 1080p on an i7-6700k/GTX 1080 rig, Caligo suffered from severe performance issues on high and ultra settings. The frame rate consistently dipped down into the mid-40's in areas that were open and dense with particle effects. These issues seem to be hit-or-miss for many players, and where I suffered optimization issues, you may very well not. It's important to note that even when the game was running at a high, stable frame rate, it still appeared to be stuttering sometimes. The developer really should look into correcting these problems, especially at a price point of nearly $7 CAD for such a short experience.

With a little bit more shine and polish, Caligo could shine as one of the better short, atmospheric walking simulators on Steam. It's unfortunate that it has optimization issues, which distracts not only from how well-crafted of a tale it presents, but also from its lavish scenery. What is present past these problems is a short game that's well worth the download, and the hour that it takes to complete. There are some collectibles to be found as well, and the ending is worth replaying since there are two outcomes to witness.

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Wardwell House is a short half-hour atmospheric horror adventure that utilizes a unique concept, but suffers from lackluster execution. After several weeks of being abandoned at sea, you've washed up on the shore of an unknown island, suffering from exposure and with your boat in disrepair. You stumble through the area until you come across a three-story house, where you wander inside out of both curiosity and necessity. While exploring the rooms and corridors, you hear someone enter... turns out that you're not alone on this seemingly deserted island after all.

The entire game is comprised of several black and white 360-degree photos, of which you look around for small yellow dots. You zoom in on these dots, read the text, and then look for a continuation arrow to keep progressing in your journey. You learn a bit about the island, and those that own the house that you happen upon. It's regrettable, but nothing of interest occurs, and there's very little ambience to set the mood; the background is primarily filled with nature sounds, since you're out in the woods, but there are only a couple moments of tense music. The story itself is just not that memorable or engrossing, and the ending is pretty confusing.

Wardwell House does have some good ideas. The concept of using real-life props and actual 360-degree photos is unique, and very rarely seen in games; especially those of the horror genre. The developers would benefit by using color photos instead, and really working on capturing horrific visuals, as with the use of black and white with absolutely no clashing objects for contrast isn't appealing to the majority of players. People crave dynamic lighting and special effects. Additionally, a better, more immersive and juicy story is necessary, as is foreshadowing background music. There's a lot that can be done with this creative style, but unfortunately the mark was missed this time.

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The Test: Hypothesis Rising is the second release in a soon-to-be trilogy of games under the same umbrella. The first installment, simply titled The Test, was a fast and simple half-hour quiz that players got the most out of by being entirely honest, and searching within themselves for some of the more difficult answers. This follow-up title sets to raise the bar a bit, by taking in previous feedback. Though not all of the ultimate questions are answered here yet, developer Randumb Studios promises that all will be revealed soon, when the third and final release is birthed into the world.

Until then though, we have The Test: Hypothesis Rising. It's an unfortunate regression from its predecessor in nearly every way, despite being more graphically advanced and having a slightly longer campaign with more engaging questions. Rather than delivering a barrage of yes or no questions, the quiz branches off into four subsections, with only the first being yes or no inspired, and the remainder having multiple pre-rendered choices. It's commendable that the developer decided to take the questions a step further, but they ended up reusing a large portion of the questions that were featured in the first game. Additionally, a lot of the newer probes, along with a lot of the aesthetic choices, just make this follow-up feel... childish. More specifically, it just comes across like something an edgy teenager going through their Hot Topic years would play, because a ton of the newer questions are cringe-filled attempts at being "weird" or "random".

It's regrettable, but The Test: Hypothesis Rising doesn't have the same impact that its predecessor had. The questions are too edgy and cringe-laden to make anyone care about looking within themselves and asking themselves the things that are difficult to answer. Obscure scenarios that have absolutely no possibility of happening in this reality make up the latter 2/3rds of the campaign, and those over the age of 17 will just roll their eyes and move on. That said, there is some good selfcare advice given at the start and end of the game, a couple nuggets of wisdom that everyone should hear at least once in their life.

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Since the dawn of the internet, there have been all kinds of tests and quizzes related to personality type, what your favorite ice cream flavor is, who your future girlfriend or boyfriend will be, the type of house you'll end up living in... the list goes on and on. Hell, pre-dating the age of the internet, these types of tests littered magazine pages. After decades of being in play, the a good quality test has been proven to be a timeless piece of entertainment, and we've all participated in one at some time or another. That said, The Test takes it a step further by really digging its claws into your psyche by asking the tough-to-answer questions that most people don't really want to answer. In fact, the entire point here is to participate in self-reflection and really give thought to how you answer the questions.

It's best to go into this title both without expecting anything and totally alone, while setting aside about half an hour for completion. It's also best to be completely honest in your answers, as doing so makes you really search within yourself if you take things seriously. Truly, that's the whole purpose here, to discover your own beautiful and horrific truths, and to be judged accordingly. The Test isn't necessarily a game, so much as it is a tool that can be used to validate what you may already know about yourself, or discover the ways that others may perceive you. Personally, my result was uncannily spot-on, and it did open my eyes a bit to a couple of things. Give it a whirl, who knows, you could be gifted and not even know it.

The Horror Network Curator | Group Click for Gore