Sanitarium

What first started as an interesting point and click adventure game was then turned into a big disappointment once I reached the later chapters. 

The only reason I went back towards this old game was because I was intrigued to know the game’s plot twist people had spoken about, but it turns out to be a stupid twist, and it is the game’s entire own fault for that.

The early chapters are sort of exciting, mysterious and even creepy, but the later chapters quality was so below average and cryptic that I was forced to grab a walkthrough for this confusing and ultimately boring tale.

Add to that the difficulty of running this obscure game, plus the fact that you get to play with different characters, which only got worse, from an asylum man who has forgotten his memory, to a little girl at a circus, to a Cyclops in some extreme science fiction of insects to an ancient Aztec warrior.

Sanitarium is a ridiculous game that only started strong, but then became worse all the way towards the very end.

Rating: 4.9

The Witch

 

Generic title, but courageous execution.

A husband and his family are pretty much expelled from the established religious community because of a different interpretation of the New Testament. Having moved towards a barn on the edge of a vast forest, they settle in peacefully.

After their youngest child dissapears and is killed, the wife questions the daughter about suspicious behavior, while the husband trades in a sentimental and valuable item for hunting supplies. Meanwhile, the son talks with his father about fate, and the twins claim that the black goat they play with speaks to them.

The Witch is one of those horrors where it calmly builds up the mood and the suspense in order to subtly creep you out from the unnatural events happening, while victims keep stacking up. New Engeland is the setting, and the language is old fashioned English with words such as "thou" and "thine".

It is playing effectively with the concept of witchcraft which has been around for ages and it naturally blends in into anything that can be considered remotely paranormal, has various perspectives, and tales from it can be found anywhere in the world.

Portraying polarizing scary scenes such as the temptation and flirting of a mysterious red hooded girl, or an old hag milking a goat, make sure that despite the film's speed, it still manages to deliver the goods to to speak.

Adding the subtle supernatural stuff up with death and vanishing scenes which all seem to be "accidents" at first, but in reality of the film's premise, are actually all occurances happening because of black magic, there's something worth seeing for any patient horror fan.

The climax is a beautiful display of a dramatic downfall for the family, all the while the identity of the black goat is revealed to be Satan, and the daughter transforms and ascends truly into a witch after signing a pact and joining a coven of nude women surrounding a bonfire holding a Witches's Sabbath.

The Witch will reward you for your patience and your attention.

Rating: 7.0

White Day: A Labyrinth Named School

 

White Day is an overlooked but effective horror game from South Korea made in 2001. Referencing an annual day for East Asia just over a month after Valentine's Day, the story is about breaking ancient seals and returning a diary, and is cast with students.

It has an interesting design philosophy in that it both has a multiple choice based conversational system and an interactive inventory graphical user interface, while being able to manipulate physical objects inside a first person perspective.

Seeing as there are no weapons for you to defend yourself with, you must adapt to the environment and hide from various enemies including lunatics, ghosts and demons. The game is divided into 3 acts, or 3 buildings.

There is also a heartbeat meter indicating how much your character can handle the current situation, which is reminiscent of Clock Tower, plus it adds a psychological layer whenever you are desperate for escape.

A Labyrinth Named School is a very solid hidden horror gem and should not be missed by gamers who definitely dig series like Fatal Frame and Clock Tower. Proclaiming that it's the scariest game ever is just your usual strawman marketing, but nevertheless, I had a "heightened" time with it!

Rating: 7.3

Scratches

Developed by an Argentian, which is apparently the first commercially released adventure video game product for the country too, Scratches is an inspired point and click horror adventure inside an abandoned old mansion.

I played the Director´s Cut and I had to get used towards the controls first, especially with how the camera works in here in conjuction towards the prerendered sets. Reminiscent somewhat of titles like Myst in regards to interactivity, the game naturally has key objects which need to be used and combined whenever.

Situated  at the Blackwood estate on the outskirts of Rothbury, a small rural town in Northumberland, England in 1976, I was impressed by the amount of art and detail. But although the immersion was working, so too was the tedious realization of knowing where to go next.

I was annoyed that picking up random objects in the field did not tell me what they were without opening the inventory screen and using the magnifying glass first to inspect the items better with a brief analysis of a summary.

As for the scary factor, Scratches mostly works from fear of the unknown and events that happened in the past. But getting to these parts is not easy for those with a short attention span, and although I would not label myself as one, Scratches did challenge me in that regard.

I wouldn't really recommend it, even for enormous fans of either horror and/or adventure games, but if there is nothing else available, or on your personal backlog, then it wouldn't hurt to try Scratches out.

Rating: 6.5

Ash vs Evil Dead

 

Groovy!

Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell are finally back with the franchise which made them well known and famous; the Evil Dead trilogy, which recently got a remake, has gotten a sequel into the form of a television series, and it delivers the goods.

As is well known, the series first started quite serious with the first part which remains my favorite. However, Evil Dead II and in particular Army of Darkness turned up the humor factor by large portions, and in present time, Ash vs Evil Dead is a terrific horror comedy.

Ash Williams, our favorite hero equipped with a shotgun and a chainsaw for an arm, mistakenly unleashes hell again after a cozy trip, some naughty words are spoken. The Necronomicon unleashes the Deadites, the zombie like demons we all know and love to hate, and the show is on.

Together with a new supporting cast including Pablo and Kelly, they will have to figure out on how to undo the spell which summoned the evil. Throughout the episodes, Ash bombs a lot of effective sarcastic one liners again the demons, and it certainly made the it all more enjoyable.

The makeup, gore and special effects are my favorite part of Ash vs Evil Dead, as several get their heads chopped, guts ripped open and eyes poked out, while the victims taunt the humans with their devilish voices.

Scare wise, these range from playing victim, to charming humans, to humiliating them, to attacking them, to crawling and jumping around, to roaring and licking like animals and to turning towards the camera/characters and scare the hell out of you/them!

Trademarks of the franchise include of course Ash himself, the Necronomicon, the arsenal, the heavy gore, the fast moving first person scenes, the evil clone, the hand and best of all, the journey ends at the wooden cabin where it all started.

Well, there's not much else to say about this. It's obviously fanservice and somehow, Bruce Campbell still shines here in perhaps a redundant storyline, but you can't beat old school horror roots which was all at first just a cult classic, and now look how it has grown into massive popularity.

Rating: 7.5

Waxworks

 

A computer role playing game where you travel through various waxworks and their time settings in other to stop an evil curse, Waxworks is a dungeon crawler developed by Horror Soft in the early nineties, and it pretty much got overlooked by the majority.

The visuals are outstanding for the time, with rich details engrossing the levels per setting. Notoriously, the death scenes were varied, gory and plenty, and there's even your uncle helping out with hints from inside a magic ball, because why the fuck not?

The gameplay consist of puzzle solving, but also odd combat where you are able to click on any body part of the enemy in order to weaken and defeat them. Sadly, the level design is redundant and monotone, and it's hastily a real challenge to find your way sometimes, as a map is missing.

The settings consists of a mine with plant mutants, a cemetery with zombies, Victorian London with angry civilians and cops, and Ancient Egypt with the slaves and worshippers. A highlight is the moody yet simple soundtrack accompanying each location.

Waxworks is unfortunately not my cup of tea, despite the good remarks I could find out after playing it. Surely, things might have been different if I experienced it back at it's prime time(when I was 4!), but alas, I cannot experience everything in one childhood, and even then, like it.

Rating: 6.3

Survival Horror Origins

The subgenre for videogames known as Survival Horror, is in essence actually what the Horror genre of cinema tends to be; all kinds of monstrosities, fears and such combined together in order to make you feel unpleasant, disgusted or scared.

First officially coined by Capcom during the marketing release of Resident Evil, what defines survival horror is more or less resource management, scarcity in defense options, fear of the unknown and creepy settings.

Before Resident Evil, there was Sweet Home, which I already reviewed, and it remains the prime inspiration. However, before Sweet Home, there is an era starting in 1980's that remains the origins of Survival Horror, and yet, this era is quite obscure nowadays.

One example is Haunted House, released in 1982 for the Atari 2600. The player, represented by a pair of eyes, much uncover 3 pieces of an urn inside a haunted house while avoiding enemies like bats, tarantulas and a ghost.

What really worked here in how the player navigates through the rooms, which are very dark. Creeping through them and occassionally seeing the rooms flash with light was a nice touch for the early 80's.

Then there's  3D Monster Maze, developed by Malcolm Evans for the Sinclair ZX81 in 1981, where the concept is that a Tyrannosaurus Rex is chasing you through a maze, which only has one exit, and it is played from a first person perspective.

The fear of encountering an intimidating and undefeatable foe such as this is nerve wrecking, and it continues to be used in independent video games in particular today.

Or, instead of all of these names dropped, what about Project Firestart for the Commodore 64 released in 1989 and is inspired by the Alien movies? Some groups feel that this is where the genre really started.

As a side scrolling 2.5D action adventure, it also features logs and journeys of the personnel on the research ship Prometheus, which provide lore and background to the game, which was revolutionary for the late 80's, and is another feature still used today.

As we can see, there is a dispute as to where Survival Horror truly started. It reminds of the debate if Pong is truly the first video game. How would you see the beginning for both cases, and what was your first horror video game?