Horror games.
Who doesn’t like a psychologically scarring and scary horror game? Who doesn’t enjoy watching someone get scared out of their wits by a monster coming out of no where with dripping tendrils and a thick bloody lather dripping from what you can only assume is a mouth due to the several rows of sharp teeth protruding from it? Horror games and psychological thrillers are some of the best things to watch and play because of how they toy with the player’s emotions and feelings.
And if you purchased the most recent Humble Bundle recently, you would have found that after a few days they updated the Bundle to include Lone Survivor, a scary side-scrolling psyche bending horror game. As per usual with horror games it is suggested that you shut out the lights, get a pair of headphones and let this game’s environment fully consume you.
You play a nameless character. (Because what is the point in having a name when no one else is alive to use it?). Since the infection spread across the world everyone else has died off. You’ve locked yourself in the only safe place you can find to escape the monsters that have been created by the disease. You have limited resources: Food, ammo, batteries and pills. But you can’t stay there forever and you have to venture out in search of the possibility of other survivors.
Along the way you’ll uncover lost memories. Pick up useful items. And face an onslaught of lumbering beasts and nightmares that make your skin crawl. But are they real? Is anything real any more?
WHAT THE HECK IS THAT!?
The graphics are beautiful done with effects that wouldn’t be quite so well pulled off if the game were rendered in something other than 2D sprites. The gore of melting faces, bloody spatters, pulsing hearts and crawling skin are all done with wonderful detail. And as your mind starts to fade your separation from reality be comes evident.
The music and sound is terrifying. Lumbering footsteps and static noises and screeches of monsters will haunt your dreams and every waking moment after delving into the depths of this game. When you step foot into a room and you hear the hurried screaming of a monster running towards you it will be a lucky thing if all that sound does is cause you to wet yourself.
The gameplay is fun and engaging but pushes you more towards a flight than fight response. Gun aiming isn’t quite as good and would be much better if it were possible to actually aim with the mouse. Sadly only the keyboard is used to control the game, but that is all you really need. Your keyboard and your wits.
Wit is unfortunately not included.
