A PSX/CRT visual styled action horror game with tropes and scenes inspired from Italian zombie films from people like Lucio Fulci and Bruno Mattei.

The portals to hell have been opened and you have seven chapters set in various locations to play through as your main character and a group of mostly weirdos and a terrifying maybe child try to survive. You are armed with a revolver and shotgun that you load and aim slowly, can't aim while moving, and need to land hotshots to kill your enemies, whose heads might not always be in the normal place anymore. Knives can be found and act as a defensive item when you are grabbed by an enemy. The combat is slow and weighty and works and feels good enough in a game with this atmosphere. To interact with or pick up objects or open locked doors you need to unequip your weapon, but open doors can often be nudged up as you move into them.

There are some strong creepy moments, though they often don't lead to much when you might have been thinking you were going to get into a situation that might change up the mechanics in an interesting way. Good sound design and some nice haunting visuals in the quiet moments.

Each of the seven chapters is set in a different area and has their own style and feel to them, some better than others from an atmosphere or combat perspective. Its a short entertaining time. Finishing the game unlocks the more comedic focused Booty Creek Cheek Freak episode and a quick and fairly dull oriented episode that opens with a few elements similar to Call of Duty's zombie game mode.

Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1786992271877079122

Way too short for my liking. Needed a little more meat on its bones, and definitely a few more puzzle-solving segments. The game, however, is pretty indicative of Black Eyed Priest's writing strengths. The writing is 100% where the game shines. It's so funny, out-of-pocket, and absurd. I honestly love it. The game did genuinely scare me a couple times as well, so props there.

The gameplay is pretty easy, but sometimes odd. The hitboxes on the zombies can be a little wonky at times, and the one boss in the game was a little annoying as a result. Anyways, this was a flawed, but really silly, inoffensive game. Can't wait for the sequel.

If you told teenage me that there existed a lo-fi zombie survival shooter inspired by video nasty era Lucio Fulci movies I would’ve laughed you out of my little video dungeon bedroom that I spent my youth in. Nowadays, with an indie market saturated by Puppet Combo’s distinct, much imitated brand of horror games, it’s hardly a surprise.

Still, it’s a delight basking in the bleak, jagged world of Night at the Gates of Hell. The gameplay isn’t anything fancy, but I found the zombie shooting most satisfying, perhaps more so than in a number of RE games: the way the zombies move - slow, creeping but firmly towards the player - creates tension, and being able to pop them in the head with a single skull-splattering shot is deeply satisfying. Much in the spirit of Fulci’s movies The Beyond, The House by the Cemetery and City of the Living Dead, the zombies look unrealistic and rather abstract, but freaky in their own way, with bulging eyes and monstrous grins.

I found much of Jordan King’s penchant for trashy, irreverent comedy relief less suited to the atmosphere here than in his previous game, The Booty Creek Cheek Freak which feels like a joyous South Park parody against its contemporaries. Likewise, the plot is as nonsensical and thinly sketched as you’d expect from any Italian-American schlock horror picture of the late 70s, but the ending still feels a little cold (an enjoyable final image nevertheless).

Generally, Gates is inconsistent, but a fuller experience than Bloodwash and Cheek Freak. It peaks early with the apartment and coastal village segments, but there’s plenty to enjoy, perhaps more for the movie buffs strangely enough.