A sequel to The Subject that could also be argued as being a reimagining to try and refine what came before. However, for me the changes made here come out worse against the simplicity of The Subject.

The wandering one-hit kill creature is back. You're in a different testing facility, and are tasked with procuring blood samples while navigating the new maze. But this new maze is anything but. It's incredibly more clear and readable than the previous game's setting, and it is now very easy to hide from the monster. There are vents almost everywhere to dive into. This means that where the monster would displace you in the first game forcing long runs down winding halls away from your objective, this time you are maybe ten feet maximum from where you were, just crouched in a vent waiting for it to walk away. A mild inconvenience at best.

Puzzles are also just gone. The closest thing to be found here is a number sequence that you remember and enter somewhere else. The rest is just carrying objects between rooms to plug things in. At times it almost feels like the games were created the other way around, and that this was the first attempt.

And yet despite all this, I feel like I've become a wee bit of a DarkStone Digital fan. It's like I can see what he's going for and almost getting there, so can appreciate the potential as new games get made. I hope that the upcoming The Mortuary Assistant can be another step up.

A cool concept, but the gimmick barely has legs to wobble on, nevermind stand.

I loved the idea of AR and a physical book to have it interact with, but the lighting has to be just right for it to find anything, and even when you get all the conditions lined up, the execution is so flaccid. Spinning on the spot trying to find a ghost looking completely out of place against the mundane backdrop of your home. Click oh wow, better repeat that for an hour. A story cobbled together in an afternoon is fitting for a game that can be finished in one.

The scariest thing was a child ghost emerging from a pile of dirty clothes on my floor.

Spaceship ✓
Hellish layout ✓
Vague puzzles ✓
Wandering enemy you can't fight ✓

It's an indie horror baby!

Seriously though, I quite liked most of this. It's easy to write off the ship's layout as bad, but it makes perfect sense why it's that way when you consider the story. It also has a casual mode without the monster, which I understand if people want an easier time, but as much as I tend to hate the standard thing of an enemy you can't hurt but one-shots you so must be hidden from, the tension would all be gone without it. If I had played on casual then the exploration would have had no dread. The thought of doing stuff quickly and moving on in case it started coming down this corridor kept me on my toes. It also ties in with the collar mechanic/save system that means every now and then you need to go hit an update terminal or the collar will execute you. This can be great for tension if you're in the middle of a puzzle, and might mean a quick 180 in a corridor when you hear the dude coming, forcing you to scramble to another terminal.

I say annoying puzzles, but that's because I am a damn fool. A large idiot child. Messing around at random rather than trying to figure anything out, then only realising what I'm doing 2 moves from the solution and parading around the room in my Massive Genuis hat.

The ship is cool. The style is nice. I think I enjoyed this more than the stars or some of my words suggest, but that looks right to me.

I'm just scribbling these down as I beat the games.

[Hub world is kinda annoying]

Sato Wonderland
-------------------------------------
This is ok. A bit close to other AI themed horror I've seen before, and far too close to Five Nights at Freddies stuff. (God, fuck FNAF. Piece of shit rotted mind culture infecting everything. I will not buy the toys, stop showing this to children.)


Soul Waste
-------------------------------------
Plays like an N64 platformer where every surface is ice. Had to plug in a controller just to get any consistency from the movement. Nothing to write home about here. Big empty world, rotten combat and hit detection. Another one I finished and just went "ok".


[Really need the hub world folk to shut up]


Bete Grise
-------------------------------------
Cool wee isometric thing where you work the nightshift at a hotel. Fixing vending machines and tidying rooms. There also might be something sinister going on. The visuals are likely doing the lifting here, but that's fine.


Disparity of the Dead
-------------------------------------
This is my big favourite so far. It's got a great aesthetic to it. Extremely chill exploration of a dream-like afterlife looking for clues as to why dead people aren't arriving.


[Please be quiet]


Nice Screams at Funfair
-------------------------------------
Extremely short simple ice cream salesman sim that feels like it has horror themes tacked on to absolutely no benefit.


Reactor
-------------------------------------
Cool wee thing made in 10 days. However the scale made me think there would be more to do before things devolved into tired space horror shit. Oh is something going to happen to the friendly AI? Aaaaa I'm so scared and creeped out!


Matter Over Mind
-------------------------------------
I don't know how to explain exactly what I mean by this, but it's an XBLA game.


[This is some 2005 patter and you need to stop]


Submission
-------------------------------------
A decent wee subversion of the bait and switch you usually see with this kinda thing. Got excited when I saw a folded clothes asset I immediately recognised from Paradise Killer and I did the Leo point.


Chip's Tips
-------------------------------------
This is just a nice fun time. No shite in there. https://twitter.com/NightmareModeGo/status/1527031098479353856


[I do not care about the hub plot. It is so shite. Pure modern internet parlance that everyone's adopted]


Bubbo: Adventure on Geralds Island
-------------------------------------
No. No more of this saccharine cuteness with the gradually creeping horror beneath. Sick of it. It is not scary, or interesting, or new. Fuckin' babby's first frighten. Grow up.


[The hub was my favourite part of the last Dread X Collection. This one is my most hated. I kill it]


Eden: Garden of the Faultless
-------------------------------------
Angel Rancher


Spookware @ The Video Store
-------------------------------------
A brilliant wee WarioWare clone with a gorgeous style. Three skeleton brothers doing a movie marathon, and each movie is the minigame. God I wish it was longer.


[SHUT THE FUCK UP]

I'm left wondering if some of the patter I've seen surrounding this is from folk who actually finished the game, or are just doing that internet thing of parroting what someone they like said about it.

Seen some visceral reactions to its poor handling of the subject, but I never felt anything other than bored of it all. I think the way I had heard the game discussed meant I was waiting for some truly wild transgressive shit that just isnae really there for me. But then none of it applies to my life so I can only speak from this position.

Never did I get the impression that they were saying trauma cannot be overcome and so you must die. I do think there is space for stories that touch upon the very real fact that some people can never get through a horrible thing that happened to them. There are endless cases of it that many of us will be far too familiar with, but Blooby Squad are absolutely not the folk to be doing it.

Something I was struck by while playing this was how different the vibe is to later WWII games. There's an almost slight pulp feel to it. It's got that idealised exceptional lone soldier thing going on. Lt. Jimmy Patterson, best in his class, moving through Nazi bases like a fuckin' train.

No subtitles, so in the cool missions where you're undercover and have to secure and show ID to access different areas, all the Nazis are speaking in English with accents straight out of 'Allo 'Allo. Plus by that point you've gained some infamy for your deeds, which results in officers who don't recognise your papers asking a few suspicious questions before shouting "You're Jimmy Patterson!" and setting the alarms off. It's great. So daft.

It suffers a bit with some things due to its age. Enemy AI is pretty decent, but it has that thing where they just know your location, and corners don't really work like actual corners and can be shot through, so you're often hit by rounds from an enemy you simply can't see. The game can be BASTARD hard. No checkpoints, and it sometimes feels like enemies just spawn in behind you. I cannot imagine beating it with the default controls. I spent 20 minutes trying to remap my Vita controls to something resembling modern shooters before realising there's an in-game control scheme option that's extremely close. It just means that firing your guns remains on square. Not ideal, but it got the job done.

I wish WWII shooters would go back to this kinda style. There's a movie-like quality to it that's hard for an idiot like me to put into words. Not a war epic, but a wee adventure. Less "dude with hyper-real guts hanging out crying for his mum" and more "Eat lead, Fritz!".

https://twitter.com/NightmareModeGo/status/1525832960733233152

I backed a kickstarter by the developers of this back in 2014 for a game called Death in Candlewood.

Death in Candlewood was dreamt up by Rosebud Games. A studio comprised of "award-winning industry veterans who worked on Silent Hill: Origins, F.E.A.R. Extraction Point, The Witcher and more, plus consultation from BioShock designer". A first-person psychological shooter influenced by the gothic fiction of Edgar Allan Poe. Set in 1940's America, you play as Ray Dune, a doctor whose vulnerable adopted son has gone missing at the hands of reclusive psychiatrist Lester Caravan. Navigate 6km² of shadowy mountain ranges, and 4km² of the town of Candlewood. Take on the twisted inhabitants with over 20 melee and ranged weapons. Explore reactive branching dialogue with NPCs, and experience randomised events.

It failed to meet its 50k goal, falling short by 40k. I was gutted at the time. I loved the look of it so much, but watching the trailers back now, it's incredibly rough. 2014 me was a bit of a fool, hope in his heart, that kinda thing. I'm watching this gameplay that makes Dark Corners of the Earth look like DOOM 2016. This thing was never going to make that money.

And so the team turned to House of Caravan. A first-person room escape and exploration game set in the Death in Candlewood universe. The idea was that if this sold reasonably well then the devs would use that money to push Death in Candlewood and finish it by the end of 2015.

It's about opening fuckin' drawers for an hour, and Rosebud Games no longer exists.

Much more solid on normal difficulty than I remember it being. Maybe 12 year old me used cheats.

It holds up really well. Kicks through the hammy barrier and circles back around to being cool as shit.

I don't understand why they keep going on about his name though.

https://twitter.com/NightmareModeGo/status/1521909777953079296