You play as a woman named Sarah, who awakens in an abandoned hospital where twelve witches were slain. A thirteenth witch escaped by turning in the other twelve, and the story reveals that you’re a descendant of that same witch. Your attempted escape from the hospital is made all the more difficult as the 12 dead witches seek vengeance on you for your ancestor’s misdeeds.

Using only your cell phone for light – with the occasional glow stick or flare peppered throughout the level – you must uncover a dark mystery while trying to escape out of your dreadful predicament. You’ll need flares in order to defeat the shadow monsters that hunt you down in the hospital, and as expected, glow sticks and flares are inconveniently scarce. As you try to escape, you find numerous remnants that tell the story of the hospital’s deep, dark past. As you start to shed some light on transpired events, the denizens of the hospital start to get just a little more ticked off, and manifest themselves more frequently. The only way to fend them off is to pop a flare that causes the demons to burst into flames, reducing them to ashes. However, in the unfortunate event that you’re out of flares, the demons will cause you to slowly blackout until you die.

The Unreal Engine 4’s power is stylishly used in Daylight, in spite of the color scheme leaning a bit towards the darker side. Beautiful hues of red, green, and blue make the graphics shine in all the right places, and are especially impressive when you come face-to-face with the game’s “shadow monsters”.

The maze element of the levels is a great gameplay feature in Daylight, and adds to the sense of feeling trapped and confused, building up tension around every corner you take. Admittedly, I found myself getting extremely frustrated because of the lack of direction, but as I played on, I saw how traversing into the unknown has a certain charm. As I passed through the creepy hallways of the hospital and the environs of the other levels, rounding each turn kept my apprehension at an eleven, and every eerie noise kept me on the tips of my toes. Every location would have something unexpected waiting for me. Anyone playing this game can definitely look forward to having some lingering images haunting their sleepless nights.

Even though I found myself getting rather frustrated, I always ended up turning my PS4 back on just to jump back into the nerve-racking maze to try to find my way out and survive. Zombie Studios did an incredible job keeping me reeled in and always at the edge of my seat, never knowing what would happen next. Combining the right amounts of challenge, suspense, and some frustration, Daylight really surprised me and stood out with the more recent non-combat, horror titles like Outlast, Gone Home, and Slender Man.

Overall, Daylight is a great game and a must-play. You will experience deep feelings of sorrow and suspense, and will really start to care about Sarah as you try to help her escape. Oft times, while laying in bed, I could not help but hear Daylight‘s screams and distant yells as I closed my eyes, making me yearn to go back into the game and finally escape the maze. Daylight is a very suspenseful and deep game, and coupled with some simple gameplay design, makes it a journey that you just have to experience.

SpawnFirst Recommends…

Despite the predictable scare tactics and confusing story, Daylight is a great title to pick up for fans who like suspense-filled games. The graphics are immersive and the concept of randomized levels in a survival horror game is pretty novel. Daylight will get your heart racing for a while, but don’t expect the scares to keep up with the repetitiveness. This procedurally-generated, survival horror game is definitely worth your time – just not at full price.

The post Daylight Review appeared first on SpawnFirst.

In the world of entertainment media, most of the time a movie or TV show is considered to be either good or bad, but on a rare occasion, an anomaly occurs in which the entertainment is so terribly bad, that it’s good.  It tends to be even more of a rarity in the video game industry when a game has managed to receive this most dubiously, prestigious accolade, which Dementium 2 HD will be awarded today.  In all fairness, the gameplay isn’t that bad, but the poor attempts at story, horror, and creature design make for an unintentionally hilarious experience.

Story

Players take on the role of William, a patient at a mental institution, who finds himself thrown back and forth between the normal world and an alternate universe inhabited by ravenous monsters. Whilst trying to escape from the madness, William finds out early on that the cause of the horror is an evil, masked doctor who plans to destroy the world by summoning a demon to the realm of humanity for no apparent reason other than he is evil.

Stop me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t this sound like the exact plot of the original Silent Hill game? There is the possibility of William being completely off his rocker, and/or meds, meaning the alternate reality is a twisted illusion constructed by his broken psyche with the Doctor serving as a culmination of all his dark emotions.

This is a possibility, but the story never bothers to play on this idea at all besides a cheap, clumsy ending and within one sentence, I somehow managed to create a more compelling concept (looking for a scriptwriter Memetic Games?) Considering the developers’ inspiration is obviously the Silent Hill series, one would figure that the game would have significantly better story.

Gameplay

Dementium 2 was originally a game on the Nintendo DS which is more impressive considering how difficult it was to create a good FPS on such a unique handheld game device; on a more traditional platform, not so much. The core gameplay of Dementium 2 HD is fairly simplistic and harps back to classic survival horror games, just without the horror.

Standard FPS controls for PC are applied to the HD remake so it won’t take long to get used to the controls, though the crouch/duck walk will probably throw a few people off. From start to finish, the game is split entirely between combat and some minor exploration with combat being the main focus. Unfortunately, combat is repetitive and unbalanced making the game a breeze even on a harder difficulty.

Early in the game, players receive a prison shank and a revolver pistol which are actually the best weapons in the game. Using the shank, all a player needs to do is run around an enemy while pressing the attack button to show enemies the harsh reality of prison rules and win just about every fight, even the bosses. Or for those who are in a hurry, the pistol can be used to take down most enemies within three to four shots. To compensate for the gun’s power, the recoil is ridiculously strong making fire rate slower and causing the weapon to fly off camera, presumably into William’s forehead.

There are other weapons in the game like a shotgun, machine gun, and even a mystical boomerang relic that looks like it was designed by a kindergarten student who is a fan of Tool.  The machine gun is useful against the four cloned security guards armed with guns, but the shotgun is completely useless because of the minute damage it does to enemies. Considering it can only carry two rounds and has an extremely short range, a high damage output would easily balance things out.

The standard chest maw zombies very shakily shamble toward the player uttering a sound resembling a drunken Chewbacca and will fall down then immediately spring back up once hit with a weapon. I would say the Dementium zombies wobble but they don’t fall down, but I still think that phrase is under copyright.

Other enemies include flying heads that scream and cry obnoxiously, bargain brand Half-Life headcrabs, various generic ghosts with glowing eyes, and my favorite, a mutant dog that farts acid and laughs.  That’s correct, there is a creature that farts acid, laughs hysterically, and even barrel rolls upon taking damage; bosses aren’t much better.

Bosses are the basic horror game arena fights, but with horribly designed creatures; the first being a large close quarters beast that resembles the combination of the monster from Little Shop of Horrors with a shark attack victim.  Another is a zombie witch that flies across the screen exactly like Mortal Kombat‘s Raiden.

The game does try something different in which one boss chases the player across a trap-filled hallway, but the creature is extremely slow making it very easy to get to a safe distance and get in a few pot shots. Many areas of the game follow the same design as the bosses in which players will have to fight against a set number of enemies to unlock a door; this is a big no-no in horror game design.

A good horror game give players the option to run like hell alongside the option to fight, but Dementium throws the player into one combat arena after another. They are barely arenas at all with some spawning in a single enemy at time which is just boring.

To add the final nail in this coffin, the game’s environments are littered with tons of ammunition and health kits while the save points restore health throwing all challenge and tension right out of the cuckoo’s nest.

Graphics & Sound

Considering this came off an old DS game, this game doesn’t look good, but it could be significantly worse. I don’t care about graphics some much as I do the art direction which just happens to be between generic and atrocious. As it was established earlier, the monsters look like Clive Barker’s E-team of monsters, F-team was already used for Jericho, while the atmosphere is bland and generic.

Asylums are common in the horror world which fulfills its purpose in the game, but the alternate realities are like a goofy version of Silent Hill’s.  I also noticed that the developers would  place a skull in random areas like the Predator alien was pulling out all the stops for Easter this year; ooh scary.  Art design is only limited by one’s imagination, so when the designer is creating a horror game like a grade school teacher decorates their desk for Halloween, there is a problem.

Sound design is the same way in which the game contains some surprisingly good music tracks with laughably bad sound effects.  The music would get more praise, but the fighting music turns on when entering a room containing an enemy ruining any surprise.

Issues

The only bad issue I noticed, was Dementium’s incompatibility with a controller despite stating it has full controller support in the Steam store.  I tested out the controller, after completing the game because real PC gamers use a mouse and keyboard, and noticed that the commands wouldn’t always work.  Certain weapons couldn’t even be used while others worked perfectly fine and at one point, the controls failed for both the controller and mouse causing me to force close the program.  In short, stick to the mouse.

SpawnFirst Recommends…

While it may not sound it, Dementium’s gameplay is more meh than outright terrible and most fun will be had laughing at the bad monster design, environments, and story.  What makes it even more funny, is the game takes itself seriously which I find to be endearingly cute; it’s just like when Resident Evil first came out.  Unfortunately the repetitive combat arenas and boring gameplay design aren’t funny plus the full controller support is untrue.

Anyone looking for a serious survival horror or well-designed action game should look elsewhere.  For those looking for an unintentionally funny experience, this is worth playing, though I would buy it when it’s cheap, very cheap.

The post Dementium 2 HD Review appeared first on SpawnFirst.

Dead Rising 3 maintains the absurdness that Dead Rising is known for, but now has a more immersive, open world that allows for exploration without some of the restrictions of previous versions. Plenty of unlockables and collectibles will keep you busy as you move through the game.

Story/Concept

Itâ€s been 10 years after Dead Rising 2 and a new zombie outbreak has occurred in the city of Los Perdidos. Nick Ramos is a survivor in the city looking for a way out. After finding no supplies or survivors at a military check-point, Nick returns to his rag-tag team of survivors within the city walls. The city has been quarantined and barricaded with little hope for any alive inside the walls.

Nickâ€s team discovers a plane that, with some tender loving care, could act as a vessel for escape. While scavenging the city, Nick discovers that the outbreak was not an accident. If thatâ€s not bad enough, the entire city of Los Perdidos is scheduled to be destroyed with nuclear force in 6 days.

As more and more information comes to light, itâ€s up to Nick to expose the truth and cure the outbreak. If you succeed, you escape the city before destruction, and (naturally) get the girl.

Gameplay

Dead Rising 3 uses a leveling system where you gain experience for killing zombies, saving random survivors, and completing the story and side quests. You get attribute points that you can then spend to increase your life or inventory slots, amongst other things. As Nick Ramos, mechanic extraordinaire, youâ€ll combine items like gems and a flash light to create a light saber as you make your way through zombie infested streets.

You have a basic attack and then a heavy attack with your melee weapons, as well as the ability to aim down a sight and shoot with firearms. Most weapons do the trick for clearing a crowd, but collect blue prints to create combo weapons, which make quick work of larger hordes. The same goes for vehicles – SUVs and sedans get you from point A to point B, but a steamroller/motorcycle roller-hawg does it in style.

Weapons are plentiful and so is health. At first I was a little uneasy at the idea of attracting attention, but after an upgrade here and there, youâ€ll plow through zombies without a second thought. Just donâ€t try to take them on without moving.

Given the open world, youâ€ll be able to use vehicles more often than not to get around. Furthermore, youâ€ll need them to plow through the thousands of zombies that you are guaranteed to encounter. As you enter a location, youâ€ll find an aimlessly wandering horde. You are free to mutilate the horde if youâ€d like, but if you go around the block, youâ€ll find that the horde will be there again.

Graphics & Sound

Dead Rising 3 set to achieve a more realistic feel and it has done just that. There were more zombie models to make it feel as though you were fighting individuals and not clones. There is so much detail in the open world that I almost feel bad for not exploring every little corner.

Dead Rising 3 has incredible voice actors and a pretty solid script if you look at all the pieces of the puzzle. These two aspects allow characters to stand out without feeling like anomalies to the entire cast. However, the soundtrack leaves a lot to be desired. Queuing up whenever there is a horde or boss battle, the music is repetitive and feels like itâ€s just trying to fill a void that would be just fine if left empty.

Multiplayer

In your endeavors, other players can join you mid game, arcade style. Adding players makes wading through a crowd of zombies a little easier. Not only this, but boss fights become a joke as you unleash havoc on them so quickly they barely have time to flinch. In the open world, itâ€s not necessary that all players stick together, so itâ€s fairly easy to get separated from one another. Splitting up allows for multiple tasks to get done quickly while everyone gets credit for anything accomplished.

Issues

Dead Rising 3 suffers from a lack of a soundtrack. With its repetitive use of the background music, it feels better when thereâ€s no music at all since zombies†grunts and growls fill the silence. Multiplayer is great…when it works. Many times I would be alerted that another gamer was joining my session only to see that they would later be dropped. This inhibited me since accessing the menu no longer paused the game. I would either have to find somewhere safe, or wait until the player was completely dropped. Lastly, I have only been able to connect my Smart Glass companion app a total of four times out of who knows how many attempts. Whether I was using my phone, my tablet, or my computer, the Smart Glass app was not communicating properly with the game.

Notable Extras

As previously mentioned, Dead Rising 3 has a ton of unlockables and collectibles. Get them all to gain a full arsenal of weapons and vehicles. There are a number of outfits to collect for fighting zombies including a MegaMan X costume complete with Mega Buster. Also included is a Nightmare mode for added difficulty. Nightmare mode may be the way to play the game since Normal is a little on the easy side.

SpawnFirst Recommends…

Dead Rising 3 gives a warm welcome to the next-gen Xbox One. No game is without its flaws, and Dead Rising 3 has a few, but not enough to prevent you from enjoying it. Overall, itâ€s a solid story with solid gameplay, and it’s definitely a notable entry in the zombie-survival genre. Little things like hordes of zombies appearing after you just cleared them out and the repetitive music will give you a kind of ‘drone†feeling, but itâ€s not long lasting. If youâ€re sporting the Xbox One, then Dead Rising 3 should definitely be a consideration for your launch library.

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When How to Survive first appeared on my radar, I was almost immediately sold. A survival horror game with a crazy Russian guy teaching me how to live during a zombie apocalypse; whatâ€s not to like? Well Iâ€m happy to say that my intuition is pretty good at picking out games because, apart from a few issues, How to Survive is an all around enjoyable game.

Story

The story of How to Survive is nothing really to write home about. You play as one of 3 characters marooned on an group of islands that just so happens to be infested with zombies. Thus your struggle with survival begins but, luckily, youâ€re not the only one trying to escape the island. There are other survivors, but none are more prominent or hilarious than Kovac: a crazed Russian that has lovingly put together a guide on how to survive (get it?) on these doomed islands. Following his instructions, you struggle your way from island to island, trying to find parts to repair a seaplane to get the hell off of the zombie-ridden archipelago.

 

Gameplay

In How to Survive, survival is, obviously, the name of the game. As you play, you have to keep an eye on not only your health, but also your hunger, thirst, and energy. If you let any of the gauges get too low, your character will start to suffer and eventually die if any of them hit zero. For example, if you let your hydration levels get too low, youâ€re aim with range weapons becomes much less accurate, making it hard to pull off those much needed head shots. It was both interesting and wrecking seeing your vitals drop below 50% and your character visibly react to their poor state, especially when a swarm of flesh eating monsters are closing in. So to avoid finding yourself in sticky situation, make sure to replenish your vitals by drinking water from wells found around the islands, cooking and eating food, sleeping in shelters, and using herbs/med packs to mend your wounds.

Keeping your vitals up is only half the battle. There is still the matter of the zombies that are trying to eat your face off. As you travel around the island, youâ€ll find random knick-knacks like string, bolts, and chains which are useless by themselves, but by finding blueprints laying around the islands provided by your BFFL Kovac, you can build deadly, zombie slaying weapons. For example, by combining a harpoon handle, a diving tank, a flare tube, and some mechanical tools you a can create an all powerful shotgun that fires what would be useless junk deep into your enemies skulls.

Being able to assemble better stuff out of the random junk you find is both fun and exciting. There were a lot of times I would debate for 5 minutes on which items to pick up because they looked important but my inventory was full and didn’t know what to drop. It vaguely reminded me of Borderlands, where I was constantly in search for better loot, although in this case I was looking for stuff to build better weapons, armor and potions. Also similar to Borderlands, How to Survive features a skill tree for each character that you fill out as you level up. The abilities you unlock as you move through the trees include slower depletion rates for thirst, hunger, and energy, and the ability to make cool stuff like explosive arrows. These perks add some depth to the game, and, since itâ€s impossible to fill out the skill tree on your first play through, add some re-playability as well.

The enemies that you encounter in How to Survive are pretty standard for the most part. You have your typical slow moving zombies, your fat zombies that explode (kind of like the boomers in Left 4 Dead, or the floaters in Dead Island), and your berserker, effing hard to kill zombies (like the tank in L4D). The game also features a day/night cycle, which brings a new element to the table. Not only do you need a flashlight or torch to see better, but you also get attacked by these creatures that look like Gollum from Lord of the Rings. Luckily, these fast little buggers hate light, so just shack up around a campfire or flash them with your flashlight to get them to back off. Unfortunately, campsites are pretty hefty distances apart, torches burn out, flashlights only work in the direction that you’re facing, and these nocturnal enemies DO NOT stop coming until the sun rises. There were several times where I was already in a big fight and then the sun went down. Needless to say, I didn’t last long. In addition to these night time foes, the game also introduces infected animals like deer, crabs, and ostriches. I don’t think Iâ€ve ever seen a zombie game where the wild life was infected too, so I was pleasantly surprised. That is, until I found out how hard they are to kill, then I was just busy running away from them as best I could.

So up until this point in the review, How to Survive sounds like a pretty awesome game (which it is) but it did have its shortcomings. My first issue was with the controls: they felt unnatural and took me a good while to pick up (why is the B button a menu?). I also had a beef with my character only being able to sprint 5 feet before he was exhausted. I mean come on, do some cardio, bro! The pace of the game was a little off, as I went from being a God amongst zombies to being the kid picked last in dodgeball in a matter of minutes. While this could be an issue for some, I liked the challenge and it really forced me to change my strategy. The missions in story mode were very straight forward: go-here-and-do-that missions, with a lot of backtracking. So people might also be turned off by that, but it never really bothered me because I was just busy trying to keep myself alive and hydrated.

My biggest complaint was the autosave feature. I played for a good couple hours one day, made a lot of progress, ventured half way through the final island and then decided to call it a day. When I turned the game back on, I was back on the 3rd island and NONE of my progress from the 4th island saved. I was very pissed off to say the least, but once I got over it, I was back to enjoying myself once again.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in How to Survive are pretty solid of the size of the game (about 1.7 GB). The lighting of the fires and flashlights at night are wonderful and, while the character models are nothing too exciting, I did enjoy watching my character get more and more dirt/blood covered as I progressed through the game. The environmental graphics, while repetitive, served their purpose and didn’t really affect my experience at all.

Voice acting in the game was passable at best, but was carried by the actor who voiced Kovac. He was hilarious, on point, and was enjoyable to talk to in-game. As for the sound effects, the zombie noises were also very standard as well; just a lot of wheezing, groaning, and growling. The background music was repetitive, although I didn’t really notice as I was getting swarmed by dozens of zombies at a time.

 

Multiplayer

How to Survive features both online and local multiplayer for both story and challenge mode. While it can only be you, adding a friend on the island is SO much more fun than doing it by yourself. I had my girlfriend play about 10 minutes of the game with me and after about 30 seconds we were laughing hysterically as she went charging into a horde of zombies with only a stick to defend herself. The bottom line is, while co-op does not affect the story at all, I recommend grabbing a friend to play with you because good times will ensue.

Issues

As I mentioned above, some of the biggest issues, I was able to overlook. These include the repetitive missions and the poor difficulty curve. The ones I can’t overlook are the occasionally poor controls and loss of progress thanks to autosave. However, these issues aside, How to Survive is a solid title.

Notable Extras

How to Survive features a challenge mode that is very straight forward: start with nothing, and try to work your way across the island to the plane. While that sounds super easy and straightforward, trust me: itâ€s not. This mode is perfect for people who don’t want to do the repetitive missions and just kill zombies. The game also features a herbology book where all you basically find rare plants to add to your collection (why youâ€re making a plant scrap book in the middle of a zombie apocalypse is beyond me). This was less of a draw than the challenge mode but if you like finding stuff, have at it.

SpawnFirst Recommends…

While How to Survive does have some flaws and annoying controls, the fun that you’ll have with this zombie-licious title will almost always shadow over the frustration. It’s definitely worth a download, and will keep you busy until the next enjoyable zombie game comes out on consoles.

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Lone Survivor was first released on PC, Linux and Mac by Jasper Byrne last year and has since been ported over to PS3. It features a “Lone Survivor”, a plush cat toy and some really bald, really annoying monsters. It’s a side-scrolling, loot grabbin’, pistol shootin’, horror survivin’ psychological thriller taking place in a dystopian city where a plague has ravaged mankind and left the monsters in its wake.

Story/Concept

Lone Survivor follows the story of the survivor of a deadly plague that has turned people into monsters or killed them outright. He wears a surgical mask to avoid infection and is well…bat-poop crazy. Throughout the game the survivor encounters things that make the player question his sanity, for instance it’s actually possible to converse with a cat, and mind you, it’s not even a real one – itâ€s a plush toy. He also encounters strange things like A Man Wearing a Box, which is his actual name, by the way. He also faces the monsters (which I assume are the former populace) who are tall, bald, shrieking nightmares that you will learn to hide from rather than repeatedly run at them like I did – not wise.

Gameplay

The gameplay in Lone Survivor is a straightforward 2D side-scrolling-based survival-horror thriller. It also contains extra elements like an added dimension – it gives you the option to go into hidey holes to escape the less than amorous attentions of the horrible, bald monsters, that are on the loose. This literally adds a new dimension as it gives you the option to go back and forward and side-to-side. It has a pretty intuitive inventory system thatâ€s straightforward and easy to use. It displays all your items in classes down the left and gives you a side scroll menu to choose your items from –easy huh? The only problem I encountered with it is that I couldn’t drop multiple items all at once, so usually I would have to stand there for a good 30 seconds dropping a few items from the same stack that I didn’t want.

Attack of the baldies.

Graphics & Sound

The sound in Lone Survivor is good in most places, although there are a few really annoying bits that made me irritable just listening to them. And the death screen, oh the death screen: a combination of sound and sight that made me grit my teeth in annoyance. The screen goes bright red and plays a long and loud whine. Itâ€s unnecessary and uncomfortable to watch. The developer put in the “ritual” – a set of instructions on how to best enjoy the game. I did like that about Lone Survivor, however, usually devs donâ€t take into account the real-world atmosphere for a game and lose out on immersion due to it. Thereâ€s no recorded dialogue in Lone Survivor, as you would expect from an indie title. The game handles the tutorials and story with text based entries on the screen – while basic, I always prefer to have subtitles on anyway so it works for me.

The visuals are excellently laid out, the pixel graphics give it an old and vintage feel, but still maintains the horror/ thriller aspect with clever use of lighting. The lighting is used to awesome effect with the side-scrolling nature of the game. Basically, the player has a light attached to them revealing limited amounts of space around him, meaning that whatever is ahead or behind is in total darkness and you can’t see anything unless youâ€re right on top of it. It adds a nice thrill to the game as well it should.

Ugh.

Notable Extras

The game is a port from PC & Mac, so itâ€s been around for a while this and pre-dates this release by about a year or so. I got the PC version of the game for a basis of comparison and found that other than the obvious graphical differences and some control changes, it was pretty much the same game, aside from a bevy of extras. In the first playthrough, there are two additional locations, a new side-quest, and easter-eggs, and in the New Game plus mode, there are two new endings, 6 additional locations, 3 new songs, 20 new items, 2 new side-quests, a new enemy, and a buttload of even more easter eggs. So all-in-all, a good port with some decent extras.

Issues

So far the only major issues I’ve encountered have been some laggy transitions from inventory to gameplay in which the inventory sticks for a second or two.

SpawnFirst Recommends…

The gameplay and story are intriguing and definitely worth a look, and the graphics are so well done that I would have to recommend that you buy this game! The only issue is the sound; it doesn’t stand well with the rest of the game and therefore drags it down somewhat. But otherwise it’s a solid title with a lot of merit within it’s genre, and all the more reason for you to stop reading this review, and to go check out Lone Survivor.

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Less Horror, More Microtransactions

It is difficult not to compare the Dead Space series with the “Alien” franchise simply because they are very similar.  Dead Space is like “Alien” because it was more horror focused and took place in a dark, claustrophobic space shuttle and Dead Space 2 is like “Aliens” because it switched between horror and tense action.  Sadly Dead Space 3 is like “Alien 3” because it is a disappointing sequel that fails to grasp any of the elements that made the previous two games good.

Story

The game begins with Dead Space protagonist, Isaac Clarke, in hiding from the various forces who want his knowledge of the game’s Markers, alien relics which create monsters when activated. Almost immediately, he is confronted by two soldiers, Carver and Norton, who require his assistance to find Ellie, a character from Dead Space 2 and Isaac’s recently ex-girlfriend, who is trying to find and destroy the original Marker.

A few minutes after the intro, the characters are discovered by the Unitologists, a religious group who worship the Markers, and are attacked on sight. The game introduces the leader of the Unitologists, Danik, who plans to activate all of the Markers and delivery divine retribution to all non-believers.

Once the end-of-the-world plot has been established, the rest of the game follows Isaac as he works with Ellie, who is now in a relationship with Norton, and a few other characters as they try to find the original Marker and stop the Unitologists.

The love triangle between Isaac, Ellie, and Norton takes up the brunt of the story and comes off as a little too ridiculous. It is never established how strong the relationship between Isaac and Ellie is but because he is the protagonist, the writers imply that we should just take his word for it.

Love is a common motivation for a character’s actions, but Isaac merely comes off as jealous and selfish as he and Norton bicker like teenagers whilst forgetting that the world is about to end. In Dead Space 2, Isaac’s love for his late girlfriend was established and the grieve and guilt he felt for her death made his a sympathetic character, but the Isaac in DS3 is unlikable and even a worse character than the mute Isaac in the first game.

It was also quite obvious the writers wrote themselves into a corner at the end of DS2 in regards to the Markers in which not even they know what they are or how they work. This game proved my theory to be true when at the end, only more questions were added and no answers were given. The writers teased the origins of the Markers for two games and then did not even bother to try and give an explanation which in turn is insulting to the fans and just plain lazy.

The plot is generic, the love triangle is poorly done and unnecessary, and characters are unlikeable. The game’s antagonist in particular is another bland, nonthreatening villain who throws his countless and devoted minions at the protagonist as he utters one eccentric monologue after another; the man would be better suited as a villain on a Saturday morning cartoon.

Gameplay

The gameplay has received the same amount of effort as the story as well in which it is bland, boring, and predictable. Nothing has changed with the core gameplay: health and stasis is displayed on the characters’ backs, one button aims and the other shoots, one button activates a health pack, and objects can be lifted and thrown by the Kinesis device.

A dodge mechanic has been added along with a weapon crafting system. Weapon crafting requires various supplies and components which can either be found in the environment, dropped by defeated enemies, or bought from a store; or if you don’t feel like putting in the effort, EA allows the player to by these components for actual real-world money, which is both stupid and greedy.

Just about any combination of components can make a weapon, but I feel it takes away from what little tension there is and can make the game too easy. It may be cool to attach a flamethrower to a line gun, but I miss the game’s original weapons and upgrade system. Also, weapons now use and share the same ammo which is better than micromanaging supplies in the first two games admittedly.

The game’s focus is on action and action only; gone is the tension and horror of the previous games. Because the weapon upgrades are extremely powerful and ammo and health are handed out like candy, there is no tension whatsoever; it is also worth noting the developers don’t even try to scare the players. The action is not even fun because the same enemy types are thrown toward the player in the same way 90% of the time two in front and one behind the player every time.<

Bosses usually break the monotony, but DS3 has the player fight the same boss three times, a boss from the first Dead Space, and a new one who screams “missed opportunity” as soon as the fight starts. This new boss is the size of a small planet and should have been threatening, but only throws regular enemies at the character as it watches from afar; it is essentially the same as the last boss from DS2 and is just as boring.

There are a few set pieces in the game that add some variety, but they are also bland and boring as well. One area brings back the Regenerator alien from the first game. The setting is continuously doused by the flames of a ships engine igniting, which was used to kill the Regenerator. Apparently the creature has evolved because he simply walks through the flames unscathed and can now kill Isaac with a single swing; this time, his demise is caused by a regular turret instead of something creative.

Another area of the game takes place inside the body of a dead alien and instead of using the new setting properly for a possible scare or an exciting event, the developers decided it was better suited to be another arena to fight regular enemies. The go-to set pieces of the game are various rappelling stages that are fun at first, but wears out its welcome because they are overused.

Puzzles are still a part of the gameplay, though they are all essentially matching puzzles with different coats of paint. Many doors must be hacked through a matching mini-game using the analog sticks. This mini-game is overused and adds more onto the pile of tedium created by the gameplay.

Graphics

Graphics and sound are still as good as they have been, though I feel the developers should have been more conservative with the amount of monster sounds being played from start to finish. Even if the writing is subpar, the voice actors do a good job and sound believable. The only problem with the overall visual presentation of the game is the camera’s position. Isaac is placed too far to the left of the screen and zooms in too much making it difficult for me to see what I was doing. The rule of thirds applies to games, but the camera is way off and is neither aesthetically pleasing or practical.

Multiplayer

Dead Space 3 does contain an addition to the gameplay component, co-op multiplayer. In multiplayer, players take the role of either Isaac or newcomer Carver whose story is only seen in the multiplayer. It feels unfair to exclude everything about Carver and punish single players, but then again, Carver’s origins are only implied through a few cutscenes only seen by the second player and don’t add much to the overall story.

The gameplay is also unaffected by the inclusion of a second player. Aside from three optional co-op only missions, everything mostly plays out the same. The co-op missions are missed opportunities to throw something new that only two players could accomplish, but instead are the same batch of regular missions that have no reason to be two-player exclusive.

The only unique co-op feature is Carver experiences delusions, much like in the previous games, which are only experienced by the person controlling Carver. As stated earlier, they don’t add to the story yet they don’t add to the gameplay either. These sequences, played three times, are the same sequence found in the finale of Dead Space 2 just with a different Carver-based aesthetic.

Luckily, both players can pick up the same supplies without divvying up the loot, but the presence of two characters doesn’t make things easier. All puzzles now require two hands to complete, the hacking mini-game becoming the worst of them all. Generally movement is also a pain since the game contains a great amount of claustrophobic environments which in turn makes fighting also a pain

The inclusion of multiplayer actually makes the gameplay somewhat worse because only a few levels were tailored for it. Carver isn’t even treated as an important character since even during multiplayer cutscenes, he is barely there or blended into the background. It is also worth noting that his experiences should have been an extra for single player gamers as well.

SpawnFirst Recommends…

Dead Space 3 is a disappointing end to a good series and finishes the franchise with an extremely sour note. Every aspect of this game is multiple steps back behind its predecessors and I feel that absolutely no effort went into this game. The story is bad and doesn’t explain key questions, the characters are unlikable, gameplay is bland and predictable, the multiplayer is pointless, and the fact that there are microtransactions for in-game materials and multiplayer is inaccessible without a $10 code is appalling.

Good horror games are few and far in-between and the Dead Space series was one of the better ones, up until now. Dead Space fans might as well rent and only rent this game just to finish the series, but horror and action fans who are new to the series should play the other two and avoid this game for now. The rest shouldn’t even give this bargain bin trash a glance.

The post Dead Space 3 Review appeared first on SpawnFirst.

You may have to stop and take a break, go get a drink, come back several hours later, let your nerves settle.  Don’t worry, nobody can hear you scream.

Story/Concept

You are Miles Upshur, a reporter who, after receiving an anonymous tip, drives to the moody Mount Massive Asylum, run by the (naturally) shady Murkoff Corporation (Umbrella-style), to investigate.  Flashing figures in the windows and empty military riot vehicles in the driveway are the kind of indication that you should run very, very far away, but this wouldn’t be a survival horror game if you do.  So you hop on some scaffolding and push your way into the asylum, where it becomes immediately clear that this is not somewhere you want to be.  Someone attacks you, and the game shifts immediately from investigative to sheer survival as you run through dark hallways, away from (and sometimes into) strange, demented patients.

The game is bloody, strewn with the pieces of people who have died or been killed the halls of Mount Asylum.  As you descend into the pits of the building, including into its sewers, in a hope to simply make it out alive, more and more of the damaged residents become enemies.  Any person you encounter could be an enemy or a victim.  Outlast is a decidedly mature game, and at any turn you can’t rule out the possibility of violence or creepy sexual activities.

Without giving anything away, the plot could have come out of any number of B horror movies– and the characters themselves are from central casting’s “crazy people” book (and some of them look like Fallout 3’s ghouls)– but it doesn’t need the most compelling plot to be a thoroughly enthralling game.  The story is a means to an end, and the end is survival.  There are, however, occasionally great narrative touches (one notable moment is when you have the exit in sight and you’re slowly pulled away from it, inert, confined to a wheelchair– you slowly and horrifyingly watch the exit disappear into the distance).

Gameplay

There are no weapons, a lack of ammo traded for a lack of batteries, which are used to power the battery on your hand-held camera’s night vision (similar to Alan Wake’s flashlight).  This is an important gameplay element in the sometimes completely dark environs of the Mount Massive Asylum, and the camera can be shifted to or away from your face mid-run, to horrifying effect.  Every use of the night vision carries with it the sinking fear that it’s going to reveal something in the dark that you would really rather not see.  Sometimes standing in the dark feels like the sanest thing to do.  In an early moment, as an enemy approaches from down the hall, the game warns you to hide– because there’s no hope in fighting.  You watch, mutely, probably breathing heavily, through the tiny slits through a locker door.  Running and hiding are your only two options most of the time.  Jumping is organic and easy, and the running itself feels fluid and natural.  You occasionally squeeze through cracks Nathan Drake-style, and moving to open or close doors as you run away from things is quick and intuitive.

What Outlast does best is play with the negative space, the darkness where things can go bump without being seen.  It almost seems underwhelming when the lights do come up and the floors are covered in blood and there’s strange writing on the walls.  Your objectives are linear and clear-cut (turn on this light, follow this path, escape), but it’s not always immediately obvious which way you should be running; this adds to the confusion and the horror of turning a corner to find yourself confronted with an enemy.

You will have genuine moments where you’re just running.  Where to?  It doesn’t matter.  Away.

Pieces of the story are also revealed through optional documents and recording of notes (only available when the camera is on).  The further the story gets, the less time you’ll want to spend on these.  Anything that could keep you from running away from the thing breathing over your shoulder isn’t a thing to deal with.

Some occasional combat moments read like Telltale’s Walking Dead— more like quicktime events than actual combat.  If they weren’t so sparse, they might detract from the game; Outlast is so fluid that the sudden appearance of a mouse on the screen to tell you to do something seems jarring.

Graphics and Sound

Generally, Outlast looks and feels great.  There are some great set pieces, from a room scrawled with crazy writing to prison-style showers.  Even the early moments of the game, when Miles drives up to the asylum, are beautifully crafted, from the moody weather to the sunset.  At a midway point in the game, it’s pouring outside, and if you glance out the window (probably mid-sprint), you can see the sprays of water as the rain comes down.  Less successful are the character models, faces that don’t quite blend in with the environment, and every time you see the main character’s hands you’ll wish you hadn’t (he doesn’t seem to have a thumb, only five fingers).  But these things don’t detract from the game, mostly because you won’t have much time to think about any of them while you’re running away.

The dialogue, while occasionally redundant, is sufficiently creepy, and most of the voices will sound the same, but that somehow adds to the lyrically horrific tonal quality to the whole game.  The sound is excellent: distant screams or voices are atmospheric, occasionally oppressive, and always an appreciable part of the environment.  A surprisingly effective touch is a little manipulation of the emotions: whenever Miles is terrified or running or tense, his breathing picks up.  It has the effect of making the terror dramatically more convincing– you feel more terrified because you know how terrified Miles is.  It’s a trick used to awesome effect, though you may experience the same instinct I did: that the game would be less scary with it on mute.

SpawnFirst Recommends …

Definitely buy this.  It’s terrifying and great fun to play.  It has the tendency to feel like an amalgamation of a lot of other games without being immediately identifiable as derivative of any of them.  In creating Outlast, Red Barrels lifted some of the best qualities of the genre and made them their own.  You’ll love it, and you’ll probably hate it a little too– for all the best reasons.

The post Outlast Review appeared first on SpawnFirst.

Your two children have gone missing. You hear their eerily calm cries from the darkness while your head is still swimming from a fever dream. This is how you begin your trek through the fog, the darkness, and most importantly, your fear – to find them. You come across a turn-of-the-century automobile, blocking your path. You find a letter a man left for his friends (obviously before texting was invented) who complains the trucks always need fueling and that pumps are nearby. You find a can in a darkened supply room and you’re certain you see a shadow move in the faint light. Shaking it off…you move on, finding the fueling station and beginning the slow process of cranking the wheel to fuel the can. Suddenly, you hear a squeal and a crashing noise. You look up and see a hunched figure quickly moving out of your line of sight on an overhead banister. Your character’s breathing quickens and grows raspy. Your hands sweat. A note in your character’s journal reveals his fear and urgency. You quickly weigh the risks of running and accidentally encountering your foe, or stopping to hide and risking becoming trapped. You finally run, return to the truck and quickly add the fuel. You escape, while looking over your shoulder, knowing you’ve only survived one of many encounters. This is Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, and it’s only just begun.

Story/Concept

The story is basic at best; youâ€re a father searching for your children. You wake up in your own home to find it hauntingly devoid of life. You then begin your harrowing journey through the machinery of a processing factory and other disturbingly dark and barren environments at the bequest of a mysterious voice on the phone and your own desire to rescue your children. The concept is where the game truly shines, placing you in the shoes of a near helpless protagonist in a hostile world. You move through the dark, solve puzzles, collect documents and avoid getting viciously murdered. You are hunted by an unknown foe, a grotesque, disfigured shadow that stalks you in the darkness. You hide, with breath held, or you run.

Gameplay

The gameplay is simple due to your character’s lack of options. You have a lantern and that is about it, meaning you have to rely on stealth, quick-thinking and auto-saves to get through the game. The lantern also draws the attention of your adversaries which may leave you feeling your way through the dark to avoid making yourself too obvious. The simplicity and lack of options may turn some away, but at the same time, itâ€s what drew me to press on. The simplicity allows you to impress your own personality onto the game; either plunging into the unknown and getting cut to pieces or carefully making your way, only to find out there wasn’t anything to threaten you. You can also pick up and throw most small objects so you can build flimsy barricades in times of need.

Your lantern barely cuts through the darkness

It works well, creating fun and tense scenarios where you can hear your assailant, yet you can’t see him and youâ€re forced to try and solve puzzles while avoiding detection, knowing that a conflict could mean death. On the other hand, there are other times when you know where your enemy is the entire time, and can plan accordingly. The inventory from the first Amnesia game was removed as well, leaving you to carry any key puzzle item in your hands, or, you know… oddly floating in front of you.

It compares mostly to Slender: The Arrival, similar to the first Amnesia title, because you have to evade an enemy you have no way of fighting. Amnesia does make it a lot clearer how to go about avoiding confrontation, but it falls into the basic pitfalls of games with stealth elements – It’s difficult to tell when you’re hidden and when your opponents can see you. It’s a bummer, but it definitely feels cool when you find your own little nook in the darkness, and an enemy walks right by you.

For a slightly different perspective, check out SlasherJPCâ€s thoughts on Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs in his video review, where he scores it a 7.5 out of 10!

Graphics and Sound

The graphics leave something to be desired, but feel free to take that with a grain of salt. I played with the graphic settings lowered a bit to make it easier on my laptop, but it didnâ€t match up to what Iâ€d expect from a 2013 title, even at the beginning before I changed any settings. If you happen to have a faster computer, then your experience may be better, but it certainly doesnâ€t hinder the stellar gameplay and aesthetics. Besides, Iâ€m not expecting Lost Planet or Uncharted-level graphics from an indie title like this.

The sound is where this game excels. The distorted squealing and footsteps of the enemies is unsettling to say the least. The machinery that the gameâ€s theme centers around clanks, grinds, and hisses to prevent you from ever settling in and feeling comfortable. The score is fantastic, perfectly characterizing the twisted and demented world Mandus has fallen into. Composer Jessica Curry deserves a serious thumbs-up for her efforts here.

Don’t mess with this guy. Unless being clawed to pieces is how you get your kicks. Then by all means, go mess with him.

Notable Extras

No real extras, but not its definitely not surprising on a twenty dollar game that targets a niche audience.

Issues

The only issue worth pointing is that the game can lack clarity at times. Itâ€s not a deal breaker, but a solving a puzzle, and wandering around until you find a secret switch are two different things, and sometimes your objectives can be difficult to discern. You pick up notes and Mandus jots down his thoughts in his journal, which usually contain the pertinent information, but when itâ€s not there, the solution can be difficult to determine. Other than that, the game works well, without a hitch.

A Machine for Pigs also has long loading screens, but that may just be me. It does hurt the flow of the game, but it’s so engrossing during the chapters that it doesn’t feel like a big enough deal to make you stop playing.

SpawnFirst Recommends…

Go ahead an pick this title up on the 10th, but only if you’re a  fan of puzzle-driven, horror titles. If you feel the need to stomp your opponents heads in Gears of War style, then it’s not for you, but if you like subversive, unsettling experiences that demand patience and quick-thinking, and might make you piss your pants at the same time, then this game is definitely for you.

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