Recent reviews by WordPossum

This is peak Szymanski. Carnage, cosmic horror and a whole lot of hitting dudes with hammers!
Definitely give it a shot if you're a fan of his previous works or you want some of that Manhunt/Condemned nostalgia rush!

A problem you find with a lot of multiplayer horror games is that the presence of other people usually alleviates the tension. And I think that The Outlast Trials is by far the best game to tackle this problem, whilst housing a lot of familiar gameplay elements from earlier in the series and overall just being a fantastically designed game with plenty of replay value.

First and foremost, the gameplay will be familiar to anyone who's played your average survival horror game, you'll be hiding in lockers and running away from enemies in a repetitive mission structure that serves function over form. However, with the few elements that the game has the devs have introduced insane amounts of variety, you'll be searching through corpses for keys, scanning walls for codes, to carrying bottles of sulfuric acid without spilling any on yourself! There's plenty of variety in difficulty that ranges from beginner friendly to brutal, so you can always find somewhere in the spectrum that'll suit you.

Atmosphere wise is where this game truly shines though, its a brilliant collage between heart-pounding intensity and absurd humour, the "prime assets" who will be enemies who dominate the trials you play through are perfect examples of this. You'll find a gangster with the mental state of a literal baby threaten to climb inside you to imitate pregnancy, a threat which is as distrubing is it is hilarious. But the trials you go through are horrific saw traps where you'll get holes blown out of you and suffer through actual torture in gorgeously animated first person animations that really help immerse you in the role of a victim.

Progress for the first 30 hours is super tangible, every trial helping you unlock new gear to help you survive the next. But once you unlock all the rigs there's still cosmetics galore (95% of which you can unlock for absolutely free, there's no fast-tracking progression with microtransactions) among a super fun gameplay loop there's plenty of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to help keep you going.

Problems I have with the game is that starting out can be a little rough, there's an overwhelming number of mechanics to memorise in your first few trials and if you don't have already experienced friends help guide you through the basics then be prepared to have some trouble understanding how all the moving parts of the game work together. Also when playing with randoms there's often a tendency for players to speedrun through trials or drag them on wayy longer than necessary, often feeling like dead weight. But thats not so much the games fault, moreso a community thing.

Dev support is also shockingly good, the game has been in early access and actively being updated consistently every few months, and every update brings new meaningful and most importantly positive changes to the game. So the devs are more than trustworth, which is always a bonus!

Overall if you like horror games that are fast paced and will keep you entertained for a looong time, The Outlast Trials is definitely worth your money, and your time!

There's a censored fetus that does the club penguin dance

I first played this game about a year ago, picked it up for a couple of hours and dropped it because I was confused and the game couldn't immediately hold my interest.

Now I've given it a second chance and if there was any advice I could give to anyone who wants to buy this game? Pay the ♥♥♥♥ attention to every detail, put it together in your head to build your own approximation of what the game is about, write down your thoughts either for yourself or a friend who's already played the game. The way this game dripfeeds you its mysteries is masterful and there is no one detail that is without substantial depth.

The presentation too is such a beautiful love letter to cassette futurism and cosmic horror, it's truly something that brings both huge scale to the events surrounding what's happening, whilst also keeping an intense and intimate investment between the player character and what she's looking for...

The gameplay is where the game frustrated me a tad, the isometric perspective can often make combat a little finicky and a few puzzles had a few hiccups that is bound to catch first time players out and make them backtrack or spend far longer on a puzzle for some superficial reason. But those are nitpicks as the difficulty is extremely well thought out, always keeping me on my toes with barely enough ammo to get by and the tension of dealing with enemies, alive and dead is the peak of horror game design in my mind.

Overall if you're looking for the best of the best when it comes to psychological Horror, Signalis is a game that will keep you deeply captivated for the lenght of its runtime so long as you know what you're in for and are giving it your full attention (either that or look up a 4 hour lore explained video to answer your questions like I did).

For a one dev project, this game is incredibly well polished and tight. if you're thinking about picking up the game I'll tell you a few important things for you to know before you play.

Firstly, don't expect a dense or particularly memorable narrative, this game is very much about the vibes that the grimy, low-poly aesthetic brings. Those vibes however, are pretty great, the sound of your raspy breath up on the mountaintop and the constant droning sound of the train that you're task with maintaining moving.

The play-time is pretty short too, I've played through and hit the end credits 3 times now, and each playthrough lasted roughly an hour. So if you're really looking for a bang for your buck, this might not be the best place to spend your money.

That being said, if you're a fan of the other games that Critical Reflex has published (i.e Buckshot Roulette or Mouthwashing) you definitely won't be disappointed, it's more of the modern indie horror goodness that we've been getting from talented devs over the last few years.

I also ran into quite a few game-breaking bugs, which required a restart from the main menu, and that came with its own set of issues. It's the only part of the game that genuinely frustrated me because I would often lose valuable progress that would make an entire playthrough worthless, and there's a lenghty tutorial section that can get quite annoying on repeat playthroughs.

This review may be seen as kinda negative I understand, but considering that this was all the work of a single dev, I think Julien Eveillé deserves a whole lot of praise for producing such a genuinely great short experience. And I can't wait to see what he goes on to do next!

Game's like these are the reason why indie horror will always be my favourite genre
The visuals and music are all stunning and the game is the perfect length for all the walking to not outlast it's welcome.
From a narrative perspective too it's concise and beautiful, chock-full of memorable moments that'll stay with you long after you've finished it.
If you have a few hours to spare, play this game. You won't regret it.

I've played a couple hours of this game and so far I'd say it's excellent.

The gameplay basically takes movement that's reminiscent of Quake or Ultrakill and creates a thrilling set of platforming puzzles around it, they're challenging for sure but I haven't found myself getting frustrated at all by them due to a very quick and convenient restart puzzle that places you at the last piece of stable ground you were stood on.

The story and atmosphere are essentially one in the same, you're chasing echoes through superstructures endlessly, and the game seems to leave a lot of its details up to interpretation. With far off lights in fog being whatever your mind wants it to be.

Considering how damn cheap it is I can't recommend this game enough, its a must buy for anyone who enjoys movement shooters, retro styled games or ominous intimidating atmosphere. <3

I will defend this game until I die. If you're a fan of Arkane because of their game design, I'll admit that Deathloop is not going to satisfy that immsim itch, the best I can compare it to is a character action sandbox that allows you to use the beautifully thought out level design of an Arkane level to become the most stylish murderer you can be. It's a game that really shines in atmosphere and world building though. Blackreef, the island that you'll be exploring and the time loop that surrounds it, scratches an itch that I can never get anywhere else. The music, style and just *feel* of this game is borderline perfect to me.

Obviously this game has its issues, its a lackluster puzzle game and the multiplayer has a lot of performance issues, but if you come to Deathloop for the action I can assure you that you won't be dissapointed.

this game goon-pilled me.

I really loved this game.
It's everything I want when I look for something indie, a short game that's does so much to get an emotional journey out of the player. Everything is utilised so well, from the eerie use of lighting and chilling text descriptions to even the way you control the game just does so much to immerse you in a really impactful experience.

That apple picking is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ though