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This year was good to me for spooky games or games with spooks. XD I've been trying to play more spooky games in the lead up to Halloween, starting the last week of August, and then through the season. I have gotten my hands on a handful of great games over the last several weeks so let's talk about a few of them. Some spoilers for games so you might wanna hold off if you wanna be surprised by some of the games/demos (esp. While We Wait Here).
Speed Dating for Ghosts by Copychaser Games
Ok, this game was an unexpected hit for me. Earlier in the year I played A Space for the Unbound which had some powerful and raw emotions about depression, bullying and mental illness, and I wasn't exactly prepared to confront the same kind of heart-aching real emotion and BIG FEELS in this game.
So what makes Speed Dating one of the best dating sim games EVER? It really comes down to the unique art style, below, and the absolutely amazing characters in each date. You get 3 rooms with 3 ghosts each (in main game), and over 2 rounds, get to know each prospective date. Your answers do have some bearing on the dates and how they treat you, and treating them VERY badly can yank them out of the dating pool (which happened with one date with a bank robber in my first play through XD)
Look at her. Perfection
The dates and stories within range from spooky, introspective, funny, heart-wrenching, twisty and all out real. After completing the "main" game, you get a further set of 3 dates in Hell on a cruise, as well as touching base with the main game dates to see where they ended up after you both have a date. Its really great to see what happened with some characters, seeing resolutions to some stories, or even new developments. And when you've exhausted that part, you can wipe your save data to try again! While that might seem extreme, the game isn't very long and has great dialogue trees that make a second or third playthrough just as fresh and exciting.
There's an achievement on steam for rejecting or being rejected by 12 ghosts and I dunno if I can have it in my heart to do that to some @_@.
Some of my most heartfelt moments were Hattie (the puffy ghost in the pink) who lingers at her old nursing home to ease the suffering and loneliness of her former house mates before they die. Her date involves visiting her husband, who is about to get ready to pass on. Like Spacve ofr Unbound it left me in tears on stream.
Likewise for Dave, the best boy pupper in the Hell endgame portion.
BEST BOY
Dave embodies what happens to pet owners when their pet goes over the rainbow bridge; a piece of your soul goes with them. Dave is no exception, since his date involves meeting his wisp Miriam, the piece of his previous owner's soul, and let me tell you, as someone who has been there when their pet has passed, it really does feel like they take a little with them. That part hit me as hard as Hattie's. Also, don't worry, apparently dogs are allowed to go wherever they want to in thye afterlife so they can pass between all planes, Hell included. Kinda makes me feel a little better about that part.
Other dates aren't as heart-wrenching but are just as deep and introspective. Spooky Peter teaches you the basics of a good haunting. Drea had a hard life and in the afterlife, and just wants to have fun, and resents the fact that the living can move on (only a little, though, cuz emotions are for squares XD). In fact, my speed date with Drea actually went a little diffrently in the second play through; the first time I was met with resistance and standoffishness, yet the second time, drea really opened up to me much quicker. Your responses really do have weight and bearing if you choose different ways to interact.
Vera's date has her somewhat reunite with her daughter whom she estranged herself from before she was taken out by the mob she served. Riley made me play football (and actually had to choose how to do plays and the such, even getting me to sing BADLY in his follow up date on the cruise XD), Some dates had the ghosts come into real identity issues, and thinking about who they really are. Gary's search for who murdered him turned into quite a twist ending, and his follow up was even more intriguing (I didn't get very far into it due to dialog choices).
In short, there's a LOT of replayability as well as heart that went into this game, and if you gave me the chance, I would DEFINITELY talk your ear off with it. It's on steam for about $7 and it is definitely worth that and much more. Also, the music is hella banging. Check out some of my play throughs on YT:
Haunted PS1 2021 Demos
I wasn't able to get very many other games to work as planned so I tried my best with the Haunted PS1 demo collection from 2021 because I REALLY wanted to play Walk, which is an old school PS styled stealth game. I sucked at it. HARD. BUT IT WAS JUST SO GOOD. The atmosphere was especially tense and it really tested my patience, in all the best ways. I plan on getting back to it soon hopefully to finish it. A little girl is stalked by some horrific creature on her way home, and you have to navigate claustrophobic streets and hide to get by her.
ALSO IT HAS FINNISH MYTHOLOGY. So I'm jazzed about it. XD
Make sure you play with a PS controller though cuz mishaps happen with controller funkiness. Also also, the controller vibrations are morse code. For real. It gives a different ending for the game so you might have to look up the code later. Amazing stuff, and can't wait til a full game comes out.
Here's Toree 3D which is a platforming game that looks all cutesy and has a really cool early 3D aesthetic and soundtrack (oh man the music really took me back), and then plunges you into some pretty crazy visuals as you progress through the demo.
Cute, vibrant, pastelly, and with a cute little chick character. Collect stars and DoNt FaLL (which I did, a few times XD)!
DoN't FaLL
8D
Last game I tried on stream was tmOD, which is NotGMod, and HORROR!
Look, I have never played a Valve game to save my life so this was a HUGE learning curve for me. But it had some great jumpscares!
And other than the fact I really didn't know where to go or what to do with the cryptic clues, I didn't get very far, but the painstaking feeling of replicating the spooky GMod experience was really thorough to a noob like me, so I was very impressed! Another revisit will definitely be needed,
Midnight Ghost Hunt by Vaulted Sky Games
Another great romp, though its been out in Early Access for awhile, this game is MADE for messing around with friends. It's basically Hide and Seek, Prop Hunt-esque, and absolutely madcap. XD My friends usually play against bots cuz the playerbase are SUPER ELITE XD, and the bots sometimes win cuz we sometimes dumb XD. You play 2 rounds in a location, first as Ghost Hunters, then as Ghosts. Your job as a hunter is to ferret out all the ghosts before midnight, while the ghosts hide and hope they aren't found and shattered and vaccuumed up. But once midnight hits, all the ghosts turn UBER, and its the job of the hunters to not die horribly when the ghosts come out to pound the crap out of you. Then you switch sides.
There's just something about hide and seek with friends that NEVER gets old. Whether you're a couple of elementary school kids playing in a playground, or you're a bunch of adults on steam together, the thrill of people running by your hiding spot, and the excitement of trying to escape is pretty magical.
I really can't recommend it more for some multiplayer shenanigans during the month of October (but who says it has to end when the spooky month ends? XD Grab 7 of your madlads, get on a lobby and start spook hunting! Here's a few vids of us playing with bots (though the lobby system is a bit wacky with autobalance so good luck on that front) and totally abusing DOOR STRATS.
While We Wait Here by Bad Vices Games
Last but not least, here's a really special demo I played a few weeks ago. This is an upcoming horror game-diner simulator called While We Wait Here. Its really special to me It's one of my close friends voices the main character Cliff! Man, I cannot tell you how hard it is not to make that a flex XD.
The demo is a VERY small slice of the game, whose gameplay loop really speaks to me. You're a diner owner and take orders, fetch items and ingredients from the fridge or pantry, actually get plates and glasses for the food and drink, and even cook it and plate it! I really dig those kinds of simulation games for some reason. It scratches the same itch as Unpacking.
I really can't say much since the demo has a really great hook and you really gotta play it; isn't very long BUT it has 2 different endings depending on how you deal with some choices. There's an end of the world scenario on the horizon, and you can't help but feel something aweful is going to happen to some of these nice people you meet.
Except that drunkard. Screw that guy XD.
I'll link my exclusive stream here with the voice talent for Cliff and he tells us some cool details about the demo as I play! (Sorry, just gotta flex XD) You'll also recognize him from our aforementioned Midnight Ghost Hunt streams XD. I am REALLY curious as to where the story is going, and I am loving the mystery. Can't wait til it comes out!
The month's almost over but we still got a few more goodies coming down the pipe for the count down! Stay tuned Lunies!
And if you're curious about my streams, I stream Tuesday and Thursday around 5:30 pst on Twitch! As of writing, we're doing a slow run of my all time favorite game Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly! Hope to see you all there.
--Dio (10/24/23)
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