Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 655

• 9
• GirlVersusGame
• Sat, 12:06am

This week was more Spooky games

• The first was Until Dawn

I never thought I'd try the game but then I never thought I'd try Horror games at all. It wasn't as scary as Silent Hill 2, or as tense or as unnerving but what it did have was fantastic voice-acting and some of the best looking (if not the best) character models I've ever seen. It's incredible how much detail and realism went into each model. The interiors were really impressive and seeing my crush Peter Stormare grab a staring role was such a sweet cherry on the top, I was lost in his eyes and those silver wings. Oddly enough the game didn't scare me, I think because I knew I was controlling an actor and there was that natural disconnect. What did scare me was Still Wakes The Deep and I loved it. The story was fantastic, the setting was perfect and the writing was right up there with Everybody's Gone to The Rapture, that's because it's the same Developer.

Both are classed as walking simulators, however as soon as things got Spooky it became a running simulator and I did run, very fast. There's so much about the game that I'd like to say and can't. All I would say is not to sleep on it, especially during Spooky season. I'm not sure what my fourth Spooky title will be, The Midnight Walk is very tempting and The Village is still whispering in my ear from the stacks. It would be my first Resident Evil, it's a big maybe.

• At the moment I'm purging the Halls of Torment

Yet another survivor game (with a dash of bullet heaven) and the very definition of don't judge a book by it's cover. What looks like an early Nineties Diablo clone is actually an expertly crafted survivors/like that uses an old school aesthetic to deliver all of that delicious dopamine. It follows the same formula as similar games, hordes of skeletons and demons. I could give or take most modern games/modern machines, for me it's the gameplay not the graphics and Halls of Torment doesn't disappoint. There's a strong roster of heroes, from casters like clerics and warlocks to heavy hitters like Norse men and warriors. My favourite at the moment is the shield maiden.

I'm stomping through the halls with a huge shield, a mighty warhammer, and all kinds of magic attacks erupting from/around me while encroaching goat men and skeletons are reduced to ash. One of my favourite features is the well, gear found in the level (jewellery/gloves/helmets/etc) can be placed in a bucket and sent back to the surface for permanent use. That's about it really I'm bouncing time-zones again and it plays brilliantly on the Portal too. As always I'm curious to see what everyone is getting to this weekend. 🍵

26 more sleeps until Leonida