Lucius (PC)

Lucius (PC) : 

As you can probably guess from the images of the game and artwork of Lucius dotted around this post, the game is basically an unofficial "The Omen" game....which naturally got me very interested in it! Buying it several years ago in a sale, it has sat in my Steam library until I had a computer capable of running even a game this old. And last year, that became the case!

As Lucius, we are the son of Lucifer, born into an unsuspecting wealthy family with various servants and visitors who start to annoy poor Lucius.  One year, our real father visits us on our birthday and suggests we start following a dark path, giving us a few birthday gifts to get things started and some tips on how to get things done....

One accidental death in a walk in freezer later, and an ever-increasingly-suspicious detective shows up for the first of what is likely to be many unfortunate incidents. Can we keep up the facade of being a "good little boy" and tidying our room, doing our chores, etc, whilst also getting rid of annoying people and avoiding the bumbling detective??

When it first appeared, this game had very mixed reviews, mainly due to some shoddy mechanics and laughable dialogue.  But as you probably know, I love a bit of bad dialogue and slightly iffy mechanics, so long as the rest of the game is fun and entertaining enough to keep me busy for a while.

And Lucius does a fair job! Wandering around trying to not be too obvious when setting traps, and using some new found powers like telekinesis and mind control to help us in our quest can be quite funny, as can the over-the-top death scenes...

I'm only a little bit into the game so far though, to be fair...so I'm not sure how long it will continue to be interesting. Just be aware of that when I recommend it, and also be aware that it does come with some janky controls or mechanics in some sections, and very often little idea of what you're supposed to be doing. But somehow, I still just really like it, so....

 

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The Cabin Factory (Various)

 

The Cabin Factory (PC, Switch, Xbox One & Series, Playstation 4 & 5) :

This is a game I only found out existed today while watching Mr. SteJ's morning stream, but after watching him play, I headed straight over to Steam to pay the very reasonable price of £1.86 to enjoy it's random spookyness for myself!

You take on the role of a Cabin Inspector at a factory that designs horror cabins for the movie and theme park industries, and it's your job to find out if each cabin is currently haunted or clear of spooks! Sounds simple enough, right!?

Well lets just say it becomes apparent very quickly, that there's a little more to this story, but because of the nature of the game and it's short length, it's probably best to say very little about what takes place once you get into the cabins themselves....

Once you exit the cabin, it's a simple push of a button to say whether or not it was filled with spooks, and then the next cabin will be brought along on a conveyor belt for you to check.

Taking it's cues from the many, many horror-themed walking sims that have come before it, The Cabin Factory still manages to put enough cool scares into the game, and surround it with a suitably spooky story that makes it worth way more than the asking price!  

If this still doesn't convince you that it's worth your time and money, well maybe this clip from Mr. SteJ's stream this morning will convince you instead...

(** LOUDNESS WARNING!!!**)

Once you finish a day of work, you'll get to go and test more cabins to see all the 'anomalies' (scares) and try and collect all the achievements, which helps give the game a bit more longevity and replayability....and also gives more clues as to the deeper story behind it all...

Go pick it up! It's super cheap, and perfect for Halloween!

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Forgotten Forest 1 & 2 (Commodore 64)

Forgotten Forest (Commodore 64) :

Forgotten Forest is a game that was originally made for the 2011 Sideways SEUCK competition, by one of the masters of Shoot-Em-Up Construction Kit developed games, Alf Yngve. I remember playing his 'Cops' games back in the 90s when I first picked up a C64 after years of being a ZX Spectrum collector, and every few years since I'll discover more of his games as he's continued working on them pretty much since then!

This one takes it's inspiration from the Forbidden Forest games, and sees the protagonist enter a spooky forest filled with giant spiders, bees, bats, frogs and haunted trees amongst other...things....

As with most SEUCK games, it's a rather simple affair, with you pretty much going left and right and shooting a barrage of enemies with your weapon, but somehow they usually seem to remain fun, especially Alf's games...and this one is no exception.

Another staple of these games is there difficulty, and again there are no surprises here as it can be really challenging trying to get to the next level as the relentless creepy crawlies try to stop you in your tracks. Thankfully the version I have came with a couple of cheats that let me see a bit more of the game than I usually would, so that was nice! :D

As always, I'm a sucker for a horror-themed spin on things, and the spooky trees, creepy beasties and the dark atmosphere throughout the game give it extra brownie points when it comes to me recommending it, and that is exactly what I'm going to do....along with....

Forgotten Forest 2 (Commodore 64) :

Yes! A Sequel, also by Alf, but this time going back to the more traditional horizontal scrolling that SEUCK games had back in the day, before various improvements and modifications were added that allowed the side scrolling scene in the previous game.

Again, it's pretty simple stuff! You're back in the forest, but this time werewolfs, floating skulls, creepy slendermen type things and other grisly ghouls are all out to put a stop to your journey ever-upward beyond the trees!

Once again it's the spooky atmosphere and graphics that make this stand out to me, but that basic old-skool shooting action remains fun and challenging enough to make me keep coming back for another go. And this one has a slightly better soundtrack to bop along to as you shoot your way to victory (or, in my case, inevitable defeat)....

Both games are well worth a go, and are very well suited to the Halloween season, so go stock up on ammo and get wandering into the Forgotten Forest via your C64 or suitable emulators!!

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Frankenstein (Commodore Amiga)

 

Frankenstein (Commodore Amiga) :

Baron Frankenstein has decided it is about time he got back to working on his favourite hobby, monster making...but as usual, the lazy bugger has decided that he needs to focus on the important task of building of the monster itself, and sends off poor Egor, his ever faithful assistant, to do all the busywork of finding the tools and body parts required for the experiments.

After getting physically booted off screen by the Baron to start your quest, you, as Egor, must wander all throughout the castle, surrounding grounds and village and gather everything up. Frankenstein will tell you what he needs next, and you have a bag to pop whatever item he's after into when you find it. And when you do, you have to travel all the way back to the lab to find out what's next on the list.

Egor doesn't even have a weapon to fight off all the horrible characters he'll meet along the way! All he has is a pathetic jump with which to try and avoid contact with the enemies, and so he'll forever be getting harassed and terrified by all manner of beasts.

This constant fear is what works as Egor's health, as every time he touches an enemy or trap, he'll become ever more frightened, going from being okay to a full blown panic! If he can find one of the local barmaids before he reaches a panic, he'll calm down a bit though. And if he successfully manages to bring the current item back to the lab, the meter will also reset to calm. If he does manage to lose it and freak out completely though, he'll run straight back to the Baron in the lab and be punished by squish-ment from a cartoonish anvil that the baron will drop on his head. 

The nasties are a varied bunch, with rats and bats, killer plants, ghosts, angry villagers, knights in armour and severed hands among the things you'll be facing, and everything has been designed well with all the characters and backgrounds having a nice spooky, cartoony feel to them. 

However, sometimes there are far too many enemies in one tiny area, and you'll get frustrated as your fear bar rapidly shoots towards panic and there's no way you can really avoid hitting the baddies. Also, whenever Egor does his jump move, the Amiga blurts out a horrible spring-type noise, and given the amount of jumping you'll be doing in this game, it can get very annoying, very quickly!

Having said that, it's still fun enough for a few goes, and it's interesting to see all the new enemies in the different areas and how well they fit into the cliches of our favourite made-monster tale! It's just a pity it wasn't a little bit better and less frustrating......

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Terrorbytes - The Evolution of Horror Gaming - Final Trailer

 This popped up in my feed today and I had totally forgotten about it! Looks like it’s going to be a great documentary, and given my love of horror games I thought I’d better post the news of it’s release here too!

 

If you head to the website, you have about three days from the time of posting this, to get your copy and add your name to the credits. Unfortunately, I’m totally out of cash right now so looks like I’ll miss out on that side of it, but still looks like it’s going to be an awesome watch!

Weird Dreams (Atari ST, Amiga, C64, PC)

 Weird Dreams (Amiga, Atari ST, C64, PC) :

Properly freaky stuff! This game came with a rather large back story told in a 64 page novella which came with it ...to cut it short, you fancy this girl who turns out to be possessed by a demon who is a bit fed up and trapped in her body, only you don't know that and the aforementioned demonic chappy decides to faff about with your mind for some giggles. You start having crazy dreams after it gives you some pills to help "cure" you , and eventually end up in hospital where you start having another, and possibly your last, weird dream!

You have to try to work through various puzzles and defeat the various nasties which are living in your head thanks to that old demonic numpty inhabiting you lady friend...but this is a very tricky game, or at least I found it to be...

It is filled with freaky graphics and bizarre gameplay, and definitely deserves a go or two, but I just kept getting killed and watched a video of someone else playing it on Youtube instead...so here's the video, which obviously contains spoilers, so if you do fancy giving the game a bash without knowing anything, don't watch it!

Another way in which you might have come across this game back in the day,  was if you ever watched British Saturday Morning TV,  as a modified version of the game was used on ITV's MotorMouth program as part of their quiz game for kids...as can be seen in the video below!

But yeah, the final verdict is that it's just too damn tricky with not a lot to see, and you're better off watching someone else play it instead!

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Escape From Monster Manor (Panasonic 3DO)

 

Escape From Monster Manor (Panasonic 3DO) :

When I got my Xbox Series S a couple of Christmasses ago, I had no idea that it would open the floodgates to thousands of games that I had been waiting to play for ages...but a few months after buying it I happened upon a video that told me about the Xbox's Dev Mode, and the emulation possiblities that it offered.  One purchase of a portable HDD and much transferring of game files later, and I was finally able to emulate lots of machines that were beforehand unavailable to me....including the Panasonic 3DO!

I had experienced the wonders of the 3DO many years before when visiting a friend of a friend, and for years I wanted to play Need for Speed, Road Rash and whathever the hell that Golf game was that I had played on it....but then I discovered a few horror title gems that had also been hidden away on it.  Including this one!

Escape from Monster Manor is a first-person shooter / adventure, that sees you enter the aforementioned mansion trying to find pieces of an ancient talisman that the owner of the manor had brought back to its halls in order to try and harness the great power within.  

Unfortunately, he kicked the bucket and his descendants scarpered after discovering that lots of evil nasties had filled the manor, looking to find the pieces of the talisman and use it for their own nefarious deeds!

And so now it's up to us to try and piece the talisman back together before the bad guys can get to it.  Armed with some sort of weird electro-doohicky zapper gun, we enter the manor and try to navigate its many corridors and corners, making sure to stay topped up with ammo, health, keys and some random coins and gems that can add to your points or give you extra lives.

Playing the game nowadays, it definitely lacks a bit of sparkle. The manor itself is a bit sparse, with no roof or floor textures and only random pieces of furniture sprinkled around every now and then to give a very poor impression of it being a house. The ghosts and ghouls all have a decidely 2D sprite feel to them, but somehow this does add to their spookyness!  But the game has definitely taken inspiration from Wolfenstein 3D, which I guess is no bad thing.

Despite it looking a bit bare, the sound of the game really helps with the atmosphere.  Unearthly voices, groans and screams fill the air, and spooky tunes play throughout.  Random ghosts will pop up in front of your face every now and then too, which also adds to the feel of things.  

And so in the end, traipsing through the manor is actually a lot of fun, and that early nineties experience you can only get from early CD titles seems to work in it's favour for adding that extra spark of spooky goodness.  Go play it and discover it for yourselves!

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