Top 5 Scary Games For The Halloween Season

In the spirit of Halloween, I thought I might do my first top five. Now these are the top five games that scare, frighten, or creep ME out. If these games are not scary to you, the reader, are not scared, frightened, or creeped out by these games, then feel free to tell me. Now onto the list!

5) Five Nights At Freddy's

Overview:

Five Nights At Freddy's is an independent game where you play the night guard of Chucky Cheese's creepy cousin, Freddy Fazbear Pizza. You work every night to basically stay alive and keep the local animatronics from ripping your flesh off and replacing it with fur. You have to work security cameras and the doors to keep the creepy animatronic fuzzballs out and survive the night without running out of power.

Why It's Scary:

In terms of creepiness and messing with your brain, Five Nights as Freddy's, isn't true horror. The game scares you through admittedly cheap jump scares and the classic horror movie tropes like "The camera went out" or "scary noises" It also uses the classic scare tactic that Slender or Weeping Angels use, which is the monster moving only when you're not looking. It also uses the feeling of vulnerability and lack of safety through the power management system (doors require power to close for the sole purpose of the animatronics actually posing a threat to you) All in all not a truly horrifying game, but Five Nights at Freddy's is still very scary and stressful to play.

4) Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Overview:

An old game, but still scary (and maybe the tiniest bit overplayed) Amnesia puts you in the role of an amnesiac stuck in an old mansion, and you have to get out. Of course there are monsters and a whole dump truck full of psychological problems that ensue.

Why It's Scary:

This game pioneered the horror games of today, so of course it uses several methods of scaring you. The most notable one (and the one that is still used in games today) is the fact that you have no weapons. You cannot fight the monsters chasing you like a normal person, just run away. This instills a fear of everything into the player. because you cannot fight or react in anyway but running and hiding, the game can feel free to tip a jar over and watch you freak out and run for your life. The other main theme is your sanity. The game actually gives you a sanity level that decreases every time you see one of the many monsters out for your head, or after being in darkness for a long time. This means that even seeing these monsters might kill you. This creates an environment that does truly horrify. Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a pinnacle of the horror games industry.

3) Dead Space

Overview:

Dead Space, instead of the enemy being supernatural, takes the more H.R Giger route with the scary-as-balls alien, the Necromorph. You play as the mentally unstable Isaac Clark, an engineer upon a spacecraft that stumbles upon the most powerful evil the world will ever know. That's like a normal Monday for horror games though. And yeah, you have to escape.

Why It's Scary:

The game uses a lot of shock horror and mental horror to really terrify the player. This is the only game on this list that lets you fight the enemies, but that in no way makes the enemies any less terrifying. They can still gruesomely murder you at any given point. There is also the psychological horror aspect of Dead Space, which is the plot that Isaac, over the course of the game, goes completely insane. This presents a huge challenge to you and makes you untrustworthy of the story's plot. Even though the later games have slowly evolved into action horror, Dead Space original is still very scary and very good.

2) Year Walk

Overview:

You play as a man taking a Year Walk, a tradition where you take a year long trip into the woods (WHICH ARE HAAAAAUUUNTED... SPOOOOKY!!) And you encounter a whole bunch of messed up creatures.

Why It's Scary:

This game goes with the horror puzzle route. As in, solve a puzzle and your reward is SPOOKS! But in all seriousness, this game really does mess with you. You solve puzzles that slowly reveal themselves as horrible demonic figures. You also slowly reveal sinister plots and absolutely creepy monsters. The game has a really creepy atmosphere and although it lacks in jump scares, it does not need them to terrify you.

1) P.T (Silent Hills)

Overview:

From the horribly insidious mind of Hideo Kojima, this game places you in a seemingly infinitely rerunning hallway with a demonic... demon called Lisa, who chases you. This game is actually very cool in that no one knew that it was actually a promotion for the new Silent Hill game, Silent Hills. It was made under the fake guise of the company 7780 Studios. It is also the most messed up puzzle in recent gaming.

Why It's Scary:

The game itself is actually extremely complicated, even though only appearing as a simple walking simulator. The game uses the psychological horror aspects of the rerunning hallway with slight, terrifying variations to absolutely mess with you. The ghost demon Lisa, who will randomly kill you when you look backwards or open a door also adds to the effect. You also have eerie music and changing lights try to scare you. The best (and scariest) part of this game, is actually how in depth it is to simply activate the trailer for Silent Hills (which is the purpose of the game) To give you an example, to actually activate the trailer you have to: 

1. Collect picture shards hidden throughout the hallway

2. Wait for the in game clock to strike midnight

3. Wait for a "haunting" to happen

4. Say "Jarith" into your headset to make a baby laugh

5. Walk ten paces for another laugh

6. Find Lisa

7. Press R3 (right stick) on the radio

8. Press R3 on the phone

And only after all this will you here someone say "You have been chosen" and you can see the Silent Hills trailer. I can't even fathom this. But even if you don't watch the Silent Hills trailer, this is the scariest game I have ever played.

So I hope you enjoyed my first ever list, and please tell me what your favorite horror game is.

Shadow Of Mordor: The Breakdown

Since I only got to play this game on the Thursday before the review I had to post about another game. But over the weekend I got to playing this and beat it. I'd have to say coming from a world with Assassin's Creed and made by the producers of the Batman: Arkham series, this game really welcomes the foretold "Next Generation" of games.



Now when I say "welcomes next gen" I mean that it introduces so many unique game play features and really shows off capabilities of the new consoles. (I played this on PS4 by the way) On the other end of the spectrum this game stretches across, there are many, many features and abilities this game "steals" from other games. Now I have been trying to steer clear of game play and go directly to story, but with so many features and very controversial game play features, I may break that self set rule. But I will at least start with the story so you can just read that and not the game play segment if you really don't want to.

 Now Lord of the Rings has a LOT of back story and I am glad for the sake of this Breakdown that Shadow of Mordor keeps the story simple and the over complicated plot to a minimum. That said...

SPOILER ALERT: SPOILERS FOR SHADOW OF MORDOR AND MINOR SPOILERS FOR LORD OF THE RINGS

The plot of this game does require a minor knowledge of the Lord of the Rings series, so I will explain everything like the read didn't know. Please excuse me if I am explaining things like you are a child. The game starts off with you, playing as Talion, a ranger of Gondor, an elite force sworn to protect the south areas of Middle Earth from the breaches of Mordor and all the evil that comes out of that place. One day the evil manifests into an army of the evil Uruks (orcs) run by Sauron, that overrun the wall and kill everyone inside, including your wife, your son, and you for a blood sacrifice. You are then "banished from death" and are unable to go to the afterlife, staying in limbo. In limbo your soul is merged with an elf also living in limbo and your souls are bound together. This elf gives you the powers of a wraith, which is someone trapped between the land of the living and the dead. These powers include mind control, super speed, and a magical bow. This wraith is Celebrimbor the greatest blacksmith of the 2nd Age, and more importantly, the creator of the rings of power. Celebrimbor was convinced by Sauron, under a disguise, to forge the rings of power for man and dwarf. Celebrimbor also forged the one ring to rule them all, the one that Frodo and Bilbo found. He also secretly forged the rings of power for the elves before Sauron captured him and tortured him to death, killing him and his family with Celebrimbor's own forge hammer. He is now on the same quest for revenge as you. You and him go out to find the person who killed Talion and set the curse upon you, the Black Hand of Sauron. Talion and Celebrimbor's quest for revenge drives them to free the slaves the Uruks are holding captive and break their hold on the land by means of killing, controlling, and overall chaos.

Now to the game play. The game play of this game is very much a cluster of good and bad. It does use mechanics from other games, mainly the Batman: Arkham series and Assassin's Creed. Because it uses a free flowing combat system, and has an upgradeable skill tree, Shadow of Mordor uses the Batman system of attacking enemies freely an being able to attack enemy to enemy without stopping.  You build up a combo meter until you can unleash a devastating special attack. The combat system, except for the added gore of using a sword, is almost an identical copy of Batman's system, complete with a stun and a vault over enemies button. You also have a bow that uses magical arrows from Celebrimbor and it has its own skills like fire arrows and skow motion focus. I honestly never really used it but it does add another option in combat. It can also be used in the other part of Shadow of Mordor aside from open combat, which is stealth, and is also similar to Batman's system, with an ability to see enemies through walls and stealth kill them using a variety of methods. You can stealth kill enemies from behind, in front, or from above them. There are also special stealth kills like Brutalize, which brutally kills the enemy and scares off nearby enemies. The only real difference in combat and stealth from that of the Batman: Arkham series is the Wraith abilities, which later in the game allow you to "Brand" enemies, making them fight for you in battle or stealth brand them and activate them as a distraction. The branding ability also works on the various animals in the game, like four legged wolf-like creatures calld Caragors and giant troll creatures called Graugs. You can ride these animals after stunning them and have them fight for you. Branding also utilizes the major mechanic that drives and distinguishes Shadow of Mordor, the Nemesis system. The Nemesis system is a complex system that creates and upgrades the in game Uruk Captains and Warchiefs. They are randomly chosen normal enemies that are upgraded and turned into mini bosses. Each one has Strengths and Weaknesses in battle as opposed to normal enemies. They are also able to upgrade and become more powerful if they kill you, survive a battle against you, or retreat from a battle. They can actually get scars and burns from battle if they have fought you and will talk about these scars the next time they fight you. They can also go on their own missions to kill other Captains or complete challenges to be promoted and become more powerful. You can actually interfere with these missions to kill the Captain or randomly find them in combat. The Warchiefs are different in that they can have weaker Captains as their bodyguards, and can fight you with these Captains at their side. If you kill a Warchief it lessens the amount of normal enemies that spawn but like with all Captains a Uruk has a chance to eventually take their position. And back to the Brand system, you can Brand Captains and make them yours, allowing you to control them and tell them to kill Captains or become a Warchiefs bodyguard and betray them. This introduces a kind of champions system where you can help your Captain rank up and get promoted so he can kill troublesome Captains for you. The Nemesis system is the spine of Shadow of Mordor and really makes it the next gen game we were promised. There are other missions than Captain missions and the story, including sword, dagger, and bow missions that forge the legends of each of your weapons and changes their appearances. You can also free the human slaves around the map to find out information about Captains and their weaknesses. Overall the majority of your time will be spent on Nemesis missions and the story, which are both very good.

After having had beat this game and exploring the story it had to offer Shadow of Mordor is the next gen game we deserve. Like the Dark Knight. Alot like the Dark Knight actually. But still its own thing. The nemesis system really helped drive Shadow of Mordor's ratings and sales home.

AC II: The Breakdown

Assassin's Creed is an absolute juggernaut of the gaming industry, having revolutionized the way games were made. These games are some of the most highly acclaimed games in the world. Also they were at a discount on Steam recently.This game has a lot of back story, so I'll skip directly to the beginning of one of gaming's most notable stories. I will tell you the story of Altair. Also I'm changing the format of the post again to be more story oriented. Deal with it.

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR ASSASSIN'S CREED

The first Assassin's Creed actually has two stories. In real time is the story of Desmond, and the story of Altair, which is Desmond's ancestor from the Third Crusade. The story of Altair and Desmond are tied together, but separate stories.

Desmond Miles was born in 1987 in an Assassin camp. When he was 16 he didn't want to be an Assassin and fled the camp. He moved to New York and was captured by Abstergo Industries, who was the Templars reincarnate. Abstergo hooked him up to a future device known as The Animus, saying because his ancestors (like Altair), were Assassin's, he could use his DNA to revisit their memories. Lucy Stillman and Warren Vidic both held Desmond captive and forced him to cooperate and let them revisit his memories of his Assassin ancestors. The first one he starts out with is his Syrian ancestor, Altair.

Altair Ibn-La'Ahad was born in 1165, and at a young age, his Assassin parents died. Because of this, he himself was accepted into the Order of Assassin's. He quickly rose the ranks of Master Assassin. One day, the Assassin camp was attacked by Templars, who are the people the Assassin's want to kill and the reason the Order was formed. Altair successfully defended the attack, and continued to look for the people responsible. He later found out that the Templars wanted an ancient artifact known as the Chalice. Altair goes and starts killing Templars in search of the Chalice. After some time of Assassinating Templars, Altair finds the Chalice, only to find out that it is a women, not the cup from The Last Crusade. After finding the girl, named Adha, who was captured by Templars .Altair had to fight many a Templar to find her, eventually killing their leader, Basilisk. After fighting and killing him, Altair loses Adha, only finding out months later that she is dead. This leads Altair to kill the people responsible, even though it brings him no joy.

Years later, during the 3rd Crusade, Altair and pals are in search of an artifact inside Soloman's Temple. Inside he broke two tenets or laws of the Order. He killed an innocent, and he engaged his enemy directly. By doing so, the Templars inside escaped. Altair and pals narrowly escape and go back to HQ to tell them what happened. Another Assassin entered soon after, with the artifact Altair didn't retrieve. Altair and other Assassin's wound up going to the town of Masyaf to defend it from Templars. Altair ended up having to perform a leap of faith to escape. When he returned to the Assassin's base, he was found out about is breaking of the laws/tenets and was stripped of his rank unless he could assassinate nine Templars to redeem himself.

That is the story of Altair and Desmond, two Assassins with interweaving pasts and futures. No game play today because I'm moving The Breakdown over to a more story based blog. So feel free to share this with friends and tell me how you like the new design. And have a good day, or a bad one, everyone has those. But maybe after reading this it will be a good one. That would be nice.

Prototype 2: The Breakdown

So I was going to do Prototype, but I figured that the second one is better and now I can give the story of the first one as back story. Win win. Made by Activision I can say right now that this game is maybe the most gory and adult game I've ever played.

*MAJOR SPOILERS FOR PROTOTYPE*

So to cover the second game's story, I'm just going to recap the first. In the first game you played as Alex Mercer. You were a scientist working for Gentek, a genetic research company. Alex gets exposed to the virus and gains mutant superpowers and the ability to consume people and take their form. Manhattan has become infected by the same virus that gave you bad ass powers, except to normal people it is near deadly and mutates the populous to zombie creatures and giant mutants. You go around and find your sister and beat up bad guys and kill people. You then go head to head with the military and cause them try and blow up the city. You take the bomb out over the ocean Dark Knight Rises style and you end up regenerating back on the shore. 

The opening cinematic to Prototype 2 is all I will cover so as not to give any major spoilers. You play as James Heller, a marine bad ass who served in some war that no one cares about. Your wife and young child live in Manhattan, which is now recovering from Alex Mercer blowing everything up. As it turns out, while you were off fighting in a war no one cares about still, the virus from the first game gets released again and everything goes to hell. You find out your wife and child were murdered and you blame Alex Mercer. You then work on a special op to take over a part of the city, which is now a complete war zone, when Alex Mercer shows up. Mutants take out your entire squad and you chase down and try to kill Mercer. You manage to "hurt" him, but he ends up saving you from a mutant and giving you the virus. You wake up in a government laboratory with people experimenting  on you and putting you in an arena against other mutants. You kill them and break out of the laboratory. Have fun killing everything!

Game play wise, the Prototype games have never been revolutionary, but they have made some cool mechanics. There are two forms of game play that blend quite well together. The modes are normal walking around mode and Blow Everything to Hell Everything must Die!! mode. The first mode consists of your abilities to run up walls to get places, glide through the air, and to disguise yourself. The disguise or "consume" ability actually has a lot of uses and is a very cool mechanic. The mechanic consists of you grabbing an enemy, having the option to consume them to regain health, to take their form and look like them, straight up turn them into a bio-bomb and football punt them, or to gain their memories and use those memories to get new missions to do. That's about all of the one portion. The second, more fun portion, is combat. In combat, you can morph your body into weapons that include a giant sword arm, claw fingers, or even a whip arm. You can also pick up weapons (Though with a whip arm why would you) The best part of any combat situation is hijacking. In later in the game you can choose to ride vehicles and choose to either rip the weapons out and wield them, to kill the driver and take the vehicle for yourself, or to straight up rip the cannon off a tank and smash it into the tank, evidently blowing it up. The third option is my favorite

As for the missions in the game, Prototype has the standard open world system. There are the story missions, which progress the story. There are also a plethora of not very good side missions. These involve such creative works as: Find and kill target, Kill multiple targets, Hack computer (James Heller hates computers for no real reason), or my favorite, storm military base and kill everyone inside. Another mission-like thing to do is to enter hives where the mutants are born, and from there if you can kill all the mutants inside, you can absorb the entire colony and gain new powers.

Speaking of powers, this game also has a vague skill tree system. You gain powers and forms during story missions, but you can gain new abilities such as advanced glide, or more melee damage. There are also perks tied to completing side missions. If you complete a small gauntlet of missions, you can gain a perk that helps in combat or with health.

The last aspect of the game is the art style, which is fantastic. The game's art style is very much reminiscent of Sin City, with the cut scenes being black and white and the blood and mutant glowing stuff being bright red. It looks very good and helps to give the game a vibrant life that plain grey's and brown's would not do. I personally love it.

After having owned this game for a while and nearly 100% completing it, I have to say this game is pure fun at  it's finest, from the grand epic story missions to the pure chaos of stomping around the overworld.