Still Wakes the Deep

A shoo-in for scariest game of 2024 so far, Still Wakes the Deep duties you as electrician Caz aboard a bleak, ocean-rusting North Sea oil rig before an accident occurs and situations go awry. It’s best not to know too much before stepping aboard, but safe to say The Chinese Room have delivered an atmospheric horror for the ages, replete in equal measure dread and mystery.

]]> 601622 https://gamingbolt.com/12-old-school-resident-evil-style-games-you-need-to-try-out Mon, 24 Jul 2023 10:16:58 +0000 https://gamingbolt.com/?p=560223 Classic Resident Evil is notable for its fixed camera angles, tank controls, and pre-rendered backgrounds. Some players deride these design choices, but truth is they were necessary to overcome technical limitations of the era they were created. True products of their time. On the flipside, there’re those who’re fanatical about this approach. There’s nothing quite like the shuffling tension of vintage Resident Evil. Coupled with establishing the framework for survival horror’s now long-established tropes – its scant resources, a pittance worth of bullets, and zombies lurching in overwhelming numbers – it’s not surprising there’re numerous developers who have emulated the aesthetic pioneered by Resident Evil games of old.

Signalis

A grainy, psychologically traumatic dread-fest, Signalis incorporates all classic Resident Evil’s ingredients and remixes them into a cosmic exploration through the psyche of Elster, herself a humanoid android awaken on a derelict ghost ship. Forging carefully through darkness to uncover the mysteries behind the vessel’s abandoned populace, Elster confronts her fears in the face of strange horrors all whilst utilising ammunition and repair resources sparingly and figuring out how to repair the ship’s technical infrastructure. Signalis is out now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

TORMENTED SOULS

For fans of classic survival horror games, Tormented Souls is almost a must-play experience. While the genre is thriving right now, Tormented Souls is one of few games that delivers that classic fixed camera experience that old-school Resident Evil and Silent Hill games used to be known for, and it does it to great effect. It’s a little rough around the edges, admittedly, but the pros definitely outweigh the cons here.

While demo discs have faded away from mainstream popularity in recent years, more and more developers are starting to give fans a taste of the final product through demos – both free and otherwise. To that end, we present some of the best PS5 demos that we have all played time and time again.

Astro’s Playroom

Astro’s Playroom comes pre-installed with every PS5, and it’s highly likely that it was the first game that you booted when you unsheathed your shiny new console. And while it’s meant as a showcase of the PS5’s DualSense capabilities, it ends up being so much more than that. In so many ways, Astro’s Playroom is a celebration of everything PlayStation – and those who have grown up with the brand would surely have been overcome with nostalgia as they explored every nook and cranny of 4 sprawling levels set in the console’s internals. Astro’s Playroom is filled to the brim with mementos of the past and easter eggs for some of the best PlayStation games of all time.

But even those who haven’t grown alongside PlayStation would have a fun time regardless since the platforming is pretty fun as well with well-designed controls and fun level design. And then of course, there’s the impeccable use of the DualSense’s haptics which alter vibrations to reflect the intensity of an incoming sandstorm or the shattering of a glass among other things. Despite the short runtime of less than an hour – it ends up having a long-lasting impact on the player.

Ghostrunner

Ghostrunner is one of the most mechanically sound games of the last couple of years, and this journey through the rain-soaked streets of Dharma City constantly throws new challenges on top of its already brutal one-hit one-kill design. The short demo takes you through the opening moments of the game, and it’s a perfect introduction of Ghostrunner’s parkour elements and combat mechanics.

Ghostrunner is a game that demands mastery of its mechanics to be better at the game, and replaying the same sections over and over really pays off as you gain a better understanding of the encounters and your cyberninja’s moveset and pull off slick stunts that you previously thought were impossible. And then it becomes a well-earned power fantasy.

Outriders

While Outriders may not have been the game that many might have expected it to be, its demo slice of gameplay was a really fun one. People Can Fly’s latest shooter featured plenty of content for a free demo, and it comes with the entire first chapter of the game. This means you get the much-needed exposition alongside plenty of main missions and side missions which help you get a taste of the gameplay and build out your character better as you prepare for the final encounter.

But then Outriders’ gameplay changes significantly with your player class, so once you get through the roughly 3-hour demo with one class – you could do it again with a different class to see how that shakes up things and see what suits your style for your full playthrough.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

Ninja Theory is evolving its signature take on the Souls formula with Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, a new game set against the backdrop of the Han Dynasty. The demo gives you access to a giant area where you must make your way through hordes of enemies to the final boss. While that may sound limiting in scope, it’s anything but. The starting area is vast in scope, and you get to face different kinds of enemies and even a couple of mini-boss encounters before facing the big baddie – which by the way has 2 different phases and swift attacks.

The fast-paced combat feels like an evolution of Nioh’s combat system, and new elements like the Morale Rank system and companion beasts are useful additions to the experience. Plus, you also get to experiment with different weapon combinations and classes which also encourage you to go through it all over again.

Destroy All Humans!

Black Forest Games’ Destroy All Humans! successfully translates this cult classic experience into something that’s more palatable for the modern generation. The demo is inarguably the best way to get a taste of the full game. The visuals look superb and the changes to the gameplay really add up for a wonderful experience, and while the content may be on the shorter end of the stick with only the first mission being available in the package – it’s quality stuff regardless. But on the more positive side, you also get a bonus challenge to play as well.

Resident Evil: Village

Much like Astro’s Playroom that we discussed before, Resident Evil: Village is a celebration of everything Resident Evil as it effortlessly dances between different shades of horror ranging from psychological to survival to full-blown action. And while the game’s demo might not be as versatile as the final game, it’s really amazing nevertheless. You start out in a dimly-lit dungeon in Castle Dimitrescu which is undoubtedly one of the best sections of the game, and you make your way through it all by solving puzzles.

The game constantly plays on your fear of the unknown, with abnormal sounds and spooky notes about the dungeon’s inhabitants – but in actuality, you don’t face any mortal threats throughout the short duration of the demo. And when you reach the end, you see Lady Dimitrescu towering above you like a giant and you know it’s not going to end well. And this was just the one PS5 exclusive Maiden demo, and other demos that were released prior to launch are equally fun and scary as well.

Forspoken

Forspoken isn’t out until early next year, but it already has us excited about what’s in store – thanks to the recently released demo. It puts you in the middle of the action after a short tutorial, and you need to complete five different objectives to complete the demo. These range from combat encounters to crafting to open-world activities, and these tasks help you in getting a feel for how the combat, traversal, and player progression works.

Of course, you’re free to roam around these landscapes as well – and veering away from the main path will reward you with treasure boxes and useful resources for upgrading Frey. And once you are done with the main objectives, you also get a final boss encounter as a bonus which is just like an icing on the top of this cake. It only takes around an hour to complete if you rush through it, but you could easily stretch it to much longer if you want.

Tormented Souls

Tormented Souls is a love letter to the original Resident Evil games, and everything from the tank controls to spooky mansions to item-based puzzles is the game carrying that influence proudly on its sleeves. The demo takes you through a small slice of the game, but it’s enough to prove the sheer love and appreciation that the developer has for the source material. And since we couldn’t wait for the final release back then, we were playing through it over and over again.

The game’s received plenty of praise and attention since its launch, and soon, it’ll be coming to more platforms so that more people can dive in and see what the fuss is about. PQube has announced that Tormented Souls will be launching for PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch sometime in early 2022. Though an exact launch date hasn’t been officially provided, the game’s listing online for retailers such as GameStop and Funstock do mention February 25 as a release date.

Meanwhile, PQube has also confirmed that a new free update will be coming for Tormented Souls on October 28, which will add a new weapon (a heavily modified nail gun that deals more damage) and a new outfit for Caroline.

Tormented Souls is currently available on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC.

Scarlet Hollow

For all intents and purposes, Scarlet Hollow is a visual novel with extensive dialogue choices, traits and a relationship system, where it’s possible to become friend or foe with different characters, further influencing one’s own story. Backed by some great art and aesthetics, there’s a genuinely disturbing tale underneath with events changing based on your choices. What dark mystery awaits in this quiet mining town? It’s up to you to find out.

Tormented Souls evokes the original Resident Evil (and its remake) in a lot of ways, from its fixed camera angles to its haunted mansion setting (or part-haunted mansion, at least) to the moody atmosphere and quite dread it so successfully builds. Making your way through the dimly lit, creepy halls and rooms of a hospital that once used to be an abandoned mansion is done exactly the way you’d want- deliberate exploration and carefully searching environments is encouraged, and the pace is kept slow.

"Tormented Souls evokes the original Resident Evil (and its remake) in a lot of ways, from its fixed camera angles to its haunted mansion setting (or part-haunted mansion, at least) to the moody atmosphere and quite dread it so successfully builds."

Plenty of emphasis is placed on resource conservation and management right off the bat, which means running and gunning isn’t always advisable, and often isn’t even an option, and deciding when to use your healing items and when to hold on to them also adds an element of strategy. This is all typical survival horror stuff, of course, but it’s executed well enough here, and definitely deserves to be praise. Tormented Souls’ horror isn’t about sudden spikes of fear as much as it is about maintaining a constant foreboding atmosphere, which is the perfect way to utilize its setting.

Solid lighting and well-crafted decrepit environments with blood splattered across the wall and unsettling objects or paintings scattered here and there contribute a whole lot to that atmosphere. Tormented Souls’ setting definitely has a sense of place, and its fixed cameras definitely leverage that strength. Camera angles are carefully placed and serve a range of purposes- in a small room, the camera angle ensures that you can’t see too much of the space in front of you, so you never know what’s around that corner. Walking through a hallway, however, the camera might dynamically move around to give you a better look of your surroundings.

Tormented Souls also uses darkness as an actual gameplay mechanic- which isn’t a novelty in the horror genre, sure, but is used quite well here. Many of the halls and corridors and environments you’ll find yourself in will be quite dimly lit, or even completely dark, but staying in darkness for too long physically hurts you. Your tool against the darkness is a lighter, but if you have that equipped, you can’t equip your weapon- which makes treks through patches of darkness particularly tense, especially if there are enemies lurking around. The fact that you can only save the game with tapes – like Resident Evil’s ribbons – further heightens the tension. Tapes are not abundantly found, and you need to be careful about when to use them.

"Quite a few of the puzzles are really well designed, and honestly, I’m all for a deliberately paced survival horror game that’s all about the puzzles and exploration- but Tormented Souls doesn’t quite strike the right balance at times."

Another area Tormented Souls borrows a lot from classic RE and Silent Hill titles is its focus on puzzles. Careful exploration is crucial (as is backtracking, naturally), because finding items and item pieces scattered everywhere and then figuring how and where to combine or use them is how you solve most puzzles, in classic survival horror fashion. Quite a few of the puzzles are really well designed, and honestly, I’m all for a deliberately paced survival horror game that’s all about the puzzles and exploration- but Tormented Souls doesn’t quite strike the right balance at times.

For starters, the map is not the most useful, which is a cardinal sin in a game such as this one. The game also just throws a bit too many steps of different puzzles at you at the same time, and it can get a little hard to keep track of what items you have, or where a particular item needs to be used. Narrowing down things a little bit and not having too many puzzles active at the same time would probably have made for a better, more focused experience, because more than anything else, this leads to aimless exploration and trying to grapple with some obscure cues that you can’t quite make sense of without some trial and error.

Movement in Tormented Souls is also a little rough around the edges. While the fixed cameras themselves do a great job of heightening the tension, both movement and aiming can feel a little clunky and, at times, sluggish, especially in instances when the camera angle switches and your direction is suddenly changed. Trying to zigzag around enemies to just run past them if you’re trying to save ammo also always take more work than it has to, and combing through environments as you’re searching for items and resources feels a little sluggish as well. I realize that this stiff movement is a very deliberate choice on the developers’ part, since that’s what they’re trying to evoke in this decidedly old-school horror game, but they didn’t have to retain this part of that experience as well.

"While the fixed cameras themselves do a great job of heightening the tension, both movement and aiming can feel a little clunky."

Storytelling isn’t one of Tormented Souls’ strengths either. The story on the whole is quite forgettable, thanks to several well-worn tropes, predictable twists, and uninteresting characters. The Resident Evil fan in me did enjoy picking up bits and pieces of logs and files to get a deeper understand of the backstory and the history of the creepy hospital/mansion, but the actual content of the narrative is uninspired at best. The writing is consistently sloppy, and the completely stilted and wooden voice acting doesn’t do it any favours either. Also as much as I do think the visuals do their job of crafting creepy, atmospheric environments, they just don’t hold up very well when the game takes control for cutscenes or more directed storytelling.

It feels a little unfair to ding on the game for some of these things, because though this is clearly a small-budget production, it’s been made with a lot of love- a lot of love for the classic days of survival horror games. Tormented Souls is completely dedicated to realizing its vision of delivering a hardboiled old-school experience, and honestly, that is why it excels when it comes to its focus on exploration and resource management and its palpable atmosphere. But there are plenty of rough edges too, all of which do add up in the end. For fans of the fixed camera era of the survival horror genre, Tormented Souls is a solid trip down memory lane, but even so, it’s got a lot of room for improvement.

 This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

The DualSense is perhaps one of the most exciting things about the PS5, and Sony have definitely been placing a lot of emphasis on it in the lead-up to the console’s launch. Similarly, developers in the industry have also been speaking about the controller quite a bit, and what its adaptive triggers and haptic feedback will enable in games going forward, from Deathloop and GhostWire: Tokyo, to Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Horizon Forbidden West, to Gran Turismo 7 and Demon’s Souls.

Another developer that’s excited about the potential of the PS5’s new console is Dual Effect Games, who’re working on Tormented Souls, the classic old school survival horror title due out next year. In an interview with SegmentNext, in fact, the developer said that thanks to the much better tactical response the DualSense will allow, the controller will be “transcendent” for horror games in particular.

“I think that DualSense would be very transcendent for horror games on PS5, since it will help to increase player insertion in the experience,” the developer said. “I can imagine a transparent plastic artifact full of spiders that you have manipulated with your hands using the joystick movement sensors, while you can feel all those little spider legs going wild through your palm.”

The DualSense’s adaptive triggers, haptic feedback, and even the PS5’s 3D audio engine are things that developers brought up quite often while talking about increased immersion in next-gen games, and it does seem like horror games in particular will benefit from that more than most other genres.

The PS5 is due out some time this Holiday, so hopefully we’ll learn a lot more about how exactly developers are using the DualSense not long from now.