| GAMES 2 |
| Silent Hill continued... Anyway as I was saying, this would make a great messed up film. The atmosphere of the game, with it's unnerving sounds makes for a truly scary game. In ways that Resident Evil could never be. Playing this at 2 in the morning on a big tv, with the sound up full, in a darkened room on your own makes this terrifying, believe me i tried it. The main character Harry Mason is in a state of constant confusion, creating a bond with the player who is equally confused, the only bad point of the game is the uninspiring badies. Copys of residents evils dog enemys, zombies (in the form of doctors and nurses) and lickers (the sewer monsters) mean the baddies are not that good. The locations are mostly great, with areas witch usually bring images of safety and normality being twisted into places of evil. The primary school is one such example, as is the hospital and fairground later in the game. The game featureds two worlds- evil silent hill, and foggy silent hill which keep merging into each other- beautiful. Overall 8.6. Silent Hill 2 Welcome back to Silent Hill! Though Harry Mason survived the horrors and escaped the town, it still remained waiting for it's next victim. This time James Sunderland is drawn to the town, after recieving a letter from his dead wife telling him to meet her there (!). The game (on PS2 and X-box) looks better then ever, with brilliant mist effects and a novel grainy look to the game. Like the original the terror is formed by atmosphere rather then shocks and the story is again confusing as hell.With the exception of the Nurse the characters are much better then the ones from silent hill, with the Maria character being prehaps the best. Also the enemys are much better then the bland dogs and bats of the first game. This time enemys include deformed zombies, creatures half bed and half freak (!) and the zombie nurses make a welcome return. The enemys all move in disturbing ways now which is impressive to see. Locations this time around in my opinion are not so good. The apartment building is quite boring, and places such as the bowling alley and strip club are too small. The mental hospital and hotel are classics though. Though this game is better then the original, it has some flaws. The game is less scary then the first which was dissapointing, and the endings are nearly all awful, apart from the dog ending. Silent Hillls weren't brilliant but least they had FMV. Also 'bad' is that the mist and evil silent hills no longer merge into each other. One of the highlights of the first one was when the siren goes off and the location morphs into evil/mist silent hill. Overall 8.7. Still brilliant and personally I think these are better then the Resident Evils (even though they got higher marks) Alone in the Dark 4 Though I played the original I wont review it as my memory of it is hazy, though I remember the house in it was cool, and created a atmosphere. The 4th installment is unfourtunatly average. Edward Carnaby and some woman called Elaine are on the way to some island (hey I dont have the game any longer, I cant remember!) when thier plane is attacked and they are forced to parachute out. Both land in different locations- Edward lands in a forest, while Elaine lands on the roof of a mansion. The 2 characters like in Resident Evil 2 have different stories and while they share some locations 25% of the areas they go to are only availiable for a single character, eg: only Edward gets the sewers, while only Elaine goes to the castle. The torch plays a major part in the game, with enemys reacting differently to it. Some enemys are physically hurt by the torch beam, while others run away from the light. The enemys themselves are average looking with creatures and rough looking zombies being the staple. Of note are the bosses which are awful and simple to kill. The game has atmosphere yet is let down by one major factor. Half way through the game the style changes. The first 50% is classic survival horror, yet strangly the style changes to shoot em up, with respawning baddies attacking constantly-wierd. This should of been so much better. Overall 5.5. Overblood I admit to having a soft spot for this amusingly bad survival horror, having now brought it and then sold it twice now. The main character is a man who wakes up in lab with no memory of who he is or where he is, he soon finds a woman who like him doesn't know how she came to be in the underground base the games set in, and a friendly robot. All 3 of these are controlable. The game centers around puzzles on how to traverse the ruined base, and there are 4 distinct levels, each floor of the base being different. Locations include a sewer, a cave and living quarters and are quite varied and sort of interesting to go through (well i thought they where) The fighting system is rubbish, but luckily there are only about 5 baddies in the entire game!! 4 of which are zombies, with the last baddie being the end of game boss which is...well a super zombie. The thing which draws the player on is the story, or lack of. I was desparate to find answers to why the base was ruined, and who the characters were so I enjoyed the game even though it is short. This game gets its score based on its story and the fact that its so bad that its funny. The graphics are bad, controls bad, but I really enjoyed playing it.Overall 6.5. Evil Dead-Hail To The King I only brought this game as it was cheap, plus the fact i'm a big fan of the films. The game is set after Evil Dead 3 and sees Ash (voiced by Bruce Cambell) returning again to the house for some lame reason. What is good about this is the way things from the film are reused. Ash's evil hand makes a welcome return, as does Evil Ash who is the games main bad guy. The weapons are standard survival horror, with the exception of the chainsaw Ash has. The structure of the game is quite bad. The first half of the game sees you trying to find the lost pieces of the Necronomicon which are scattered around the island the cabin is on. Everything looks good, but Ash character and baddies dont seem to fit into the surroundings. The baddies themselfs look awful. Skellitons, bats, and Deadites all look rubbish, and attack in boring ways, and most respawn, so that your constantly being attacked while trying to search areas. The voices in the game are good, and locations such as the fruit celler will bring a smile to fans of the films, as they are recreated faithfully. This game is very average, so Overall 4.5. Project Zero Wow! This is one scary game, and coming from me thats something! Released in the UK on 30th August 2002. The story concerns a mysterious Japanese mansion where a powerful Lord used to live. A famous horror writer and his asociates go the mansion looking for inspiration for a new book. They promptly dissapear so off goes the writers best friend (Mafuyu Hinasaki) to find them...but then he goes missing as well. Not noticing the trend of people dissapearing (yeah I know my spellings bad) Mafuyu's sister Miku decides to travel to the desolate mansion to search for him. It is soon apparant that the house is infested with evil ghosts. The game plays like a mix between Silent Hill and the 'Ring' films (Japanese horror series about a possesed video tape) and even blatently copys scenes from 'Ring'. To help fend off the ghosts and ghouls of the mansion Miku has a camera but it is special as it has the power to capture ghosts souls, and this can be upgraded to have a wider lens, zoom function etc. The camera is the only 'weapon' which makes a change from the usual pistols and shotguns which usually clutter up survival horror games. It actually does explain why the camera can capture ghosts later on in the game, so it makes sense (unlike that last sentence). The atmosphere of the game is brill, and is creepy throughout (cont on np) |