Video Gamers Podcast - [Flashback Friday] Best Horror Games - Video Games Podcast

Episode Date: October 27, 2023

Take a trip to the past with this video game flashback episode. Halloween is nearly upon us and what better time to dive into the best horror games! We talk this incredible video game genre as a whole, why some horror games land, and why others don’t. Join us as we discuss some of our all time favorite horror games and more in another packed gaming episode from your favorite video games podcast!  Thanks to our LEGENDARY Supporters: Redletter, Gaius214, Nate and Kiitaclyzm Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Discord: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com//videogamerspod Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/videogamerspod Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU12YOMnAQwqFZEdfXv9c3Q   Visit us on the web: https://videogamerspod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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fridays are the path to the light side. Fun leads to enjoyment. Enjoyment leads to laughter. Laughter leads to happiness. Get into it now, we will. Hey, what's up, everyone? This is the Multiplayer Gaming Podcast. We like to break down video games and gaming topics. And today we are going to be exploring the genre of horror games.

Ooh! I was really hoping you'd do that. Were you really? I was. That's funny. So, turn on that nightlight, pull your covers over your head, and hold your breath while we talk about the scariest genre in existence. I am your host, Paul.

And then, with me, I can already see him shaking in his boots, just thinking about the subject. All work and no play makes him a dull boy. It's Josh! Boo! That was scary, wasn't it? You know what's funny? Man, we're talking about horror games tonight, but horror games actually freak me out a little bit, man. Oh, I've played a few with you.

I know they get to you. Yeah, absolutely. You know that I'm a sucker for screaming real loud and having a good time. Well, our listeners might be wondering why we are talking about horror games with this bonus round episode and not an individual game. And we explained that in the last episode, but basically, long story short, Josh and I really wanted to finish Valheim. And we did. We finished it, but it did delay our next individual game episode. So today we're going to be breaking down horror games, and then next Monday we are going to do our deep dive into Cuphead, which is a horror game in a sense, but that's a story for next week. Now before we jump into the horror genre, Josh, I think you have a couple of reviews for us.

I did. We haven't read any reviews in a couple of weeks. And so we've gotten a good bit of new ones. And we are getting really close to 200 reviews, which is our next goal. So if you're listening and you haven't left us a review yet, number one, shame on you. Number two, please, please one, shame on you. Number two, please, please.

I'm begging you. Um, but yeah, we're getting close to that 200. So, uh, and as we, uh, we like to do,

we like to give some shout outs to our listeners and, uh, read the reviews, uh, on the show. So this first one comes in from Kellen James milk. I'm not sure who Kellen James is or why he likes milk or why he gives milk. I'm not really sure, but he titles it Best Thing in History. That's a lot to live up to. He says, this is my favorite podcast in history. I will go to federal prison if i cannot listen to this podcast man that's you know i'm

calling your bluff killing james milk yeah i was gonna say please don't commit any crimes on behalf of us but we do appreciate the sentiment yeah don't go to prison either because i don't know if you can listen to podcasts in prison can you i bet you can but then you can't play games and then that's terrible so that's true yeah you'll have to smuggle in a phone but you, I bet you can, but then you can't play games and then that's terrible. So that's true. Yeah. You'll have to smuggle in a phone, but you won't be able to game. That's very true.

That's very true. So, all right. And then we have a very, this is, this is a really in-depth review right here. So it's titled cool. It comes in from high 16,

16. And this one, this one includes me making some sounds. Amazing. And that's it. He or she literally wrote out inhales and then amazing. So I hope my inhale came through right there.

Getting some verbal emotes in the reviews. That's new. Yes. Thank you, huh? Yes. That's new. Yes. Okay, I like it. Thank you, Hi1616. I want people to start leaving reviews with crazy emotes, and then Josh will have to read them on the show. So I am fully on board with this idea. Okay.

You know what, Paul? You asked for it. So, all right, one more. I wasn't going to read this one this time, but you know what? Fine. This one is titled, Great Podcast, Please Do an Episode on Minecraft. That may not happen. But this review comes in from... Hang on, I gotta... Taco Bacon, Taco Bacon,

Firework, Firework, Firework, Firework, Red Heart, Light Red Heart, Purple Heart, Silverware Set. Wait, that's the username or that's in the review? That's the username. It's just their username is a bunch of emojis. So I had to read out all the emojis there. Well, Taco Bacon, thank you for the review. Oh, and then the review was,

Great pod, I highly recommend it. Please do an episode on Minecraft. No. Yes, Minecraft has been an uphill battle with me and Josh. We did do Minecraft Dungeons, but maybe for our 500th episode

we'll do Minecraft or something like that. But we'll see. Alright. Well, now that we've moved on from reviews, let's get into the horror genre. Now, I think this is going to be really exciting because we have not played very many horror games together. And I think for the most part, that's because most of them are single player games. I have no idea what games you're

going to be bringing up. You have no idea what games I'm going to bring up. But I do think that it's going to be fun to talk about because of the emotions that come out with this genre. Now, the horror genre has had a ton of success, especially in the last few years. What is it about horror games, Josh, that you love and that people love buying these games? I like them because they're just completely different video game experiences. Like, honestly, it's, they're, it's, they're like no other genre out there. And while there are some shooter games that have horror elements and things like that, like if you get a horror game, it is unlike any other video game out there, in my opinion. So if you're, if you've got that itch to play something different, if you're tired of the sports games or the first-person shooters or the RPGs, then there's this entire genre of games.

And the experience with them is, honestly, if it's a decent game, and I'm sure we're only going to bring up good games today or a really terrible one that maybe stuck with us. But it's one of those things where the experience, there's not many games out there that can elicit an emotional response like horror games can. And like we hinted at the beginning, and I'm sure we'll get into here in a little while, I have quite the big emotional response. It's not that I'm actually scared, but it's just that I can't help but get caught up in the moment and then scream like a little kid if something scary happens. And so I like that aspect. I like that a game can make me feel a certain way and elicit that kind of response. Yeah, you're very much the perfect subject for this kind of game because you're along for the ride and you'll just buy in and you'll give the developers exactly what they were looking for. And I think that horror games

are so great for exactly the reasons that you're saying. Maybe to flesh that out a little bit more, you know, you can read horror books or watch horror movies, which of course have been huge for decades. But when you play it as a video game, it's so much more immersive that I think it's much more effective at producing that kind of fear. Because not only do you have the scary audio, the scary atmosphere, but you're also controlling your player. So if you're trying to run away from someone with a chainsaw, or if you witness some kind run away from someone with a chainsaw, or if you witness some kind of horrific event, and it's more of like a psychological horror type of game, that really sinks in where you are fully in the shoes of the character.

And I feel like video games are just the perfect vehicle for the horror genre. And so I feel like the suspension of disbelief is so easy with games, especially if you're wearing headphones and playing in the dark. It's so easy to just get sucked in. Yeah, it really is. And I mean, one thing, too, that I appreciate is that there is a wide scope of horror games. Like, we're a family-friendly podcast, right? So, you know, people think horror, and then they think, oh, well, I can't ever play those games, or they're too gory or something like that. But there's a lot of horror games out there that rely on atmosphere more than anything else. And to me, that's awesome, right? Don't get me wrong. There's some horror games out there that

should not be played by younger kids. But there's plenty of them that it's just the suspense, it's just the atmosphere that is like, dude, I'm going to talk about one game. It might be on your list, too, that is freaky, man, but there's hardly anything in the game that is gory or inappropriate, you know what I mean, as far as that goes. And I really like it when they can draw it, they can find that balance between like, hey, we can create this atmosphere, but we don't necessarily have to just rely on blood and gore or murder and death and that kind of stuff. I mean, don't get me wrong, some of these games will have that, but I like that there's that wide variety in that mix yeah it's exactly like you see in movies you can have your slasher gore fest movies but then you can also have pg-13 movies that are almost more of like those horror thrillers like the ring or what lies beneath and personally that's more my jam. I am not so much a fan of just the slasher

gore for the sake of being ultra violent and gory. But I think that's a really good segue, because let's talk about some of those different subgenres within horror games. So I took a look on Wikipedia, and they divided out between a couple subgenres. And I thought it would be fun just to very briefly describe what they are. And then maybe we can just talk a little bit about which ones we enjoy the most or which ones we don't like. So, unlike RPGs, this is a very short list. Okay, so for RPGs, when we did that last time, we talked about how there's like 15 subgenres. I've only got four for you here. So the first one is going to be action horror, which is very self-explanatory, right? They are fast-paced.

It's based more on fighting than surviving. This is going to include titles like Dead Space, The Last of Us, and also some of the Resident Evil titles like 4, 5, and 6, where it's very much based on the guns and the shooting. And then you also have your survival horror games, which is probably what most people think of first. That was my thought. Yeah, that's when you have limited resources and you're just trying to survive through the end of the game. And so these tend to have puzzle elements. These are things like the very early Resident Evil titles that were much more survival-based. Then you have psychological

horror games, which focus more on emotional, mental, and psychological states rather than through monsters and jump scares. And what I liked that Wikipedia said is that the fear comes from what is not seen. For example, it could be unreliable perceptions, questionable sanity, or unreliable narrators. And then finally, you have maybe the funniest subgenre, which is reverse horror games. Which is when you're the one inflicting fear on others. Oh, like Dead by Daylight, right? Dead by Daylight, Friday the 13th. Yeah. And I feel like those games, the asymmetrical horror games have really taken off lately. So what do

you think about those subgenres, Josh? Give me psychological horror all day, every day. I am completely with you. Yes. I want to have you mess with my head. I want to turn the lights out. I want to not know whether something is real or not. What is that sound? Did I just hear something? Is it close? Is it far away? Oh my goodness, did that door just close? I want that slow build of terror. And it's like they said, sometimes what you can't see is scarier than what you can see. And so I want a game to mess with my head 100%. I like survival horror and the action horror. Don't get me wrong, Resident Evil series is phenomenal. But if you're saying, hey, pick a genre within horror that is your favorite psychological horror, hands down for me. Yeah, I definitely agree with you. I definitely have a soft spot for really good writing, and a lot of times that comes through slowly building up that horror where you are figuring out some kind of mystery. So maybe you're trying to uncover something and you're learning more about it, and then the dread kicks in over time or maybe your

character keeps witnessing different events and now the character is slowly losing it and i think those make for very interesting stories uh the only one on that list i don't like are the reverse horror games i just don't really get a kick out of running around trying to murder other people in a horror setting i don't mind shooting my friends if it's like Overwatch or something like that. There's just something that gets a little too real when it's in a horror game. Like, I don't like playing Dead by Daylight where I gotta grab you and put you up on a hook and then watch you squirm and die. That's just not really my jam.

But I'm with you. Psychological horror all the way. Action horror sometimes. It really just depends on the game. How come there's no RPG horror? You know, since we talked about RPGs not that long, can you think of a good role-playing game that's like a horror-based role? Like Vampires the Masquerade? I've not played that, but I think that's in that genre? I don't know. Yeah, I can't really think of any. Maybe there are some goofy vampire games that I've just never played. Maybe some of them are, but I don't know. I have never played

the vampire series. I know there's Vampire Bloodlines, Vampire the Masquerade, and some others. And they're popular amongst people that like them, but I don't think I've ever played any of them. So yeah, I guess RPGs are too slow to kind of really lend themselves to being scary. I'm not sure how they'd go about being scary. Right. You're out of healing potions. Yeah, exactly. All right.

So I took a look at our leaderboard, Josh, because I feel like we have largely ignored horror games. And we have covered 37 games so far on our main shows. And we have done four games that I think would qualify as horror. We did GTFO, Phasmophobia, The Forest, Left 4 Dead 2, maybe, maybe maybe not counting it as horror but josh none of those are in our top 22 they are all in the bottom 15 so i don't know why that is maybe we've just picked horror games that don't lend themselves well with multiplayer but we've ranked them relatively low up to this point it's the multiplayer aspect, honestly. I was going to mention Phasmophobia, just in the sense that we did an entire show on that game. And it's a phenomenal horror game. But it's tough because to do multiplayer horror games, you have to have everybody in your group be invested in that. And I'm not going to lie, Paul, you're kind of skeptical when it comes to a spooky, scary ghost game. And it's kind of hard for you to get into that mindset. And then you're just running around saying the ghost's name

openly to try to tick it off. And then I'm getting scared going like, stop it. Stop saying his name. He's going to get mad at us! And then of course the ghost gets mad. Marvin Johnson, where are you? Yeah. And then the ghost comes out and kills me. But I think you have to get everybody in the right mindset, and that can be hard to do in a group of friends. I think horror games definitely lend themselves to single-player experiences so that you can turn the lights out in the room, put your headphones on and like get into that spirit of things. And then it's I think it's a lot more effective at that point. Yeah, I think a lot of it also has to do with the fact that when you are playing multiplayer, you are inevitably chatting with one another during slow parts and you're talking, and it does kind of break that immersion.

So when you're playing single player, I think it does work better. So I think that's probably why most of the games that I have here on my list are single player games. They're not all games that I loved, but they are games that I thought were very memorable within the horror genre. I'll say this. GTFO is a great multiplayer horror game. Like that game, we have not played that game in quite some time. So I'm actually,

I'd be curious to go back and see, but there's few horror games that are multiplayer that can elicit the kind of suspense that GTFO does. Like creeping through those, those, you know, areas with the sleeper guys and then like seeing them start to light up in their hearts beating and stuff like that's that's freaky man like that'll definitely get your adrenaline going oh yeah and especially one thing that we haven't really talked a whole lot about is the role that audio plays in horror games i feel like usually sound doesn't matter all that much but it definitely adds to the atmosphere so i was thinking like in gtfo whenever you would accidentally aggravate one of

those one of the the monsters that would have the tentacles like the screamers whatever those were called and you would hear the scream and see the flash of light and then you would just hear all the monsters start to run toward you and that can be so incredibly effective that i i felt like gtfo always had that down really really well yeah yeah absolutely and and so the last thing that i wanted to bring up before we start talking about individual games is just the fact that horror games have also really lent themselves well to games that are streaming online. The whole Let's Play movement, a lot of that was built on people like PewDiePie playing games like Amnesia, getting in the mood, really being emotional in all of their responses. And so I do think it also lends well to watching other people play horror games,

and I feel like that's really just risen the genre as a whole, where when we brought up a list of horror games, off the top of my head, I thought, man, I've probably only played like six or seven. But after looking through a list, I had actually played like a good 20 to 24. I was really surprised once I actually broke it down. Yeah, I started looking through it's it's kind of weird, because if you look at a list of horror games, like there's some games on there that it's like, I don't know that I'd consider that horror, you know, like, I think you had mentioned like Wolfenstein is on that list. And it's like, yeah, that's just a shit. Unless Nazis are really scary. And you're considering those like horrorish, then like, I don't really consider that like a horror game. You know,

and like the Resident Evil series, like, yes, there's definitely scary elements to that, but that's almost borderline for me. You know what I mean? Like it's the series has gone kind of a lot of different avenues there, like you said, kind of like the survival and then the action. And I mean, I get that there's monsters and zombies and there are the jump scares and stuff like that, but it is, but it's almost like my brain instantly goes a step beyond that to where it's like, this legit has to be scary. There has to be scary moments in this game to qualify. Yeah, Resident Evil is kind of interesting because Resident Evil 4 is one of my favorite horror games. And I didn't even put it on my list because so much of that game is just

pure action. And the game is relatively fast-paced compared to most horror games. Usually in horror games that are especially survival-based, they really hit the brakes. And these games tend to be more stealth. It's a lot of hiding hiding and it has more elements like that and i think that since resident evil 4 was just so popular they really leaned into the shooter aspects of it but they have returned back to more of the roots of horror so resident evil 7 was more like that and then i also played on ps5 the demo for the Resident Evil. And it's very much just straight up horror. Like you wake up in a cellar and you're walking around and you're reading all these notes written and you find out about people who are being abused on the property.

And there's like torture instruments and there's blood everywhere. And you have to sneak around with ghosts in the house. And then there's this nine foot sexy vampire lady who comes out of nowhere and broke the internet for a week. And so, you know, Resident Evil is kind of an interesting one. But I feel like they're kind of going back to those roots after going full action for a bit. Was it 7 or 8 that was in the farmhouse that was like the first-person perspective in the farmhouse? I think it was 8, but... I don't think 8 is out

yet, right? I think that was 7. I have 7. It takes place in the farmhouse. There's the weird old people that live there, and it's pretty freaky. I didn't actually finish that, but that was very atmospheric. I did like that they were getting more towards the horror genre

in that regard. I mean, it's kind of hard to beat the early resident evil games, you know, as far as the nostalgia and stuff goes too, but I would definitely qualify the later ones as more horror than action. Yeah, definitely.

All right. So let's just take turns nominating a game that we had thought of, and then we can just kind of talk about it for a couple minutes each. I'll let you go first, Josh. What you got first? All right. This might be on both of our lists, because this is one of the best horror games that I have ever played, and it is Amnesia The Dark Descent. So you had mentioned that there was a lot of let's plays on this, but basically in amnesia. Now there's a couple of amnesia games now, and I think they just actually released, man, they just released one like three months ago, but I have not played it.

So it might be worth looking into. But the dark descent is this game where you wake up, you're just some dude, you wake up in like a castle you don't know your name you don't know what's going on and you have to kind of just start looking around and you know trying to figure out what the heck like why did you wake up in this place what's going on and it's like you said you know you start finding notes that people left and you start to realize very slowly like this game is one of those games that has like the very slow burn to it. But man, when it gets going, it's there is there's not many games out there like this. There are parts in this game that will literally make you like shrivel up into a ball. And it's one of those like like something is after you, something is chasing you, but it's invisible like the whole time, like the whole time it's invisible.

But you'll be walking through some sewers. Right. And it's like it's just, you know, good, good sound, that kind of thing. And then all of a sudden you'll start to see footprints like in the water, in the sewers. Oh yeah. And then you're like, wait a minute, what is that? And then you'll hear the steps like, and then you're like, oh no. And then the, the music starts going and then your guy's heart starts pumping and then you just freak out, man! And you start running, because there's no fighting in the game either. That's the other awesome thing about it,

is you either run or you die, and that is it. And that aspect is great. Doesn't that game also incorporate some puzzles that you have to solve along the way, and things like that, to get from one room to the next? Yeah, it is. I wouldn't say it's a puzzler, but there are definitely like puzzles

to be able to progress through like certain areas and kind of figure things out. But the whole time you're doing that, you're constantly pursued by this monster. And it might be that you can go five minutes without anything happening, and then you'll open a door and then it'll just, you'll hear the footsteps like round a corner down this hallway. And then you'll open a door and then you'll hear the footsteps round a corner down this hallway. And then you're just like, ah! And then you have to just run, man. And it always keeps you on your toes. And if that thing catches you, you're dead. So it's not like it's just trying to funnel you from one room to the other kind of thing. It legit, it'll take you out, man.

Yeah. I know that Amnesia sold really well. I always confuse it with Outlast. So I was thinking in my head, oh yeah, I've definitely played Amnesia and I pulled up my Steam and it's not in there. So I was like, oh wait, what game am I thinking of? And I had to scroll a bit and I was like, oh, Outlast. To me, I remember watching both of those games by a lot of streamers and then somehow in my head, they kind of just got confused with one another. So Amnesia, I have seen others play, but I actually don't own it. But that one seems to really lend itself well. I can see why you would want to bring that one up first. Yeah, it's the graphics are a little, I mean, honestly, they're pretty dated. I was going to say they're a little dated,

but they're pretty dated. But it's one of those games where the graphics do not matter. It is 100% about the atmosphere, that monster chasing you. I don't want to give spoilers, but there's times throughout that game where when that monster shows up and it starts chasing you, it is the best thing ever, man. Like I said, they do some really, really cool set pieces with you being pursued and how you have to run away and what you have to do to kind of escape. It's bar none, man. That game's phenomenal. Oh, yeah. Well, maybe one of these days I'll get around to trying it myself. So the first game, or I guess it's really a duo of games that I have on my list.

I wanted to start off light. And then some of the heavier games are going to come up a little later. I'll probably have to give a disclaimer or two. Like, if you have kids in the car, you might have to skip a section or two coming up later. But I'll start off easy. Animal Crossing. And I wanted to start off with... What was that?

I said Animal Crossing. Yes, Animal Crossing. Psych I wanted to start off with... What was that? I said Animal Crossing. Yes, Animal Crossing. Psychological horror every day is the same. It never ends. All right, I wanted to start off with some of my favorite arcade memories. Area 51 and the House of the Dead. Oh, the shooter games! Now, I would definitely say Area 51 is pretty much a straight-up shooter.

House of the Dead, I think, is enough horror that it would qualify. Oh yeah, man, you got zombies and monsters and giant spiders attacking you. I forgot, dude, that's crazy, because those games were not even on my radar for this, but they're so good. I loved wasting all of my money in the arcade playing House of the Dead. I would just pump all of my money into that, get as far as I could. Were you a fan of those games with the guns in the arcades? I like them. I think they're a lot of fun. But the thing that I hated was the guns were never calibrated. They were always so poorly calibrated. You would learn. You got to shoot three inches up

and to the right, like on every guy. Yeah. Why? Why is that so hard to do? They could do it with duck hunt, man. Like you're telling me modern technology can't sight in like a light gun? Yeah, I don't know how accurate duck hunt was. I had a lot of issues with that one at Friends Houses. All right, fair enough. Maybe that's a bad example, but... Yeah. Now, House of the Dead, I loved so much. I bought it along with four guns for my Xbox.

Whoa! Now, that was a lot of money back then, because I was probably, I don't know, like 17 or 18. I remember I had my first job working at Harkins Movie Theater, and I had saved up enough money, and I bought all of that for my Xbox. Now, as you might guess, when you only play House of the Dead once a week, that the game stays fresh. But when you own it, and you have unlimited credits, this might come as a

shock, Josh, but that game was fun for about four days. And then I never played it. I was going to say that game gets, it gets repetitive real quick. I played house of the dead too, which I think was on dreamcast if I remember right. And I played that game solid for like two days straight. And then I just, it got like, it's like you said, it got really repetitive and I don't think I played that game solid for like two days straight, and then I just, it got, it's like you said, it got really repetitive, and I don't think I played it anymore after that. Yeah, as great as Time Crisis, House of the Dead, Area 51, those games are definitely best

if you only play them at the arcade. And I remember being so mad because those guns I think were like $40 each. And I tried to sell them to GameStop. And you remember how little you would get for accessories? I think it was legitimately like $4 each. And I said, never mind. And I just held on to them for like five years.

And eventually, I ended up selling them at a church yard sale. And I just packaged all of it for like $4. And I sold House of the Dead with all these controllers. But at the time, I wasn't going to let go for such a low price. Those games were good, though, man. I mean, they threw a lot at you. And I think part of the fun of that was the feeling that you were about to get overwhelmed. Like when there was a lot on the screen and you were shooting, shooting, you know, and it was just like, you're out of ammo, you're having to reload. I don't remember if that was one of those screen and you were shooting, shooting, you know, and it was just like, you're out of ammo, you're having to reload.

I don't remember if that was one of those games where you could, like, they had, like, the Uzi off in the distance. And if you shot the Uzi, then it would let you equip it. And then you could fire that, you know, at that. Yeah, you'd have a set number of bullets for the special gun. I think so, too. And especially when you were a kid, it's not like you could just go to the shooting range or something like that. Guns seemed neat. And if you were a kid, that was the closest you could get to it other than once a year when I would go to Boy Scout camp and I could shoot a rifle. So going to the arcade, playing those games, I thought was always fun.

So those are some of my earlier memories. All right. Number two for you, Josh, what you got? Oh, I know you've got this one. So we can share this one. All right. No, for you josh what you got oh i know you've got this one so we can share this one all right no i'll tell you what i'll i'll let you i'll let you bring that one up later um okay it might not be on my list because i assumed you would bring it okay does it start with an e it does so should i bring it on my list because i knew you would buddy well then i guess what's about to happen. Eternal Darkness. Yes. Oh, man. Sanity's Requiem.

This game blew my mind. Now, I want to say, was it PS2? Nintendo 64? It was GameCube. GameCube? Okay. I couldn't remember what it was. I knew it was older.

First rated M game published by Nintendo. Was it rated M? For what? I don't remember what it was man uh you it had okay so i'll let you explain the the elements of the game but the shooting mechanics is where you would lock on to a target and then you would use the thumb stick to decide which limb you would shoot and like those limbs would fly off okay it was it was a pretty gory game at least by gamecube standards. Dude, this game,

there was no other game like it. And when you realized what was happening, that's when your brain just exploded. I remember playing this game, and it plays like a lot of other games out there. Like you said, it's kind of like a shooter, and you're just going through these

levels, and you're kind of exploring around, and you have to go find something. And there was very light puzzle elements and stuff like that. But what I remember happening was slowly going insane. And then I'm like, okay, like, yeah, that's fine. My guy's going insane. No big deal. And then I'll never forget, she was my girlfriend at the time. She's my wife now. But I remember her turning the volume down on the game. And I remember going, like, Brandy, turn the volume back up. And she was like, what? And I was like, turn the volume back up. Like, I'm in a fight. I got to be able to hear where they're coming from. And she's like, what are you talking about? She's like, I don't even have the remote. And I'm like, turn the volume up. I'm

going to die. And then she's just looking at me like i'm crazy and then that's when it dawned on me that it was the game it was in the game it was in the game man like the the your volume meter would pop up and the sound would go down dude that game would mess with your head yeah the the it was the first game i ever saw that would break the fourth wall and so they just played with element, knowing that you're playing a video game, and they are going to play on that. Or all of a sudden your vision would get really blurry. Or you would get the volume, which would suddenly turn down, where you'd get that bright green volume meter that would go down and the sound would cut out. But my favorite one is that it would pop up and say something like, your memory card is full, deleting all game saves. And it would start counting up from 0 to 100%. But that was just because your character was going crazy. Yes, there were so many good ways that it would mess with your head, man. You would think you're

getting... There was in-game stuff, which was fine. You would think you're getting attacked, or a zombie was latched onto you, and then all of a sudden they would disappear, and your guy's like, what? What's happening? But it's like you said, man. The instances, like the turning the volume down or that your memory card was getting erased or your screen would go black. It would just say like, power off. And the screen would go black and it would just flash like power off in the top of the screen. And like, honestly, for a little while, you didn't know like what was the game and what was like, oh, your TV was messing up or your GameCube was

messing up or something like that. And it's the first time I've ever seen a game do that. And honestly, like, I don't know that there's been a lot of games that have copied that like really well. I don't know that I can think of another game that's gone that route. Like maybe they just went like, ah, like it was so good. Like we're not really gonna to follow that or what. But like, I just remember experiencing that and then going like, this is incredible. Whoever thought about this as a genius to make you think that real world stuff is going on. This is an ad from BetterHelp Online Therapy. We always hear about the red flags to avoid in relationships, but it's just as important to focus about the red flags to avoid in relationships,

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TD Direct Investing offers live support. So whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TV Direct Investing. Yeah, it was kind of a Hail Mary kind of move by the developers, because it would be very easy if that did not work well, that you would call it gimmicky, you would say it pulls you out of the immersive experience. But instead, it lent itself well to where they said, your character is kind of losing their mind, losing this blur between reality and fantasy, and then the same was happening with you. And I did think it was clever. So that game had a health meter, a mana meter, and a sanity meter. And those were

the three that you had to manage. Those were your three resources. And I also remember that as your sanity started to go down, that rock statues would turn and stare at you and follow you when you would walk around. So it was really neat in that the atmosphere of that game would suck you in and you could kind of... You always felt very nervous and anxious playing that game. It was very effective. It also helps that it was a really good game. The game itself was a lot of fun.

It wasn't like this was a terrible game with neat gimmicks, but I seem to remember actually really enjoying playing the game itself too at the time. So it was a lot. Everything put together made it a very memorable game. Oh, yeah. I actually still have my copy from GameCube. It's my only GameCube disc that I have left, but I still have it, which is pretty neat. And I don't remember everything about the story, but what I seem to recall is that it starts off with a woman who is going either...

I think her grandfather either just died or he's dying. And you discover this book that is made out of human skin, and you start reading through it, and you start learning about these ancient spirits and how they were working through these power orbs. And then you start reading through the journal, and then you experience across different timelines, different people who had encounters with these spirits. So i remember you start reading the journal about this roman soldier and then all of a sudden finger snap you are this roman general with roman era swords and shields and now you're playing in the desert and i thought that was really neat so you get to play i think like in the civil war times and modern day. And it was very inventive.

Yeah, it was. I love when games do groundbreaking things like that. And that one to this day, dude, I probably haven't played that game in 30 years, to be honest with you. And it still stands out to me. You know, those memories, like I said, blaming my wife for the volume and stuff like that. Like kudos to those guys. Yeah, super memorable. All right, the next one that I have here on my list is a game that I have not played in a long time, but I'm thinking about picking it up for PC.

And that's a game called Alan Wake. I've never played Alan Wake, to be honest with you. And I've heard of it many times, but I know nothing about it. Okay. I really loved this game because you guys know how much I love TV and movies. And Alan Wake was very much set up like an episodic TV show. And so the game was split up instead of being different quest lines, it was episodes. And when you would finish episode one, it would usually end on a cliffhanger. And then when you would start the next mission, they would say, previously on Alan Wake, and it would show you all these flashbacks of the important storyline elements in case you had forgotten since the last time you played. And so basically, long story

short, Alan Wake is where you play as an author that has writer's block and you're taking a vacation. It's somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. It's like Oregon or Washington. And then basically you're staying at a happening around you. And you're finding manuscripts that were written by you describing everything that's happening, but you don't remember ever writing that down. So it's like you don't remember writing the story, but all of it is coming true. And there's a lot of shadowy figures that come out and attack you. And then the neat element is that you had to manage your flashlight along with your weapons. So the only way you could fight the bad guys was to hit them with the flashlight long enough that it would stun them. Then you could shoot them with a gun. So you had to manage ammo for your gun, but you also had to manage batteries for your flashlight because they would

run low and you'd have to swap them. That's the worst. I hate games that do the whole light thing. That reminds me in that the amnesia, you can get lanterns and stuff and finding fuel for the lanterns is really critical. And I get it adds to suspense, but I hate that feeling of like, no, I'm out of batteries. It's like, no.

Yeah, there'd be nothing funnier than getting slammed on by three shadows and you're swapping out these batteries and these flashlights. That way you could fight them. But Alan Wake was a lot of fun. I remember really loving it. And I think it's had some updates for PC. So you might be able to play it nowadays in 4K and stuff,

which I think would be neat. Last thing I'll say about Alan Wake is that it has tons of references to other movies which is kind of neat so there's a hedge maze that's exactly like from the shining oh so that's in there uh-huh you're constantly being attacked by birds like the hitchcock movie and it's a lot like the tv showaks. I don't know if you ever watched that. But the city is exactly like the city of Twin Peaks in the TV show. So Alan Wake was a really fun, memorable one. I've heard really good things about that game. I've just never played it. And I probably never will, to be honest with you.

But I don't know of anybody that's brought it up that hasn't brought it up in at least a favorable light. So it seems to be one of those games that people really enjoy that have actually played it. Yeah, I know it had quite a bit of DLC as well that continued the story. So someday I'll have to get around and check that out. All right. This next one, man, I have brought this up on the show it's been a long time and i'm gonna bring it up again because this game i think you can pick this game up for dirt cheap now and it's probably like a 10 hour experience um but hellblade senua's sacrifice you've heard me mention this

before and this game it is it's such a hard game to describe because there is a lot of action, like fighting involved, but then there are very long stretches of this game where it's like, you're just kind of almost like playing like a story. If that makes sense, you know what I mean? Like where it's just, it's a lot of like walking through these levels and then like, like listening to your character or seeing what she experiences. And so what this game is, is basically you play as Senua, who has got some serious psychosis issues. She's like a Viking warrior. So I love the Viking mythology and stuff like that.

So the setting is just right up my alley. But this game starts off, the first 10 minutes of this game are just mind-blowing. And she's paddling through this valley, because she is basically going into hell to try to find him. But she's crazy. And like I said, she's got serious psychosis. So the whole time you're playing the game, there are voices that are whispering to you and sometimes screaming at you that are separate from the game. That's the beauty of it is you're playing this game. You're going through these levels. you might be fighting these things. And the whole time, dude, you just have these little voices whispering to you. And it uses like really, really good,

like 3d audio. So you have to play this game with a headset on, but it'll feel like there's voices whispering to you from behind you or like, you know, in front of you or to the side. And there's sometimes it's like five or six or seven or eight or 20 different voices all at once. Oh man. Dude, it's nuts, man. Like this game is so good. It was one of those, like I picked it up. I remember hearing something about it. I picked it up. It blew my mind. Like, honestly, there's so many good parts to this game. The story is really, really good. Like there's, there's a couple of those like aha moments to it. The action and the fighting is really good.

In the end of the game, there's a fight sequence. I won't give any spoilers that literally gave me like chill bumps because of how like epic it was after like playing the whole game and like seeing the journey that she went on. Yeah. And then final thing, they're actually releasing a sequel to this. And if you look up the sequel, like Hellblade 2, and you watch the YouTube video, it'll give you a feel because she looks crazy, man. Oh, really?

Yeah. So there's maybe a two, three minute YouTube video. But just watch it. Even if you don't know the first game, you're going to watch it. You're going to be like, darn, man, like that looks intense. And that's that. Yeah. Yeah, I'm watching a little bit of footage.

It looks amazing. The fire animations. Oh, the graphics and the audio are second to none, man. It's such a well done game, man. It is. It is triple A in everything except for price. Did you play it in VR? Because it says there's a VR edition. Did you play it in VR?

Because it says there's a VR edition. Oh, no. There is a VR edition for Hellblade? Yeah. That sounds like it would lend itself well to VR. Yeah. Hellblade, Senua's Sacrifice, VR edition. I don't know how that would be, man.

That might be too freaky. Might be too scary with the voices. Honestly, because there's parts of that game that'll mess. Number one, there's parts of the game that'll mess with your head. And the settings and some of the stuff. There's a level that game that'll mess. Number one, there's parts of the game that'll mess with your head and the settings and some of the stuff like there's a level again, no spoilers. There's a level she goes through where I was just like, dude,

I, this is nuts, man. Like nuts. Nice. Yeah. It might have to dust off the old Oculus quest headset for that one. Yeah.

I think it's available on like Xbox, PlayStation PC. And I'm pretty sure you can pick that game up for like $10. But I highly recommend it. If anybody's listening and they haven't checked it out, it gets the Josh seal of approval. Nice. Yeah, it looks like it's actually

$30 on Steam, but maybe you can buy it on a third-party site cheaper. Alright, so... How much time we got left in this episode all right i think i got time to bring up both of these games so i'm gonna start off by bringing up dead rising one and two now they have made they have made more but i have only played the first two do you know anything about the series is this the survival game that you tried to get us to play, where it's like a zombie apocalypse, and your guy has to run around and collect stuff?

Is that that game? I mean, that's all true, but I don't think we ever played it together, because it's a single-player game. And I remember thinking, like, I think I got it for free. I played it for like 40 minutes, and then I was just like, yeah. Like, you have to go repair a radio tower or something. That doesn't sound familiar.

I don't think so. I think that might be a different one. It might be. So, Dead Rising kind of plays off of the Dawn of the Dead movies, where you're stuck inside a mall during a zombie apocalypse. And so, Dead Rising has two things that are just absolutely hilarious that blend horror with comedy. I know what game you're talking about now. Do you know what I'm talking about now? I know what you're talking about, yeah.

It really hits that sweet spot with scary and funny because you are running around constantly in danger from all of these zombies. I remember them bragging that you could have like 10,000 zombies on the screen at the same time. They're not quick moving zombies. It's more of the old school, slow ones. Don't get cornered because you won't be able to fight your way out. And the game had two things that made it so much fun. First of all, the weapons. The weapons were sometimes very good. Sometimes they were completely ineffective because everything in this game is a weapon you could pick up traffic cones and you could plop them on zombies heads and so then they would just start like turning around and stumble and fall and they couldn't

see you and so some of them were as silly as that. You could pick up a pile of dish plates from the mall's version of Sears and start chucking them like Frisbees and hitting zombies. And then the second Dead Rising created crafting elements. So you could start combining things together. So guess what you could do? A propane tank plus a hammer and nails. You got yourself an I... Wait. I was going to say an IUD. An IUD, baby.

You chuck that thing out. An IUD. You would not use that as an IUD. Yeah. Cut that from the pod. It's an IED. And so you would throw this giant propane tank and then it would explode and then the shrapnel would kill all these zombies. You could hook up a battery to a wheelchair, and then it was called the electric chair,

and if you ran into a zombie, they would fall in and start getting shocked. But then the other thing that made me laugh some of the hardest I've ever laughed in my life is that the game was full of clothing choices. So you'd run through a mall, and you could just try on outfits. You could see the outfits on the wall or a pile of clothes, and you would change it. And he would just put on Daisy Dukes and a bikini top, but you were a guy. And then you could plop on sunglasses and a tuxedo hat. And in the cutscenes, your guy is just wearing all these clothes in the cutscenes, delivering lines of exp in my heart. They were so funny. And that was really when zombie games,

like every game had zombies in the 2000s. And it was kind of like right in that heyday for zombies. I remember the games now. And that was the one thing that stood out to me on these was the insane weapons that you could make. You could get like electrified pitchforks or, you know, just like, honestly, like the sky was the limit, which was a ton of fun in those games that you could make. You could get electrified pitchforks. Oh, yeah. Honestly, the sky was the limit, which was a ton of fun in those games,

is what could you put together. The developers of that game, man, there was almost nothing that they didn't think of where you could combine multiple things together, and then it would be like you've made a spinning mace of death and fog machine. Or something like that. Dude, you could pick up a container of dog food and swing it at people and just hit them with a bag of dog food. That game was just so funny. Yeah. Oh, man.

I've got way more on my list here. I guess I've got time for one more on this. I mean, I don't want people to think we're leaving out games like Silent Hill. Silent Hill was absolutely incredible. It was one of the best horror games at the time. So I'm not going to get into Silent Hill. You had mentioned Outlast. Those games are disturbing, man. They're scary, but there's a lot of disturbing stuff in the Outlast dude. If you, we did it a whole show on phasmophobia,

so I don't want to go into a lot of depth on that one. So just listen to that show if you want to know our thoughts on that. But that game is terrifyingly scary. It's also terrifyingly slow. Yes, that too. Because your guy moves. It's torture and horror.

Both. It's a psychological horror in real life so i'll bring up now these games are not super scary but they were i do consider them to be kind of horror light and that's the bioshock series okay that's fair yeah and i mean probably bioshock one and two more than like bioshock infinite because then it got real bright and pretty and stuff like that um but more cyberpunkish yeah the the original bioshock man with that game was it had a ton of really good atmosphere you had the crazy people that were all hopped up on what was that stuff that they were injecting and they were trying to get the little sisters the i don't remember what it was called i can't remember what

it was called either now but you know you had people that were all crazy, and so you'd walk into a room, and there'd be those people in there, and they'd all go crazy and attack you. And then you had the Big Daddies. Oh, yeah. Classic. The Big Daddies were terrifying, man. And at the same time, when those games came out, they touted the fact that you could try to fight a big daddy and you might be able to kill one, but it's going to use up like all your ammo and stuff like that. So of course,

like everybody wanted to try to fight them. But hearing a big daddy coming was a pretty terrifying experience. Like more often than not, you would just run it, you know? And I just, the Bioshock, the initial one was so good from both an atmospheric standpoint,

exploring that whole rapture, you know, is what they called that. Coming across, like, the Little Sisters and the Big Daddies, the twist at the end of the game, which I won't spoil, even though it's been out for 20 years now, you know, that kind of thing. It's just it's one of those where it's it felt like a complete game, but there were a lot of very eerie and kind of scary moments to those. And even though they weren't really trying to be a scary game. And so that's what I kind of really respected about that was that they did have those moments where you did get kind of like, oh, crap, like I need to get out of here or I don't like where I'm at and that kind of stuff. So yeah. And it was just innately creepy because you're in this like deserted underwater city and all of that felt claustrophobic and, and deserted, but filled with now all of these monsters. And then also it's kind of easy to just throw in some creepy children and have them talk to you. And that's always going to be creepy in and of itself. So it brings that to the table, too.

All right. The last thing that I wanted to bring up, and this is where I will give a little bit of a disclaimer. I'm not going to get into super details, but maybe if you have five or six-year-olds, maybe it's worth just fast-forwarding a couple minutes here. But I wanted to talk about manhunt which is made by rockstar yes i don't man i don't know that i ever played manhunt manhunt is without a doubt the most disturbing game that i have ever played it came out on ps2

back in 2003 so this is going back pretty, but this was a game that was ultra violent with a lot of different items and weapons. So the premise of this game is that you are a criminal who is on death row and they take you to go execute you by lethal injection, but you wake up and you have an earpiece in your ear and he says that he's the director and that you can win your freedom. All you have to go do is go kill these people in really violent ways because he's producing movies that show that.

And there are CCTVs everywhere. And the more violent they are, the more his audience will love it. And so over the course of the game, you're finding... You start off with plastic bags, and then all of a sudden you start getting more knives and blades, and the game ends with chainsaws and weapons. It's like saw. Yeah, a little bit. And what's funny is, I have a quote here from a Rockstar employee who worked on Manhunt.

And in 2007, former Rockstar employee Jeff Williams revealed that even the game's staff were somewhat uncomfortable about the level of violence. Quote, It just made us all feel icky. It was all about the violence, and it was realistic violence. We all knew there was no way we could explain away that game. There was no way to rationalize it. We were crossing a line. Is this like the game that Congress uses to try to get video games banned? Because they're like, nobody in their right mind ever needs to play this game. Yeah, exactly.

This game made its way where senators and and representatives it hit their radar now what's funny is the game did have some really fun elements so it operated in stealth and i remember this being the first game where it would have dark corners and if you ran to a corner and ducked down your little image would show that you were completely in stealth and no enemies could see you and so in the game you could tap walls you could throw bricks and you would get attention of enemies and then you could sneak up behind and execute them but what was weird is that anytime you would perform an execution the video would cut to like the cctv footage so it would go and then you would get like the vhs yeah artifacts

on the screen you would see the execution and then it would go back to the normal game and so all of those things just added to the ambience of it but what i really remember most is my wife's cousin ryan playing with us and in the end you the final boss, which is a guy wearing a pig mask over his head. He calls himself Pigsy. He talks to himself, and he runs after you with a chainsaw. And every time that Ryan would turn a corner and Pigsy would start sprinting at him, he would just scream like a little girl. And it just grew old the rest of us would just laugh so hard because he is very much like you he would buy 110 in he's gonna scream he's gonna go crazy over every jump scare and that was just so memorable that manhunt really stands out even though i'm

really shocked that i played that game if that game came out now that's one of the few times where i would say you know that's that's a bit beyond even for me i'm gonna shocked that I played that game. If that game came out now, that's one of the few times where I would say, that's a bit beyond even for me. I'm going to let that one go. That just dawned on me when you said the guy with the pig mask, because there was the guy in Dead by Daylight that had the pig mask. And I never knew where that came from, except now I know.

Because I remember we played against a guy that played him and wrecked all of us in no time flat. And I was like, who's this stupid pig guy? Where's he coming from? But I bet you that's what he's from. Yep. So Manhunt was kind of weird because you were a bad guy killing other bad guys. But it didn't feel like you were doing it for anything good.

The game was just very heavy material. It wasn't very fun, per se. So that's kind of why that one stuck out also. Yeah, it's weird. Gore in games, it's a weird line, right? I don't mind Mortal Kombat at all, because it's almost like comical gore. I know it's not.

There's nothing funny about it, but at the same time, it's a fighting game. And Mortal Kombat has always been so over the top. And even with the Mortal Kombat 10, the graphics in that game are phenomenal. So when they get into some of those fatalities, dude, these are like, okay, this is a far cry from the pixelated spine ripping out kind of thing. But I don't know why that doesn't bother me. This is a far cry from the pixelated, like, spine-ripping out, you know, kind of thing. But I don't know why, like, that doesn't bother me. But then, like you mentioned, like, a game like Manhunt where there's no, like, there's nothing but it's just straight-up, like, gratuitous, like, gore and, like, that kind of stuff.

It's like I don't really have much desire to play that, like, in a video game. Even though I know that's really no different than, like, Sub-Zero, like, impaling a guy with a dagger made of his own blood like you know what i mean like i can't explain it away but you know there is a difference and i who i don't know who knows what it is but yeah i'm with you if you watch a movie like the kill bill series it's all over the top because it's just actually yeah it's almost it's almost parody at that point and yeah it's just something a little bit different i think especially when it's you know darker subject matter yeah all right so we're ending the show on a real high note here but uh it's ending like all horror movies end, right? Where at the end you think the guy's dead and then there's the final scene. Let's go hide in the basement, Paul.

Yeah, exactly. All right. Well, hopefully you guys love horror games as much as we do. I know that we had fun remembering and bringing up some of these older games. If there's anything that you would like us to cover on the show, whether it be a bonus round subject or an individual game, please hit us up on social media. You can find us everywhere at MultiplayerPod. You can also find our Patreon page at

MultiplayerSquad.com. If you'd like to come help support the show, you can pledge starting at $5 a month, and then you can have access to our Discord server where you can come chat with us and other squad mates. You can also make suggestions there on Discord as well. And then we will be back on Thursday with an episode of This Week in Gaming. And then next Monday, we will be talking about Cuphead. Ba-bum-ba! That's going to be an interesting episode.

That's all I can say. There's a little bit of a foreshadowing there. That'll be interesting. That, that might be the operative word. All right. See everyone on Thursday. All right.

See everybody.