Carnival Massacre

A beautifully made fixed multicam retro survival horror with a few flaws but at a great price...! Your sister is missing in a weird carnival! Find your sister! ...And that's basically the plot, though there are some sinister elements that perhaps indicate further depths, but these are never elaborated upon. The environments and enemies are memorable and well made - some very attractive locations! The game makes great use of third party assets and really makes them play well in this context. The fixed multicam elements are very well handled - lots of static angles, occasional but very well-implemented panning camera and some interesting, appropriate trucking camera. Some great shot composition - but it's a shame you can skip right past the establishing shot for the carnival! There's some occasional blindspots, but nothing egregious. Environmental effects are also strong - great mist / smoke effects, alongside some effective falling water and ripples. Love the falling confetti - really keeps the environment feeling dynamic. The player character is dynamic and charismatic - and it's lovely to see the inventory displayed on the body (eg. unequipped shotgun is slung against your back). Enemies aren't spectacular, but are very servicable in the most part. The Iron Maiden has a tendancy to move through the world collision, sometimes phasing through walls and making unexpected appearances at boss fights. The bosses themselves are inventive but quickly forgotten. There's a good, exciting stalker enemy, but it's comically easy to shrug off their threat by dipping into another area and then returning to the original area - to find the Stalker has despawned. The controls are mostly solid, though the camera-relative input is badly implemented (with no angle threshold on camera transition). There's no option to return to the main menu from gameplay, nor is there the ability to load a savegame while in-game, which is very aggravating - sometimes the fastest way to reload is to get an enemy to kill you. However, there's a nicely implemented map / checklist, so... swings and roundabouts? Finally - special mention for the grungy nineties-style rock music that supports your boss battles: LOTS of character there! Sound effects are well designed in general and keep you fairly well informed of enemies just out of shot. Small wobbles aside, this is an excellent fixed multicam survival horror adventure, and at €5, a very solid investment. Will keep you highly entertained for two to three hours! If you enjoy these kinds of games or are looking for more like Carnival Massacre, be sure and check out the [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/fixedcamera]Fixed Camera Appreciation Society[/url] group and Discord server!