Dread X Collection 2

На відміну від першої частини тут я однозначно можу сказати, що не раджу цю антологію. Чи то занадто артхаус, чи то занадто лавкрафтіанщіна, котрої я не фанат, чи то просто більшість з представленого уг, але для мене найцікавішим було блукати маєтком та шукати ключі, ніж проходити оте все, що ті ключі відкривали. Можу відмітити хіба що Touched by an Outer God. Такий собі класичний арена-шутер, тільки в боді-горор стилістиці. Зі скрипом на серці ще можу згадати The Diving Bell. Ну і Solipsis, чисто по фану. Все інше – мимо.

I didn't play horror games before this. The collection is pretty good, Squirrel stapler and Sucker for love were my favorites. Markepliers videos on them were why I played at all. The lower price and amount of smaller games makes it easy to not have to invest too much into a new genre. Highly recommend if your trying to get into horror.

Overall, a fun collection of games that I felt strongly enough this time around to leave a positive review for. You need to solve puzzles around the Dread X Hub World to earn keys, which in turn allow you to unlock more games and an interesting side-comic with a genuinely creepy vibe. Since this is a multi-segment game, I'm going to arrange things in order of most favorite to least favorite: Dread X Hub World - Believe it or not, I found the vibe and overall theme of the Dread X hub way cooler this time around. You get to walk around and do puzzles, and while I needed a bit of help with the piano and chemistry ones, everything else I worked through with just a bit of thought and exploration. Definitely a step up from the static mirror menu of the first game. To the End of Days - Major kudos to Scythe on this one, considering Carthanc was among my least favorite games in the first set. This was a fun blend of action, intensity, and dark comedy. Short but sweet, enjoyed the entire ride. Touched by an Outer God - Another really fun game that's more about action than horror, I liked the different ways you could customize your character in such a short amount of time. Also, I enjoyed some hidden aspects of the game, including reading documents or deciding to go on a diet instead of binging. There's a way to get through each stage door after the first without a fight, if you think carefully on it. Charlotte's Exile - One of the better blends of horror and puzzle in this iteration. I found the atmosphere, the literature, and the presentation a cut above in several respects. I did find it a little silly you can kind of just finish the game if you want by looking up the final solutions, but I can understand it would be hard to randomize in a seven-day project. Squirrel Stapler - This one genuinely creeped me out for most of the 2-3 hours I played, despite the bright and cheery atmosphere. It made me nervous about moving around a lot, and I was looking for bad things at every step. Very repetitive, especially when you're unlucky and you get killed just before bagging the last squirrel or getting back safely. But it takes it easy on you if you die three times, and I didn't and was able to rationalize pretty well how to avoid most bad situations. Try working the perimeter of the level, if you're nervous about going straight into the middle of the map. The Toy Shop - This one gets a lot of hate, and I found it better than most of that. Sure, it was odd, and sure the story didn't make much sense. But I liked the different ways the developer tried to shake up the gameplay, and I heard it had a lot of very welcome fixes to make the game go down smoother. Oddly, I got the achievement for this game before I even played it, when I quit another of the games. The Diving Bell - Not great, but not bad either. Puzzles were a little odd, so was getting around the ship. I liked the sanity mechanic, but I never really felt like I was challenged or in danger. Sucker for Love - This one was... funny and creepy. I'll definitely give it credit for that. I liked the concept more than playing the game, because while I found the story interesting and some of the jumpscares made me jolt, I absolutely hated the chanting system in this game. I don't get why some chants are fine at around 4 seconds, and others you need to go closer to 60 seconds. And the fact the entire game encourages you to chant slowly, then throws in a "Quick, hurry and do these three rituals quickly" segment that is frankly way too unforgiving because I need to chant slowly but not TOO slowly just baffles me. Arcadletra - Eh, nothing strong on this one, just a walking simulator with some graphical oddities and creepy sounds. I liked that it sort of had multiple choices at the end, but I was pretty bored all the same. Another Late Night - The "scary computer/phone screen" genre is pretty interesting, but this one really could have used more work. I clicked around a bit, found cute pictures of rats, and was kind of led around by the nose by the narrative. Speaking of, the story didn't really seem to have much cohesion, and didn't answer any questions. At least it was short and simple, which still puts it above the next few. Undiscovered - A neat concept, but awkward controls and a painfully slow walk/light torches/pickaxe walls mechanic. There were enemies, but I only ever died to one when I tried to see if the pickaxe would work on one. It didn't. Solipsis - I enjoyed some of the art, but holy crap this game was tedious. I actually had to quit to the main menu and start the game over because I wandered aimlessly for about 15 minutes and couldn't find anything around me. Then when I went straight north instead, I found the next part of the game, circled some steps for five more minutes, walked north another minute, and it was over. This game was far and away the most boring, but still not the lowest on the totem pole. The Thing in the Lake - I feel sad giving panstasz the bottom rung of the game ladder on this one. I absolutely love World of Horror, and I enjoy when he decides to update it every few years with a couple of things. But this was the one game I actually just went far enough in to grab the achievement and quit. Neat WoH style graphics, gameplay more awkward than an actual Gameboy game, and a stupid unfair gorilla that can telekinetically lock doors and run up to you in seconds to kill you while showing its stupid ugly face. Personally, I think the Dread X team should have realized from word go that it was a huge mistake giving panstasz only seven days to make something. Try seven years and maybe you can expect something reasonably good from him.

Dread X Collection 2 is a horror anthology of games made by a bunch of indie developers. It's a mixed bag, but that's part of the joy. It's kind of like reaching into a bag of halloween candy without knowing what's in it. Sometimes you'll get a Snickers bar and other times the gaming equivalent of candy corn. The wraparound game and concept might be the best of this series. You wake up locked in a room and have to solve Resident Evil style puzzles in a mansion to find keys to unlock VHS tapes that represent games. You also get a comic book page, but the comic has nothing to do with the rest of the game. The overworld game is pretty easy, but also gross, involving a lot of blood and body parts, and is probably my favorite part of the whole thing. The actual games can be great or awful. The FPS ones like Squirrel Stapler and Touched by an Outer God are my favorites, but there are other FPS games on here like To the End of Days and Toy Shop that just feel amateurish. I'll describe all the games so you can get an idea if you want to know... (!SPOILERS!) [spoiler]Squirrel Stapler: a really fun and ridiculous hunting sim that involves 5 days of hunting squirrels and then stapling them to a corpse. I wish the ending was a little more intense, but this is still really fun to play. Touched by an Outer God: has roguelike elements, as you are killing enemies to collect body parts to attach upgrades to your body (including an arm that previously got blown off). It's a lot of fun and I like that there's a permadeath difficulty and a twist ending. Toy Shop: A really bad amateurish FPS that has terrible combat but kind of an interesting, weird premise. I can't fault it too much since it's a game made by one guy but it feels more like a Unity Asset Flip with a pointless story than a game. To the End of Days: This is a little better than Toy Shop, but still a very generic FPS with mediocre combat. I also don't think this one has enough horror elements to really belong on this collection. Sucker for Love: Surprisingly one of the better games on here, it's actually a C'thulu dating sim. I don't play dating sim games but the presentation, voicework and overall design are hilarious and also kind of creepy. These collections are best because they create "why does this exist?" games like this one. Charlotte Exile: This one surprised me and I actually loved it. It's a tiny microscopic puzzle game in one room that involves basically solving a box. I love cipher puzzles and this one is really cool because it's buried in a book describing cthulu lore. There's also a box, a button device and a clock. I won't spoil it but it was really fun to figure out, albeit brief. Undiscovered: A game by TorpleDook, who also made games on Dread X Collection 3. I really like the presentation and it definitely evokes a sense of dread. I've never seen a game use kind of a bobbing steadicam in this manner. It's deliberately janky and it's fun for that, but also super linear and kind of pointless. Arcadeltra: This one is pretty bleh. It's a walking sim that's not very scary and I'm not sure what the point is. You're kind of in an arcade putting electrical wires in a hole, I'm not clear what the story is but since it's not very interactive or scary I didn't care for it at all. The Diving Bell: Yet another Lovecraftian C'thulu game... the concept is really spooky and I love "deep sea horror" games like this one, but it's also really kinda not a game since you just go wherever the game tells you to go, interact with a terminal and go back. There is a "sanity" mechanic where you can take pills but it doesn't seem like anything happens if you lose all your sanity. The game ends right at the part where it could have gotten truly creepy and weird, which annoyed me. Another Late Night: By far the worst game on here. It's trying to be like an alternate reality game although there's no puzzle element and you just click windows. There's basically no story, it's not scary, not funny, not challenging and seems to serve no purpose at all. This really should have been left off of this collection. The Thing in the Lake: This one sure was strange. I hated playing it but thinking back it was actually kind of weirdly wonderful. It's more like a Gameboy game where you are trying to avoid walking through grass because you will detect a serial killer and/or an ape that will rip your limbs off. The reason I hated playing it was that it was deliberately bad in a lot of ways, occasionally the ape will pop out for no reason and end your game, and it's hard to tell where you can walk and what you're supposed to do. In retrospect, that kind of made it memorable, and there are even achievements. The music really sticks with me. It evokes a bizarre sense of foreboding horror and really puts the "Dread" in "Dread X." There are even achievements that exist outside of the core game. It's not my favorite game on here, but it probably has my favorite vibe. Solipsis: Another walking sim, but this one has a truly creepy vibe. You're basically an astronaut stranded on the moon, but it's a weirdly metal moon that clanks when you walk, and then a staircase emerges and... I won't spoil it, but it works on themes and mood even though there's no real game play except walking and clicking.[/spoiler]

probably the best of the 5 collections.

The best in the series imo

A lot better than the first collection but some games are piss poor

cosmic horror makes for the best henti