Alone in the Dark 1 (PC) Review

This has been yet another franchise I have been waiting way too long to get into it, if not without good reason. To be honest, I am known for hating tank controls. Seriously, if a game uses fixed cameras and pushing up on the controls made your character go in the direction they are facing rather then up or away from the camera, I bowed out. But I always had an interest in this franchise despite that. It's direct connection to the works of H.P. Lovecraft always made it stand out to me, so when a remake of the original was announced, I decided that was the sign to start moving through the franchise. So I took the time to start my adventures with Edward Carnby.

Now before we begin, this entry surprised me by the fact that it did not ship alone. When I fist loaded it up, I was offered a menu with two games: Alone in the Dark and Jack in the Dark, requiring me to split this review between them. To this end, the links below will let you jump directly to the one you want ot read, but the bugs and final score will before the whole package, not just one game.  

• Alone in the Dark
• Jack in the Dark

8-Bit Adventures Anthology: Volume 1 (PC) Review

This has been a set of games I have been looking forward to playing for a good long while. After all, the collection includes both the first game I ever completed (and my first taste for horror gaming ever) and a second horror title I would have been all over had I known it even existed in my younger years. Add to this nostalgia blast that the OG development team finally got to make a direct sequel to their most famous game in the collections and there no way I couldn't play this set... so was it worth a visit down memory land and what might have been? OH.... oh yes it was....

Now please note that since this is a game collection, each game will get it's own review with a shared overall and bugs section. If you want to zero in on just one, please select the game from the list below.

• Shadowgate
• DejaVu
• Uninvited

We Went Back (PC) Review

With the Extra Life marathon come and gone (and incidentally, they are still taking donations till the end of the year so if you want to help us heal sick kids, there is still time... and thank you VERY much), it was time to fill in the space a completed game during the marathon would open and the dice offered something fairly interesting this time: a free title offered on Steam featuring a time-loop of horror in space. How could I say no to that?

Layers of Fear (PC) Review

UPDATE: Since finishing this game I have also finished it’s DLC “Inheritance.” Since it is so brief, I have decided to include it as a BONUS section at the bottom of this review rather then write up a whole new one.

This is a game that had my curiosity from the moment I heard about it. Discovery mixed with creepy as hell horror is always a great combination for me, and in fact back in the day is why I had to have the 7th Guest for my 486. But this game had the unfortunate fate of coming out, while cheap for most games, still expensive enough that someone with a developing backlog might think twice… and so I did. Instead, I wound up with this game as part of a monthly humble-bundle package where it would join those other games just like I feared and saved my money because of.

However, this was not a game the dice selected for me. Rather, while talking to Spam of the Spam & Tex youtube channel I mentioned recently, he convinced me to pick this one up in the immediate future, so as soon as I was done with the disappointment that was Saints Row 2, I installed this game. And while I was very underwhelmed in what it asked me to do, it blew me away in ways I never saw coming. Step inside….