sucker for love: ★★★
to the end of days: ★
the toy shop: DNF
charlotte's exile: ★★★★
diving bell: ★★★★
squirrel stapler: ★★★
touched by an outer god: ★★★★★
solipsis: ★★★★★
arcadletra: ★
another late night: ★★
undiscovered: ★★★
the thing in the lake: DNF

definitely stronger contenders this time around, and what i did enjoy i absolutely loved. the "launcher" has received a massive facelift and was a large part of my enjoyment, being less of a menu and more of a 3d playground of puzzles to progress through more of the entries. there's some regular suspects regarding the work of returning developers though i feel a bit less jaded about these experiences enough to talk about a few of them.

sucker for love - surprisingly enjoyed for someone adverse to parody visual novels as the vehicle remains an ironic whipping boy. the interactivity really carries the experience and the scares are pretty effective. i loved the artwork and ending cgs as well, i wouldn't be opposed to trying to full launch titles of this one.

to the end of days - it's weird, because i know scythe dev team are capable of some interesting and decent work seen in the northbury grove arc particularly, but their entries for this anthology series thus far have been the most gruelling and unsatisfying gaming experiences i've had in a long while. imagine my reaction when giving this team another chance and after fumbling through a level using the slowest shotgun with hitscan opponents, i'm faced with the return of carthanc's screeching enemies which made me hate it so much. it felt like a bad joke.

charlotte's exile - this created quite the vibe! the static position of the player and the limited perspectives afforded to them makes the approaching entity really terrifying. you can't get too engrossed in your work though it's satisfying to complete.

diving bell - ohhh i love cabin fever/isolation horror, especially when it derives from a place of sanity-consuming guilt. the repetition to the tasks tanked this a little but the writing of the dialogue and atmosphere were awesome genuinely.

squirrel stapler - david did it again here but the quality of presentation and horror factor are overshadowed by the length. a really disquieting experience that unfortunately drags its feet, loved the ending sequence and a minor scare which can occur on one of the last days.

touched by an outer god - i wanted a full length game out of this more than any previous title. absolutely adore the transformation themes and the way they alter how you play, i ran through this one a few times just because it was so fun.

solipsis - simple but effective, it felt a little like i was playing darkwood. not at all surprised to find this was the pony island and inscryption dev (which i do want to replay/give another chance). the FMV elements were awesome.

this second entry has definitely invigorated interest in the series, hope i can afford to play the others soon.

The second Dread X Collection, released a little under three months after the first, brought a couple of iterations to the table. In addition to possessing twelve games instead of ten, Dread X II starts the theme of each anthology following a central theme: in this case, ‘LOVECRAFTING.’ It seems, too, that rather than each game being a playable teaser for a theoretical something more, each game was made to be a standalone experience. That’s not to say that some of the games here could become ‘full games’ — as of writing this, two of them already have — but I do believe that this approach was for the best, and might speak a little as to how this collection, as a whole, feels stronger than its predecessor. Perhaps it’s because the Dread X Collection has found its stride (though I will note that the devs coming back from the first collection, save one, seemed to… maybe put in weaker efforts here), perhaps the move to more complete experiences left the collection to feel more standalone than the first, or perhaps most people involved brought their A-game, but either way, this anthology is a step up from the first, and I easily enjoyed playing two-thirds of the games here.

Of course, another major iteration was the launcher for the individual games in the pack. While the first Dread X was simple enough — click on one of the dev logos, launch their game — Dread X II instead has a whole hub world, where you explore a house, solve puzzles, and obtain keys that then unlock each of the individual games in the pack. It’s made by Lovely Hellplace (who made Shatter one of my favourites from the first collection), and it’s generally pretty neat. I loved going through the house, from the colour palette using hues not generally used in PSX aesthetic throwbacks, to the little details: like the red eyes hidden on the statue, or how you can see rooms from outside that you can’t otherwise access. The puzzles feel fun and varied, with some being solvable from the room you find them in and others requiring you to scour the entire house. The story itself wasn’t something I particularly cared for, and there are maybe a couple stinker puzzles in there, but as a whole exploring the overworld was fun, and it’s really neat that they managed to add a wraparound, and that it doesn’t take away from the main exhibits of the anthology.

Which, speaking of:

SOLIPSIS:
A walking simulator where the value is more in the style than the substance. Gameplay-wise, while it tries to be more than ‘walk from objective to objective’ by adding little puzzles to solve along the way, they’re never more than a quick pitstop before you’re walking to the next point. The story’s… acceptable, but it’s mostly just a vehicle for the incredible vibes the game puts on offer. For something primarily painted with pixels, it’s surprising what’s been achieved here: from the way objects spin as they’re propelled in low gravity, the way blood splatters outward, and how the lighting reveals very little other than the immediate area around you, there’s a lot done here to emulate what it’d be like on the dark side of the moon, and it provides a rather desolate, kind of lonely atmosphere as you trudge across the landscape. I especially like how it transitions from pixel art to FMV as you enter a puzzle section — it does well to illustrate the steady decline of the protagonist’s mental state, and I love the use of the visual filter to make the change between artstyles feel seamless. I… probably wouldn’t rank this above, say, my favourites from the first Dread X Collection — because this game mostly is just about its vibes — but as a quick, memorable ten-minute trip into the moon, I’d definitely recommend this.

THE TOY SHOP:
Nooooooooot impressed. I’ll admit I was a little interested in the beginning, where the constant changing of visual filters (and the dissonance between the rotted, industrial interior to the brightly coloured exterior) implied that something was interfering with the main character’s perception — and through that, the reality around them. Once you're done with the tutorial, though all that gets jettisoned in favour of really drab, low saturation environments, with “puzzles” that consist of figuring out what you’re even meant to interact with and enemies that will hunt you down and kill you unless you sneak past them. 'Sneaking,' in this case, meaning the exact same walk animation, just a bit slower. I’ll admit I was entertained when the game very suddenly became a platformer… but then it becomes a shitty Unity shooter where enemies don’t make any noise until they’re right next to you and attacking (which, like, those particular enemy models come pre-built with footstep noises, why did you take them out?) and it’s even harder to see what’s even happening. It doesn’t even do the service of ending after the (very easily cheesed) boss fight — you go through another section where the game spams enemies at you and then somebody just dumps an entire fucking novel of lore telling you about the themes the game had tried to show during the first segment and also try to tie it into the theme of the anthology. Nooooooot good. It’s kinda funny to see the poor animation and the random, whiplashy directions it goes, but actually playing it? I maybe wouldn’t recommend that.

ANOTHER LATE NIGHT:
This, uh, wasn’t much of anything. It’s like a game that… pretends to be an entirely diegetic experience before slamming you full-on with meta elements, but it forgets that it needs to have something else of actual substance for the meta elements to actually effective. It also forgets that the meta elements also have to be good. And also that the story needs to be in any way coherent. I have no clue what even happened in this game. It’s meant to simulate you doing nothing on your computer at 3 AM, then you read a news article about how the game you’re playing [i]right now[/i] is making people randomly disappear, and then this red voice asks you how you feel about climate change? And then it kind of loops and does the same thing over and over until suddenly it ends? I get what it’s trying to do. I don’t think it does it well at all. Perhaps if there was an actual game the meta stuff was layered over then it…’s maybe on the right track to being effective, but as is… honestly if I’d written up this review any later than I did I’d have worried I’d forget about the entire experience. Maybe that’s the effect. Maybe the game’s reprogramming me to forget it ever existed before it comes time for the sleeper agent in me to wake up. Who knowsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss?

TO THE END OF DAYS:
From the premise I was expecting this to be, like, a pre-apocalypse walking sim where you watch society fall apart in the wake of impending doom, and then when I started playing the game it told me to “press TAB to collect your thoughts” and I did it and I pulled a shotgun out. What followed was… a fairly fun shooter! It follows the sensibilities of something like Doom (or the many modern ‘boomer shooter’ throwbacks coming out today): there’s a certain arcadey feel as you travel down… what’s mostly a straight line and explode everything you come across with your gun. I especially like how even with only two enemy types you never quite get bored or overly used to combat, with encounters remaining fun and frenetic through the whole playthrough. I… felt like the melee was a bit useless? Other than the one part of the game where you need to break down a door to progress I always just used the gun instead, mostly because you’re encouraged to end fights as fast as possible and most enemies benefit from being fought at range. Other than that… this was a pretty fun 30-40 minute romp with some pretty fun plot beats. A pretty big improvement on the game this developer put into the last Dread X Collection.

ARCADELECTRA:
what if… we went on a date… inside the pt hallway…

SUCKER FOR LOVE:
I’m not particularly a fan of ‘ironic’ visual novels — as their attempts at ‘parody’ are almost exclusively surface level and help contribute to the mainstream Western misconception of what visual novels are actually like — but I think this one sticks the landing. If, mainly, because it actually goes beyond the premise of ‘haha, this is a dating sim where you date [x]!’ and feels that it was baked with something besides detached cynicism. While it does feel a bit too anime-inspired, and while it starts off trying to evoke the worst elements of its parody VN brethren, what follows is a fairly solid puzzle game that seems… more evocative of an Adobe Flash adventure game than anything, in terms of how you interact with the things around you. There are some sequences that are honestly effective, horror-wise, and I like how the game does discuss certain aspects of the Cthulhu Mythos and doesn’t undercut what’s happening despite the dating sim veneer. There are some issues with UI — anything that involved me dragging my mouse felt far more fiddly than intended — but aside from that I felt this was pretty decent, if not as strong as some of the others in this pack. Curious to see how the since-released full game expands on this.

SQUIRREL STAPLER:
Too long for what’s there, which is a shame, because I love this game’s general vibes. From the way things build up over the five in-game days, the charmingly scuffed pngs and models, and the random squirrel “facts” scattered across the wilderness, the game does a good job of emulating the feel of a hunting simulator while also greatly simplifying the mechanics, while also (like other games) made by this developer) possessing an immaculate ability to build this bizarre premise around the player and make it feel like the most normal thing in the world. Unfortunately, as is… I do think this should’ve been three or four days/levels, rather than five? Each day is a considerable time sink, as you scour the huge map for hints of a squirrel, then slllllllowly sneak up on them enough that you can get a clear shot, before you then through the process 4-5 more times until you’re done for that given day. Each of these days feels like it could take 20-30 minutes to complete — more, if you die and have to restart from the beginning — and while the story feels like it takes full advantage of each day to build up a climax, gameplay-wise it doesn’t feel like enough is iterated on for the length to feel justified, with days 3-5 in particular feeling like the same gameplay loop repeated three times in a row — the only difference being the number of dudes that try and chase you down. I still think this game’s fairly solid, just maybe one that wore me down a little bit, and I’m happy that the since-created full release seems to potentially address this, a glance of the steam store page indicating that the new content seems focused on deepening the existing game, rather than making it even longer. Hopefully when I play that I might actually see God.

UNDISCOVERED:
I like the way this game uses its ‘found footage’ angle in a way I haven’t seen before — how there’s both a cameraman and a reporter, and how you effectively play as both at the same time: the reporter in third person, and the cameraman in first person. It’s… done in a way that’s rather motion-sickness-inducing, admittedly, but it’s a fascinating way of controlling the game, and I like how the puzzles and the layout of the temple take advantage of it. Aside from that, I like the dynamic between the two characters, I like… the rather unexpected direction it goes, and I really love how you’re constantly moving forward as you move through the temple: both in terms of how that plays with the control scheme and how it shows you going deeper and deeper in. I really wanna play more of Torple Dook’s games. Hand of Doom was one of my unexpected favourites from the first collection, and while this pack is strong enough that Undiscovered isn’t that high, comparatively, that’s two for two. And a better record than… I think any of the other repeat devs so far.

CHARLOTTE’S EXILE:
I think the effect is a bit lost if you’re not the one playing it — I was streaming this with friends and one of these friends got bored and dropped out almost immediately — but man, if you’re the one in the driver’s seat, this is tense. The short of this is that you have to decode a cypher, and find out which symbols correspond to which letters. You have a book that’ll help you decipher each letter (and you can also use Wordle strats on unfinished words to process-of-elimination what certain letters can be), but there’s something actively converging in on you as you work on your desk, and the only way to get it to back off is take your attention off your objective and stare it down until it decides to leave, like red light green light. It’s genuinely tense: you have to be constantly on guard and can’t be distracted for too long, and it becomes a matter where you know what letter corresponds to a certain sigil, but you can’t see where that symbol even is on the list and you have to look up every couple seconds because you’re genuinely kinda scared about the thing coming in on you. It… loses quite a bit of impact when you find out that it doesn’t kill you if it reaches you, but even then that’s not the main draw: figuring out the code and solving the puzzle at the end still singlehandedly sells the game on its own. Overall really liked this. One of my favourites from the pack.

THE DIVING BELL:
At first I thought this was going to be, like, an Emily is Away-style horror game where you have to manually enter stuff into the keyboard while hiding from anything that comes into the room (almost like another Charlotte’s Exile), but then the game let me walk around the marine base and I realized it was a different — and, admittedly, less unique — beast indeed. I still liked it a good bit, though! This is mostly a mood piece: less about what’s in the base with you, more about how it feels to be all alone inside it. Sound design, the way most of the game is you figuring out how to navigate from one room to another, the short bursts of story that come through the typing segments, how you have to look at the walls to try and avoid whatever thing is looking through the windows... it really nails all the little things it wants to do, and at points genuinely manifests a little bit of fear about what you're going to find in the next room. Maybe not as ambitious in concept as some of the other games here, but it does itself with enough flair and execution that it stands out for the better, regardless.

TOUCHED BY AN OUTER GOD:
My favourite of the pack. So much here for what’s ostensibly only a twenty-minute game. It hits the old-school first-person shooter vibes perfectly: it feels arcadey in the way you chew through the waves of enemies, a bit of a power fantasy in how you can stand out, in the open, against the horde, and be able to go toe to toe against them, and yet still deliver frenetic moments where you’re being overwhelmed and have nowhere to hide. I love the EXP and upgrades system, here: the way the randomization means you’ll never have the same skillset twice — I should know, I managed to die, got sent back to the beginning, and came back with a way different build than I had initially — and how in that lens it almost seems roguelite inspired, with its focus on getting stronger along the way against increasingly more oppressive foes. Also it’s just frankly a little insane that you can just not take any upgrades and completely flip the way you play the game on its head. Also also I like how the game takes into account how many upgrades you’ve taken along the way. There’s just so much here. And even if it were just the base gameplay it’d still be super fun. Says a lot that even with a stronger cohort this is easily the highlight of the pack. Definitely wanna check out what else this dev has done.

THE THING IN THE LAKE:
…Sadly, despite four of the last five games in the pack being four of the top five games in the pack, I did not manage to end the second Dread X Collection strong. This game mostly just seems to be a victim of the short development turnaround. Which is a shame, because I like a lot of what this game’s doing. I enjoy the graphical style: even beyond how this is the same dev as World of Horror, I enjoy the way the top-down, grid exploration game looks, and how it visually harkens back to the Apple II era. I also really like how the same areas you go through as one character get repurposed when you go through them as another character, and the way it all kind of interconnects and comes together in the final chapter. Unfortunately… this is just super broken and unpolished, and not in a particularly funny way. Getting sent back to the beginning of the chapter/having to go through all the cutscenes again is way too brutal a punishment for death, especially given how cheap death generally is, with the hidden traps and unclear objectives in a game where one hit or mistake kills you. It’s glitchy, as well: there’s a point where you have to die to continue the game and I managed to softlock myself because the game told me “mash the keys” and the little movements I did while doing that were enough to move me… out of the way of the guy who was meant to come in and kill me. The monkey that provides the main threat is way too centralising: hearing his roar initially makes the process of getting out alive a total crapshoot, but once you start to get familiar with the game (or turn on easy mode) hearing his roar literally just means you have to stop what you’re doing, wait for ten seconds for him to actually appear, then leave and re-enter when he appears. It got tiring, even beyond how quickly this game kind of tested my patience. Would love to see a fixed and maybe expanded version of this game but as of now… it avoided the bottom three mostly for having promise but man, what a limp way to end off the pack.

FINAL RANKING
Touched By An Outer God > Charlotte's Exile > To The End of Days > The Diving Bell > Undiscovered > Solipsis > Sucker For Love > Squirrel Stapler > The Thing In The Lake > Another Late Night > Arcadelectra > The Toy Shop

I really enjoyed The Thing in the Lake, Touched by an Outer God, Solipsis, Sucker For Love and The Diving Bell.

Everything else was somewhere between mediocre and just about bearable.

I think it would have been better overall to have only six to eight games in this collection instead of twelve.
Additionally I wish the hub world was a bigger game on its own. I mean give me a first person puzzle game where I am in a house like this including a bunch of puzzles to solve and a little mystery to solve with a playtime round about two hours for a few Euro and I am happy.

Better than the first set but still has its ups and downs

+Charlotte's Exile
+Squirrel Stapler
+Sucker for Love
+The Thing in the Lake
+Touched by an Outer God
~Another Late Night
~Solipsis
~Undiscovered
-Arcadletra
-Toy Shop
-To the End of Days
-Diving Bell

over all, I can confidently say that this collection is certainly better than the last one, and i enjoyed almost every single playable teaser in this! this is just a fun little, spooky project and i enjoyed the time i spent here so much i absolutely adored it. the overworld is such a good addition and i'm glad future dread x games keep this idea going. can only say so much about the collection as a whole without reviewing each game. here we go! best to 'worst'

1: to the end of days. easily my favorite of the bunch and it isn't even close. the closest i've ever seen to a video game version of escape from new york, a movie i enjoyed very much. i hated carthnac, so i didn't expect anything from this studio, but i would absolutely buy this!

2: squirrel stapler. probably the most famous dread x demo, and deservedly so. perfect blend of absurdity and genuine terror. says very little but what it does say is beautifully done. Szymanski never misses!

3: sucker for love. the first dread x demo to release as a full game. incredibly cute and intuitive, while also holding onto the horror genre just enough to belong in this collection. gonna have to buy the full game one day!

4: the diving bell. average day in subnautica. just kidding, but for real, this one has a really amazing atmosphere (all of these games do but this one in particular is crazy good). my only complaint is the typing mechanic is a bit cumbersome after long enough.

5: charlette's exile. a cute puzzle-ish game that's charming but not really for me. i think a full game like this would do well with others. very well made but not my style.

6: solopsis. unbelievably unique and beautiful artstyle, genuinely enjoyed looking at different things in this game so fucking much.

7: arcadletra. the monster in this game's design is wicked as fuck, i dig it. i hate to say it, but this one couldn't keep the tension up. you're just standing around, it's barely a game. it's still pretty good for what it is.

8: undiscovered. this one would be a lot higher if it didn't have such awful visual effects like camera bob and aggressive film grain. a really interesting concept, but this'd probably give me a headache if I went in again. unfun to look at

9: toy god. this one has a really awesome premise and it's fun to see how they use it for different aspects of this world. this one is confirmed to be made into a full game some day, and if that gets released, my two major complaints are that the combat isn't very fun and the enemies feel like they spawn behind you. you lose health quick in this, so it just feels cheap. maybe I'm just bad, idk

10: touched by an outer god. amazing potential for a game, but it feels so clunky i can't enjoy it. hitting enemies feels like pure luck. this game gave me such a hard time i died on easy! had to play it twice, which def soured my perspective further. don't wanna go back to this one

11: another late night. the most "um, ok?" game of the first two collections. lasted 10 minutes and did not land whatever it wanted to.

12: the thing in the lake. this one isn't bad but it overloaded me so bad i gave up. i got mauled by an ape and thank god that was enough for the trophy. not bad, just too much for my lobotomite brain.

can't wait to get into the third collection!

its been a hot minute since i played these but i made a ranking when i originally played them so (if i remember anything specific about them i will add it in parenthesis) here they are best to worse:

- Charlotte's Exile (puzzle room. iykyk)
- Arcadletra (sorta rudimentary, but i very much enjoyed the looping)
- Sucker for Love
- Another Late Night (would probably bump this down a couple retrospectively, its just digging around a desktop LOL)
- To the End of Days
- Solipsis (unique horror and mechanics)
- Squirrel Stapler (GOD IS HERE)
- Undiscovered (sorta jank but i thought it was good fun)
- The Diving Bell
- Touched by an Outer God
-The Toy Keeper (honestly not sure if i even finished this one lel)
- The Thing at the Lake (screams in annoyance)

This collection is overall better than the first one — there is a hub world to provide context and insert some unique artistry into the otherwise completely disconnected experience. Charotte's Exile has some interesting gameplay, and as a chathypnosis hobbyist, I can't help but appreciate Another Late Night and its fairly realistic depiction of hypnosis and its effects.
To the End of Days was really cool with its presentation, and managed to provide a climactic ending after less than half an hour of playtime, so I kind of wish that it was full game. Touched by an Outer God was pretty neat, too.

my ranking
1. squirrel stapler (peak)
2. charlottes exile (pretty perfect)
3. touched by an outer god (fun, not scary tho)
4. the diving bell (good)
5. sucker for love (funny)
6. solipsis (cool but like 5 minutes long)
7. the thing in the lake (cool but actually fuck whoever made this)
8. arcadletra (bland)
9. undiscovered (goofy as shit)
10. another late night (literally nothing)
11. to the end of days (not scary at all, the guy you play as makes one liners after every fucking kill)
12. toy shop (goyslop)

Liked more games than the first one, mainly charlotte's exile, touched by an outer god and squirrel stapler






Toy Shop on the other hand was misery

Played the entire franchise for a video on my channel (End Credits),

It's a way more interesting hub than the first one, but I actually liked fewer games. The puzzles in the hub are interesting enough to make you keep going, but the games are not as good as the first one. The only ones I’d point out are: “Charlotte’s Exile” and “Touched by an Outer God”, which are great. The rest range from “meh” to “oh god why…”.

Still worth if you catch it on a promo.

So the theme here is "lovecraftian". I was expecting a lot of these to focus on the actual mythos, but they ended up going through more interesting paths, and even the ones that sticked to Lovecraft's stuff managed to be really interesting. This one also starts the tradition of the launcher itself being a game, and I personally loved it.

This was made by Shatter's devs from the previous collection and you can tell because the visuals are top notch. I really liked it, puzzles are fun but not particularly tedious so you never get stuck, the house is fun to explore and the story is a good companion to it all, I didn't particularly care about it in the previous collection but the way it's framed here really gives it some weight.

12. Another Late Night

Yeaaah I don't get where this one is going, not interesting at all and the mystery doesn't even get any cool closure or something, it just sort of happens. Could've done more with that interface.

11. The Toy Shop

This one's sort of all over the place, it never gets particularly boring and the shooting part is actually nice, but only Cosmo-D can pull off that particular asset flip aesthetic in a cool way in my book. The story just sort of happens, idk, nothing memorable about it.

10. Arcadletra

This one's like, really weird (why does it happen in an arcade???), the girl's whimpering made me uncomfortable and I got jumpscared a couple of times but that's about it, not particularly cool or anything. I feel like it takes itself a bit too seriously despite how goofy it ends up being.

9. The Thing in the Lake

I respect this one but I just didn't enjoy it, the format and the progression felt more frustrating than anything and the payoff wasn't worth it. Visuals are cool tho. I probably won't enjoy World of Horror that much I see lol

8. To the End of Days

This one is just badass and has cool gunplay, I also like how they tied it to Carthanc. Nothing special but it's just really enjoyable. It notably has the same ending as Halo Reach.

7. Touched by an Outer God

Same as the previous one, just a really enjoyable shooter, but I like how the upgrade system and mechanics tie-in with the narrative. My jaw dropped a couple of times, I wasn't expecting it to develop like this.

6. The Diving Bell

This one's just nice, everything that happens in the ocean is more or less appealing to me and I like how the story plays out. Didn't scare me or make me uncomfortable, but I really like how it progressed.

5. Undiscovered

The concept is crazy cool, a found footage but it's a film from the 40s and you play it in 2nd person. The visuals are cool, Torple Dook just knows how to do it. It does look sort of silly however, and the skeletons talking in RE4 voice lines surely doesn't help, but it's enjoyable till the end.

4. Sucker for Love

Not really my kind of stuff but it's just so well made, the art is stunning, not only talking about the designs but also the interface, and the mechanics for you to make the rituals are pretty engaging. Didn't make me go crazy (heh) but it's p cool

3. Squirrel Stapler

It's just cozy, gameplay loop is a little addicting even if it gets hard in later days and it's silly fun. Not my favorite Szymanski game by any means and I would've preferred Pony Factory as a full release, but it's concept of "lovecraftian" is a nice break from everything you see up till then.

2. Solipsis

I've hated on Daniel Mullins before, I thought he was a hack that could only make the same game over and over again, tired creepypasta ARG bullshit. Even Inscryption, which I enjoyed quite a bunch, falls victim to this after the 1st third. But this one showed me that he can actually make some really cool stuff. Looks and plays ok but it's the "rationalize" mechanic that really ties-in the game nicely, it's a concept transported to mechanics in an absolute perfect way and gives one of the most memorable moments in the series (GO MAD). This is one of the few favs from these collections that I wouldn't like as a full game, I think the way the mechanics work just lends itself for a short experience like this.

1. Charlotte's Exile

Really damn engaging. The concept on itself is cool, it's despicted in the most basic and barebones way ever with the alien language being a 1:1 to english but with different symbols, but even then it's just so fun to look for each equivalent in different pages and play detective for a bit. Would love a full-release, a fully realized puzzle-logic game about figuring out an alien language. Loved it, amazing stuff.

Definitely better than the previous one overall, the main theme being more defined allowed for more connection in-between the games, the quality of each of them is also improved with only a couple of them that I consider truly bad and the playable launcher is the cherry on top. Sets the standard for future entries, which may be a good or a bad thing depending on how you look at it.

Despite the mediocrity in the first Dread X Collection, DreadXP, who's responsible of the collection, decided to give another shot by inviting some of the first collection's admired creators alongside some new ones to create another short anthologic collection, this time with a "game within a game" formula where the main game itself is developed by Lovely Hellplace, creators of Shatter from DXC1 (who also would go on to create their first game published individually by DreadXP itself called Dread Delusion, an likely Elder Scrolls inspired RPG game), now having you require complete puzzles inside an abandoned mansion, which may either be a bit of a ruckus or added eyecandy (personally, from who has no lovely taste for puzzles and riddles, i find it a bit pushy for a short horror anthological game).

Compared to the last collection, there are few good looking games (and the memetic case of Squirrel Staple, which i prefer having you play it for yourself), but some are of mid-quality. Notable guest appearances include Daniel Mullins (of Pony Island and The Hex fame at the time this game was made, then Inscryption) who has created a short game about going to the moon, Torple Dook (his Hand of Doom concept in DXC1 was interesting) who has done a Found footage game and Panstasz (of World of Horror fame) who decided to make a top-down horror game which uses a similar narrative formula found in WoH.

I feel like this collection is a step forward in quality compared to the first, with the quality varying entry by entry unlike the mid-quality nature present in DXC1, but i'd not be lowering my guard for other entries.

The Diving Bell - 4.5 stars
Sucker for Love - 4 stars
Squirrel Stapler - 4 stars
The Toy Shop - 4 stars
Touched by an Outer God - 4 stars
The Thing in The Lake - 3.5 stars
Undiscovered - 3.5 stars
Puzzle Room (Hub) - 3 stars
Charlotte's Exile - 3 stars
Solipsis - 3 stars
To The End of Days - 3 stars
Arcadletra - 2.5 stars
Another Late Night - 1.0 stars

Games order from worst to best.

Another Late Night
The most pretentious piece of garbage I have ever seen.
0.5/5

The Thing in the Lake
I couldn't bother to finish it, game's extremely annoying and I'm not a fan of the unreadable artstyle. Not the mention the earrape audio you can't lower by any means.
1/5

The Toy Shop
It had a good base idea but the execution is just plain terrible. It plays very bad: enemies make no sound so you always get caught off guard, dark areas are pitch black so you can't see an inch from your nose, shooting feels unresponsive and most of all the game tries a bunch of genres but fails miserably in all of them. This is not a game you want to make in 10 days.
1/5

Arcadletra
This game tries to go psychological but never really nails it. The jumpscares feel unearned and most of the time laughable, gameplay is down to the bone and the story is so badly told that you never really get a grasp of it.
1.5/5

To The End of Days
Plays ok, story feels like your average B-movie. It's really nothing special.
2.5/5

Undiscovered
Interesting use of a 2nd person point of view, gameplay is extremely basic but gets the job done. The dialogue writing was waaaay to cheesy but overall a not so bad experience.
3/5

Charlotte's Exile
Nice puzzle game, it doesn't do much but it's well constructed and it has a clear direction.
3/5

Touched by an Outer God
One of the most "games" of the bunch. It has a clear structure and direction, story is nice even though nothing special, enemies can be pretty damn annoying as they track your movement and shoot where you're going and not where you are. The only thing I wasn't a fan of was having to redo everything from the beginning if I died. It also has a pacifist route which is very nice addition.
3.5/5

Sucker for Love
Funny little visual novel, the voice actress nailed it. The ritual mechanic was nice and the few scares we're very good.
3.5/5

Squirrel Stapler
This seems to be everyone's favorite and I can see why. David Szymanski is really good at what it does. However the games gets very repetitive very soon, at least for me. Also, if you play this after Iron Lung it's basically the same core idea, but the latter is much more well executed.
3.5/5

Solipsis
Really short game but it absolutely nails the tension, narrative and sound design. One of the best of the bunch.
4/5

The Diving Bell
Probably the game I liked the most. The atmosphere is masterfully built through small gameplay actions and voice acting, the story nailed the lovecraftian vibes and the overall experience was fantastic.
4.5/5

About the house experience: it was fine. The puzzles were entertaining but I couldn't care less about the "story", the writing was very annoying.

tl;dr: overall, the collection was great and 100% worth experiencing for yourself. some of the games aren't too good, but others make up for it.

let's start this review off with the hub world (made by lovely hellplace) as i cannot rank it with the others, even if i'd consider it a 13th game. it has a bunch of great puzzles for you to solve and is very atmospheric. the puzzle and story writing is solid and the scares the place has to offer work really well! i have no complaints about the hub at all, it's great. but with that out of the way, let's get to the short horror games(listed from my least fav to most fav)

number 12 - the thing in the lake by panstasz
oh boy, do i have a lot to say about the thing in the lake, what should i even begin with? it has an extremely frustrating difficulty. there's a random chance that an enemy will appear every time you try to leave a room, it does nothing but make you have to hurry back to another screen transition, not to mention it can happen in some rooms where you have no chance of escape, great! i'm also not too fond of the game's story(feels a bit weird and disconnected) and any seriousness it tries to have it taken away in its secret ending.

number 11 = the toy shop by mahelyk
this one really didn't work for me. what it's trying to do is neat, but it ends up janky and not the most interesting to me

number 10 = another late night by secret cow level
it's more funny than scary, and the execution of what's going for ain't the best, it feels like it doesn't fully realise what it wanted and doesn't leave any lasting impression with its story.

number 9 - arcadletra by vidas games
so many jumpscares! the game also feels really disconnected and like it's trying to go for two or three different storylines at once(?), it's really weird but i don't hate it

number 8 - to the end of days by scythe dev team
i have no idea if i like this more or less than arcadletra. the health regeneration is really annoying and takes a while, which takes away from the intensity and urgency this game is going for. there is also an extremely loud screamer enemy and the voice acting isn't good, but i feel like it's what the game was going for(it kinda sounds like it's parodying max payne). other than that, this was a really atmospheric game, with a pretty neat finale and vibe throughout

number 7 - touched by an outer god by wither studios
the gameplay gets really repetitive after a while, though the concept is quite interesting, liked it a bunch

number 6 - sucker for love by akabaka
i don't like dating sims, the characters aren't my favs, it's less horror than most of the other games but the one scare it did have was really good

number 5 - undiscovered by torple dook
it has a really unique camera angle, the game is pretty solid throughout, it nails the "discovering a previously unknown tomb" vibe it's going for and my only complaint would be that it's a bit janky at times. very solid game!

number 4 - solipsis by daniel mullins games
only negative thing i could say about this game is it's lacking gameplay-wise, the story, atmosphere, scares and setting are all great!

number 3 - squirrel stapler by david szymanski
i struggle to say anything negative about this game, it's unique, has engaging gameplay, great ideas and great utilisation of said ideas. it also has the best ending of all these games. i cannot tell you anything negative about this game other than the story being not the best, not bad either though. uhh maybe it's a bit hard at times? not hard enough to get me frustrated though so it's not an issue.

number 2 - charlotte's exile by john szymanski
a really unique concept for gameplay and the story that i love, not the best scares, though they weren't that bad either

number 1 - the diving bell by bathysfear games
all the compliments that i gave to squirrel stapler apply here too, however i like this game's atmosphere and story much more. it also has an actually well developed protagonist. the diving bell is absolutely wonderful and my favourite game from the second dread x collection!

Dread X Collection games are a great concept. A horror house of mini-games that take 30-60 minutes to finish to unlock a larger narrative. The first game had a lot of duds and a few games that crashed and couldn’t be finished, and the same goes for this collection. There are far better games, but the duds are even worse this time around. At least there’s a larger hub world you can explore and get the games to require solving simple puzzles in a mansion you are locked in. It took me about 20 minutes to solve all the puzzles and find all twelve keys. It really doesn’t take much with some barely even considered puzzles. Each game is on a VHS tape locked in a box in the main room. You put the tape in the VCR and the game will pop up. It’s a neat concept and fun while it lasts, but you will spend the majority of your time with the smaller games. I will go through each one and let you know if they’re worth your time or not.

Charlotte’s Exile: A fun puzzle game based on H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu lore. You stand at a table and have a series of puzzles to solve while a giant eye constantly approaches you. You are standing in a library and you can see the eye every time you look up. It repeats a pattern in which every 3-4 minutes it will appear right in front of you and create a jump scare. It really got me the first couple of times as my skin literally crawled. However, this is all the game has in terms of scares. There is an alphabet you must decipher by reading passages in a book. Then there is a lockbox that has good ending hints and a puzzle box that requires pressing squares in a certain order. It was fun to solve and took around 45 minutes, but having to constantly look up was novel at first then just became annoying because I knew the jump scare was coming. Play.


Squirrel Stapler: A mock on Deer Hunter. The game has PS1-style graphics and you walk around a large forest hunting squirrels. There are five days and with each day a new beast must be hunted. You then staple your squirrels to your “loved one”. This is another Cthulhu mythos story. The actual hunting part is slow and gets boring fast. You have to crouch and stay still for squirrels to appear, but sometimes several minutes would go by with nothing. You can collect bullets and health, but the ending isn’t worth the pay-off. Pass.

The Diving Bell: The graphics are hideous with ugly textures and models, but the atmosphere is creepy. Another Cthulhu mythos game where you play as a crew member of a diving team that is sent to research under the sea. You then mash your keyboard to type up a report and as the days go on, you’ll slowly lose your sanity. As you hallucinate you must take anti-anxiety pills to keep your heart rate down and look away from them. The research facility constantly malfunctions and doors lock so you must find other shortcuts and take long routes around the area. It’s not very fun and the best part was reading the logs and watching yourself slowly go mad. The ending was a poor pay-off and overall it was mostly boring and took nearly an hour to finish. Pass.

Touched By An Outer God: A Doom clone that has you fighting Cthulhu mythos monsters using your hands. When you kill enemies you get parts that can be used to upgrade your hands. This game goes fast and you can finish the entire thing in about 20 minutes. You can’t acquire all upgrades in the first playthrough but the ending was a bad pay-off and after you get halfway through the game is super easy as you quickly become overpowering. The visuals upgrades are nice to see and it’s very fast-paced and fun. Due to the short length, it’s not bad. Play.


To the End of Days: A terrible first-person shooter that kept crashing on me every five minutes. You use your shotgun to kill enemies and that’s it. The game looks awful despite starting out with a fun atmosphere. It’s the end of the world and nuclear weapons are raining down everywhere. The animation is awful, the sound is bad, and the overall shooting is just amateur at best. I didn’t expect Crysis, but this isn’t it, plus the terrible stability issues. Pass.

The Toy Shop: Another game with awful visuals, terrible controls, and super floaty platforming. You play as a toy soldier who is trying to escape a toy shop. You walk around talking to people, pulling levers, escaping enemies, and in the end, you start fighting Terminator-type characters. The shooting is horrendous, worst than the last game, and I couldn’t finish the final boss due to the awful level design and terrible controls. Pass.

Undiscovered: A lost footage game that’s all atmosphere. You are filming your wife in the 1950s as you just discovered a tomb in Spain. The game is super blocky and terrible looking but that’s part of the charm. It’s a silent film so it’s in black and white and there’s lots of static and you just mostly hear the clicking of the camera rolling. As you go deeper into the ruins you only have a torch and pickaxe at your disposal. You can easily dodge enemies by walking around them, but the game has a super creepy atmosphere. It’s another Cthulhu mythos-style game. The collision detection and camera are awful, but I finished it in under 20 minutes and it was pretty cool. Play.

Another Late Night: Not really a game, just a text-based “desktop” simulator. You click around, read messages and articles that are supposed to be happening during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the game is basically a self aware mystery where you are seeing through the eyes of the developer of the game. It’s over in about 15 minutes, but it’s fun as I love desktop simulator games. Play.


Arcadletra: This was the first game I played in this collection. It’s a super weird haunted arcade adventure game. You basically click around on things that have electricity around them and it’s a Layers of Fear-style haunted funhouse. There’s a good and bad ending, but honestly, the short story makes zero sense and I only enjoyed the auditorial atmosphere the game had. It was over in about 15 minutes. Play.

Sucker for Love: This one is super neat. It’s a Japanese visual novel where you summon a female Cthulhu character, but you are in your apartment and have a book of love. Your goal is to try and kiss her before she ends the world and it’s actually quite creepy in spots. Think Corpse Party type creepy. You follow the instructions on each page by clicking on things in the apartment that correspond to them like turning out lights, wearing certain items, etc. It’s over in about 20 minutes, but it was a lot of fun and I wanted it to last longer. Play.

The Thing in the Lake: This is an 8-bit PC-style adventure game where each chapter is super short-lasting maybe a few minutes, but I hated this one a lot. You can run around the screens trying to figure out where to go and there are two killers on the loose. You can’t walk through dry grass and after a few seconds a killer gorilla comes on to screen kind of like Mr. X in Resident Evil 2. You can collect letters throughout the game, but the issue is figuring out where to go and constantly dying from the killers. I repeated each chapter a dozen times before figuring out what to do next. It just felt like a chore with little pay-off. Pass.

Solipsis: This is a short and sweet game. You play as an astronaut in a top-down perspective walking across the moon. You must find a lava tube using a tool, but halfway through the game your partner crashes onto the moon and you must find the lava tube still. You then walk down a long staircase and see parts of a creature. Without spoiling it too much the game ends once you get to the bottom. It’s over in about 15 minutes, but it’s disturbing. Play.

Not as many duds this time around, but the bad ones are super bad and not even worth grudging through. Sadly, this means without finishing all the games you can’t finish the main narrative in the hub, but for the asking price, there’s still a few hours of good entertainment here.

Rating from worst to Best:

12.) The Thing In The Lake: I hated this one, easily the least fun one here. The art style is cool, but it's just annoying every time I die because the monkey spawned in an area I cant properly loop it, or some other bullshit, then restart the whole chapter over again.

11.) Another Late Night: It's fine, I didn't really care for it one way or the other, kind of nothing to me.

10.) Undiscovered: More a style piece than anything else, and its a pretty interesting one.

9.) Arcadletra: The girl's voice acting is actually pretty unsettling, along with her just whimpering randomly.

8.) Diving Bell: This game did blue ball me pretty hard because I thought it was gonna be a real typing game, but it was just a spam the keyboard to type game, but besides that it was pretty neat.

7.) Solipsis: Short and sweet moon horror. I love using the moon in horror, and the rationalize mechanic is dope, could have been used a couple more times maybe.

6.) The Toy Shop: It's a bit all over the place, but the thats kind of what makes it cool, from its Haze-like story, to the 2D platforming, and the guns. Also that tall dude is cool, wish he was my friend.

5.) To the End of Days: I was preparing for the worst since I thought Carthunk was absolutely terrible in Dread X 1, but this was a pretty fun schlockey fps. The shotgun feels good, but why do that when you can just wait around a corner for goons to come up to you and you can split them asunder with your axe. Main character is fun.

4.) Sucker For Love: You goddamn know I wanna smooch that squid girl.

3.) Charlotte's Exile: The idea of translating an unknown language letter by letter is cool and it was fun to do. The creature who slowly stalks up on you provided the biggest scare of the collection because he is just so loud when you get him. The last puzzle could have been a bit more specific with its instructions.

2.) Squirrel Stapler: Probably my favourite looking one in this collection. That style is just so goddamn. The hunting part is fun, maybe a little too long, but hey, still fun to me.

1.) Touched by an Outer God: This is the real winner of the bunch for me. The idea of the mechanics behind this one is just shit I love. I want a good evolution game, now this ain't exactly a super crazy in depth thing like E.V.O. Maybe if it was fully thought it it could have a bunch of different evolutionary paths, but its a solid fucking base. Definitely has the most potential out of a game I would enjoy. Only complaint I really have is that the feedback on hitting enemies with melee kind of sucks.