Brilliantly taps into nostalgia with puzzles inspired by beloved childhood toys and themes. Its charming retro aesthetics and intriguing story initially drew me in, however, the actual gameplay doesn't quite live up to this promise.

The puzzles, while nostalgic, often feel more obligatory than engaging. A significant frustration is the need to rewatch tapes and replay entire segments if you miss a clue or make a wrong choice. This repetitive loop turns what could have been a fun exploration of alternate endings into a tedious chore.

The game's concept and nostalgic vibe are its standout features. But the cumbersome replay mechanics and less-than-satisfying puzzles made it more frustrating than enjoyable at times for me as I’d waste my time replaying bits I shouldn’t have to due to a misclick.

It's more F.E.A.R. and in that sense, it's a good expansion. It had some really neat level designs that kept it feeling fresh from the original with the subway being a particular stand out for me.

Unfortunately, I experienced more bugs here than in the base game. There were a few times throughout several intervals I had a graphical error or the game would crash upon loading. Thankfully there was an easy fix with setting the graphics to low and changing them back after finishing a particular section of an interval, but it sucks that this happens in the first place. Additionally, there was a spot in the L level where a bug related to jumping onto a platform from water made it near impossible to progress and I had to use various tricks found on an old forum post to progress. It genuinely took me about 15 minutes of trying different methods to do something that should have taken 3 seconds.

Issues playing on modern hardware aside, it's still a good DLC and worth playing if you enjoyed the base game.

She did nothing wrong 😊

Before I could play F.E.A.R. on a modern PC in 2024, I had to put in considerable effort to optimize the game. However, once I had everything set up, I didn't encounter any issues during gameplay. There are numerous helpful guides available that outline how to optimize the game for modern hardware, and I strongly recommend using them if you're playing on recently released equipment.

Unlike the compatibility issues, the game itself did not feel outdated. One aspect of F.E.A.R. that has stood the test of time is the enemy AI. It's often praised as one of the game's best features, and I'd have to agree. The combat never felt unfair or nonsensical. Each encounter was genuinely enjoyable, rather than feeling like a grueling battle against bullet sponges or overpowered enemies that could shoot through walls like other FPS games released around the same time ... and even now.

I like the idea of collecting a bunch of short horror games from some really talented devs so I was all about this and have been wanting to play one of the Dread X Collections for some time now. The presentation is nice and I like the addition of little manuals of sorts along with a recording/note to go with each game that gives a teaser of what you’re about to get into. Since the games vary so much, my overall rating took the average and my individual ratings for each game with thoughts can be seen below in a ranked order:

Summer Night 7.5/10
So much to like about this one and does a lot of particular things that I enjoy in a game all in a short session. I can’t say more but its certainly worth a play going in blind!

Pony Factory 6/10
It felt satisfying to actually get through levels here because of how bad I was at the game but I found the true fear came from just trying to make it to the next floor due to my lack of skills. Also enjoyed the gun and flashlight swapping. I think this might actually be pretty good if you’re into shooters like Doom, but they aren’t particularly my type of game so don’t write this one off on my input alone.

Hand of Doom 6/10
Aesthetic and music is pretty cool. Also really love the idea of creating the incantations and using the grimoire to solve problems and cast spells.

Shatter 5.5/10
I like the music in this one. The story and world interested me, but the gameplay itself felt a bit lacking. Shows potential but stand alone doesn’t provide a ton. I do think it is something I would have checked out if it was turned into a full game though. After a bit of research it looks like I’ve had one of the developers other games on my wishlist for the past couple years and it just made it’s full release a few days ago. I liked this enough to want to play that even more.

Outsiders 5.5/10
I like that this appears to be setting up a full game with the ending, but the gameplay itself wasn’t particularly riveting on its own.

Mr. Bucket Told Me To 5/10
I got both endings for this one and the basic survival mechanics and concept interested me but it felt lacking something special. Surprisingly found out after playing that the dev team for this included the writer for one of my favorite games Hypnospace Outlaw, and it looks like as a development team they’ve put out some other well liked games as well.

The Pay is Nice 5/10
The real horror was making me think I was going to have to do math.

Don’t Go Out 4/10
I started to like it a bit the more I understood how to play but it just felt a bit less polished than I would have liked with nothing super interesting mechanic wise for me.

Rotgut 4/10
Unnerving to play and did a good job building that atmosphere but not strong enough to warrant a higher rating from me personally. Also contained a bug in the launcher where when I reloaded the Dread X collection it no longer was scratched off as completed but that does not factor into my rating, just wanted to mention it here in case anyone else suffers from this and to warn them to maybe play it last so it counts as completing all the games. I fixed it by opening and closing Rotgut again and it counted as being scratched off after I initially beat it once.

Carthanc 3.5/10
Man the music on this is pretty damn good but it really frustrated me to play due to the little enemies in the main area that chase you around and felt more like a nuisance than actually adding anything to the game. When I would spawn back in I’d frequently get spawn killed and it felt like I had to keep respawning hoping to get lucky enough the AI wouldn’t see me so I could pick back up where I left off. I expected to like this one a lot based on the description but the enemies in the hub area really killed my ability to enjoy this as much as I think I could have. There was honestly very little I liked about the game outside of the music and if it wasn’t the last game I needed to complete to get everything crossed off in this collection I probably would’ve abandoned it and/or just watched a walkthrough.

Horizon Zero Dawn had me hooked from the very start. I’m a sucker for a training montage and that transition from Aloy as a child into a young adult immediately got me invested. Using Rost as a tutorial guide felt like a nice touch as well.

The world itself is just stunning - the flora and fauna looks absolutely gorgeous, and the overall art design is phenomenal. I actually had an animated scene depicting the day and night cycle from the game as my desktop wallpaper for months before even playing it. Speaking of the night cycle - I usually hate night time in games but here it’s oddly inviting. The way the light from enemies can be seen in the distance, the way collectibles pop, it’s got this cozy yet mystical vibe that’s hard to resist. The moon glow is stunning and makes for one of my favorite depictions of night time in any game I’ve played. The soundtrack also helped sell it with the way it matched the different vibes of the environments and story moments.

The different tribes and cultures all felt really distinct and fleshed out, as if they truly had their own rich culture. The character designs, especially the intricate outfits, were stunning. I particularly love what they did with the Banuk shamans and wires in their skin.

The core gameplay loop was a ton of fun for me. Crafting, elemental weaknesses, balancing weapons – it all sounded overwhelming at first, but it's surprisingly approachable. Mastering different weapons felt like a natural progression, especially with the hunting grounds and optional tutorial quests. The resource collecting scratched an itch for me - there’s just something so satisfying about picking up all those plants and machine parts. The combat felt rewarding. It was super satisfying to hit enemy weak spots or snipe small animals from a distance. The various weapons were fun to play around with and by the end I had a loadout that I felt comfortable decimating anything with.

I found the inclusion of overrides to be a fun mechanic and more fun was the way you unlock them. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the cauldrons weren’t just reskins of each other and provided a unique challenge each time.

The datapoints as a form of worldbuilding throughout the game did a great job of painting the events that took place prior. I loved piecing together the story and even being able to predict one of the big twists before it came based on theories I developed after reading the datapoints. A few sets contained surprisingly strong narratives and I have to give a special shout out to the vantage points and The Last Girls on Earth as standouts.

The Frozen Wilds DLC was also excellent, with a gorgeous new area set in Yellowstone (genius!) that felt like a whole other world while still connecting back to the main map and feeling cohesive with the base game. I loved the addition of being able to see footsteps and even the marks left from the tips of Aloy’s arrows in the snow and wish this was something that was included in the base game as well. The side quests here were all high quality and some of the best overall in the game with their own stories feeding into expansion on the lore of the Banuk.

My main gripes were the lackluster mount controls and the lack of any meaningful inventory organization. I really didn’t care for how the mounts controlled, especially on PC with a keyboard and mouse. The concept was something I could have loved if it was better implemented, but they felt cumbersome and useless to the point that I was almost always faster on foot. The inventory organization, or lack thereof, was disappointing. You can sort resources and that's about it. I hated that I couldn’t rearrange my weapons or outfits and the only option was to drop them on the ground and pick them back up in the order I wanted them to appear in my inventory. While not as poorly done as the aforementioned mechanics, I found the platforming to be lacking. I loved climbing things but I never truly felt secure. I always felt like I could fall at any second, whereas Aloy is more than capable so it felt disconnected.

Overall, it seems like Horizon Zero Dawn achieved pretty much everything it set out to do. The world feels alive unlike many other open world games that came out around the same time, the gameplay is engaging with satisfying mechanics, and even after 100% completion, I still didn't want it to end. Any game that makes me feel that way must be doing a good job in my book, and I think at the time I played it, it was exactly the sort of game I needed.